Bill on closer collaboration between consumer protection bodies

A Bill aimed at facilitating collaboration between consumer protection authorities has started being debated in the House of Representatives.

The Bill implements an EU regulation approved in late 2004. Competitiveness Minister Censu Galea, who moved the Bill, said the new legislation would strengthen the hand of the Malta Standards Authority in ensuring that Maltese products were of the proper standard. It was the authority's role to certify that Maltese products met EU standards and its personnel were continuously being trained for this purpose.

There was no doubt that the authority's efforts to date had been very effective. International standards were now given more importance locally - an essential element especially for export purposes. Furthermore, the MSA's positions were often adopted in EU fora in which it was represented.

The role of the authority was varied - from ensuring that products were safe to seeing that they were adequately labelled and of the proper weight or dimensions, for example.

The authority also had a role raising the awareness of consumers about their responsibilities.

Mr Galea said this Bill provided that the director of Consumer Affairs, in order to carry out his function as competent authority under the consumer protection cooperation regulation, request, receive, disclose and exchange information in matters of mutual assistance with other competent authorities.

Provisions for cooperation among authorities were also being made with regard to the Civil Aviation Department and the Broadcasting Authority. The cooperation regulation would also apply for the Malta Communications Authority, the Malta Tourism Authority and the MFSA, although the law did not need to be changed in their case.

The regulation applied to misleading information, contracts not drawn up on premises, consumer credit, unfair terms in consumer contracts, distance contracts, misleading advertising, clear indication of product prices being offered, sale of consumer goods, and guarantees associated with such products.

Mr Galea said this Bill improved the tools available at law to protect consumers.

Such amendments, he said, strengthened the effectiveness of the director to investigate complaints on trade and sales practices which took place in Malta as well as abroad where they involved Maltese clients.

He said good work was being done by the Consumer Affairs Tribunal and another tool recently made available to the Maltese was the opening in Malta of a European Consumer Centre where Maltese consumers could file complaints over products they bought in other European countries. This centre worked in conjunction with similar consumer centres in other EU countries.

The Consumer Affairs Tribunal would be made more effective and measures would be introduced against those who did not abide by its rulings.

Marie Louise Coleiro (MLP) said Malta was lacking modern consumer protection laws and, especially, effective enforcement mechanism.

For example, was it true that to date no one had been arraigned on misleading advertising?

Banks had become legal cartels, raising charges practically at will and causing hardship, particularly for people who depended on social assistance and needed to open bank accounts for purposes of direct credit by the Social Welfare Department. What was the Office of Fair Competition doing about this?

Was the Consumer Affairs Department insisting on consumer education as laid down in the National Minimum Curriculum? Had the department ever commissioned lawyers to study contracts for unfair terms? She knew of a case, involving Bank of Valletta, where there was an agreement for a savings account to be debited when no funds were available in a current account, including a provision where the client effectively waived his rights.

How many cases of possibly unsafe products had the Consumer Affairs Department investigated?

The competence of the Consumer Affairs Tribunal remained limited to Lm1,500 while court proceedings were complicated, long-winding and expensive.

The Office of Fair Competition also needed to be strengthened.

The Consumer Affairs Act should include a tribunal, headed by a magistrate, empowered to expeditiously impose administrative fines against those who violated consumer rights, subject to appeal.

One had to wonder, however, whether there was political will to improve the consumers' lot. The director of the Office of Fair Competition had not been appointed and the department was headed by the permanent secretary at the Competitiveness Ministry, a position which could constitute conflict of interest.

She said Malta did not have the structures to enable the authorities to carry out raids on companies to check their books and ensure fair competition.

The Labour MP observed that this Bill was taking on board EU regulations adopted in October 2004. Why had the government waited so long?

The regulation being mentioned in the Bill required the setting up of a network of public enforcement authorities. But it was useless having authorities without enforcement tools.

EU regulations gave consumer organisations a lot of power. Such organisations should be encouraged to cooperate with the competent authorities. But the first step was for the government to assist in the creation of such organisations and in their running.

Malta only had one consumer organisation and it had always lacked such state support. Consumer organisations could not live on sponsorships, nor expect large donations from consumers.

Roderick Galdes (MLP) said several people had complained that decisions by the Consumer Claims Tribunal were not being enforced. Consumers who had their case upheld still ended up without a remedy.

The current procedure was for the consumer to go to court to have the ruling enforced.

This was discouraging. Perhaps there could be some fund to help consumers.

Mr Galdes referred to the controversy over the screening of World Cup matches saying it was unfair that the provider was curtailing services or changing the content which the consumers had paid for. This was unacceptable. What was the consumer division doing about this?

Melita Cable had been given significant advantages over the years to build its infrastructure, including rights to fix its equipment on people's properties.

This whole issue needed to be tackled, more so as consumers lacked alternatives.

Mr Galdes regretted that Malta lacked competition in various sectors and as a result, prices remained high. To make matters worse, the authorities were not acting to stimulate competition.

There was also a lack of price surveillance, a situation that could have harmful consequences when the euro was adopted, a situation that in other countries had led to a rise in inflation.