Goods and services (Directive 2004/113)

• Author: Kristīne Dupate
• Pages: 56-58

56

9 Goods and services (Directive 2004/113)155

9.1 General (legal) context

9.1.1 Surveys and reports about the difficulties linked to equal access to and sup ply of

goods and services

There are no relevant surveys or reports on difficulties linked to equal access to and supply

of goods and services.

9.1.2 Specific problems of discrimination in the online environment/digital

market/collaborative economy

There is no informati on regarding discrimination in the online environment/digital

market/collaborative economy.

9.1.3 Political and societal debate

There is no relevant political or societal debate.

9.2 Prohibition of direct and indirect discrimination

Article 31 of the Law on the Protection of Consumer Rights provides for prohibition of

discrimination, lists types of discrimination (direct, indirect, harass ment, sexual

harassment and instruction to discriminate) and definitions of direct, indirect

discrimination, as well as harassment and sexual harassment.

9.3 Material scope

Not all goods and services available publicly are covered by non- discrimination rights.

Latvian law doe s not cover goods and services which are publicly offered by natural

persons outside commercial activities – for example, if a natural person publicly advertises

the sale of his/her own apartment – because the Law on Protection of Consumer Rights

only applies to transactions provided within the scope of commercial activities. 156

Under Latvian legal regul ations, contractual freedom is not r estricted at all if provision of

services or goods takes place outside a public space, i.e. if they have not been offered

publicly, in particular, wit hout offer to an abstract group of persons. If, however, goods

and services are offered publicly, a provider is free to choose a contractu al p artner, so

long as in doing so, he or she does not discriminate on the basis of the sex of the person.

Such explicit provision, however, ‘appears’ only in the Law on Protection of Consumer

Rights and in the Law on Prohibition of Discrimination of Natural Persons – Performers of

Economic Activity.157 The Civil Law,158 which provides the basic regulations covering

contract law, does not contain any provisions on the principle of non -discrimination.

9.4 Exceptions

Exceptions are not applied in Latvia; on the contrary, the Education Law and

Advertisement Law159 prohibit discrimination explicitly. Article 4 of the Advertisement Law

prohibits content which is contrary to human dignity on various grounds, including sex.

155 See e.g. Caracciolo di Torella, E. and McLellan, B. (2018), Gender equality and the collaborative economy,

European network of legal experts in gender equality and non-discrimination, available at:

https://www.equalitylaw.eu/downloads/4573-gender-equality-and-the-collaborative-economy-pdf-721-kb.

156 Law on Protection of Consumer Rights Article 1(4).

157 Law on Prohibition of Discrimination of Natural Persons – Performers of Economic Activity Articles 31(3) and

3(2) respectively.

158 Civillikums. Ceturt daa. Saistbu tiesbas, 28 January 1937.

159 Reklmas likums, Official Gazette No. 7, 10 January 2000.