Legal Literature

Unfair Commercial Practices Directive, Chapter 1, Article 2, (b) Unfair Commercial Practices Directive, Chapter 1, Article 2, (d)

In the article the author examines in detail two key concepts of the Unfair Commercial Practice Prohibition Law (which transposes the provisions of the Unfair Commercial Practices Directive (2005/29/EC)), namely “commercial practice” and “trader”.

This article was inspired by the fact that the Latvian Association of Non-Bank Lenders publicly expressed criticism of the performance of Consumer Rights Protection Centre and its regulation of credit lending industry. The Consumer Rights Protection Centre considered such criticism to constitute commercial practice and advertising. Hence, in the article the author, inter alia, analyses whether an association (a legal entity without the aim to gain profit) may fall under the notion of a “trader” within the meaning of Directive 2005/29. The author concludes that, even though in some special cases non-profit and charity organizations may be considered to be “traders”, in practice, criticism of a business industry supervisory authority (Consumer Rights Protection Centre) expressed by the Latvian Association of Non-Bank Lenders should not be considered a commercial practice.

Please note that some of the legal provisions or their numbering cited in the article may have changed!