Milena Petrović, LLD*
PROROGATION OF COURT JURISDICTION FOT CONSUMER DISPUTES WITH FOREIGN ELEMENT: THE SOLUTIONS IN EU LAW AND SERBIAN LAW
Summary
This paper analyses prorogation of international jurisdiction of the court as a segment of the procedural consumer protection. Since the consumer is considered as a weaker contractual party, it is certainly that especially important for him is to seek the protection of his rights in the court that is more suitable to his interests.
On the basis of the principle of the consumers protection as the weaker parties, in EU legislation was enacted the particular (mini) jurisdiction regime for consumer disputes. The aim was to provide to the consumers, as a category with specific features, to enable their easier access to justice. Within this particular procedural regime, it is provided the possibility for the prorogation of jurisdiction. However, with the aim to protect a consumer from imposition of trader’s will, the possibility of prorogation is limited to the exactly specified situations and is really of narrower scope than the general scope of prorogation.
In the current Serbian legislation, the specific regime of prorogation jurisdiction is not provided whereas it can be concluded that the general regime applied on all other contracts is applied on this type of disputes. That fact alone indicates lower level of consumer protection in Serbia. However, the draft of the new Private International Law Act does not miss the opportunity for establishing the specific rules regarding the jurisdiction in the consumer disputes, which includes the rules of prorogation, as well.
Key words: consumer, consumer dispute, jurisdiction of a court, prorogation agreement