Consumer Affairs Council formed again with new chairman

Marcel Pizzuto has been appointed chairman of the Consumer Affairs Council, which has been formed again.

The main function of the council is advising the Minister of Finance, Economy and Investment on the formulation of policy to be followed by the Director of Consumer Affairs and on measures for the promotion and protection of consumer.

It also monitors the working and enforcement of laws that directly or indirectly affect consumers. It moreover keeps under review trading and business practices relating to the supply of goods and services to consumers. Just last month, Labour pointed out that in the scenario the government had not yet appointed the Consumer Affairs Council and the medicines prices surveillance board had not met for over a year.

The reconstituted council has Mireille Vella as deputy chairman and Adrian Muscat Inglott, Anthony Camilleri, Barbara Buttigieg, Shirley Farrugia and Stefan Xuereb as members.

Mr Pizzuto is a career civil servant with ample experience in consumer rights. He joined as a clerical officer in 1966, working mainly at the Department of Trade. In 1987, he moved to the Ministry for Development of the Tertiary Sector and was actively involved in the liberalisation of the market and responsible for dismantling the bulk-buying system.

When the Competition Act came into force in 1994, he was appointed Director of the Office for Fair Competition. In 2000, he became Director General of the Consumer and Competition Division, set up following the amalgamation of the Office for Fair Competition and the Consumer Affairs Department.

In 2005, he was appointed Permanent Secretary at the Ministry for Competitiveness and Communications, a post he retained until he retired from the civil service on reaching the age of 61 earlier this year.