Consumer Rights in the Event of Lack of Conformity of the Goods in Czech, Slovak, and Polish Law

This work analyses and compares the remedies available to consumers in case of lack of conformity of the goods with the contracts in Czech, Slovak, and Polish law. The Czech Republic and Poland have already transposed Directive (EU) 2019/771 in 2022, but due consideration is also given to the previous regulation based on Directive 1999/44/EC, because rules in the Slovak Civil Code are still based on Directive 1999/44/EC. The authors’ primary objective is to determine similarities, particularities, and divergences between the examined national laws. Each examined legal order entitles the consumer to the remedies of repair, replacement, price reduction, or termination of the contract. Although the interrelation between the remedies and requirements for their application considerably diverged when all the examined legal orders were influenced by Directive 1999/44/EC due to its minimum harmonisation approach, their hierarchy – comprising repair and replacement as the primary remedy with price reduction and termination of the contract as the secondary set of claims – is noticeable. However, the nature of price reduction, as the secondary remedy, is disputed in Czech law. An important exception exists in Slovak law where price reduction substitutes replacement as the primary remedy when the goods are sold for a lower price or when the lack of conformity affecting the second-hand goods is attributable to the seller’s fault. The transposition of Directive (EU) 2019/771 in Czech and Polish law has made the relation between the remedies uniform in these legal orders. It dispelled any doubts regarding their hierarchy in Czech law. Thus, repair and replacement are considered primary while price reduction and termination of the contract are secondary remedies in both the Polish and Czech national laws.