The implementation of the constitutional guarantee of consumer safety by the public authorities in the times of COVID-19, in the financial services market and energy market. Selected issues

Abstract

This article concerns the analysis of selected issues related to the implementation of the constitutional guarantee of consumer safety by the public authorities in the times of COVID-19, in the financial services market and energy market. The author first underlines the role of Article 76 of the Constitution of the Republic of Poland in the consumers’ protection system, and then presents the semantic revolution of the notion of “consumer’ safety”. Furthermore, the activities of the public authorities are presented related to consumer safety in the financial services market and energy market during the pandemic. It can be noted that while such activities were in fact undertaken by the legislator, they lacked coherence with EU law or solutions that had already been developed by trade practice. The undertaken legislative initiatives were not always consistently implemented. The author concludes that the implementation of a reasonable goal of “consumer safety” by the public authorities requires organisation and real reflection (a reliable quantitative and qualitative analysis) before legislative actions are taken, which should follow an adopted and subsequently implemented strategy to improve the state of predictability, certainty and legal safety of consumers.