The Malta Competition and Consumer Affairs Authority (MCCAA) refers to a Times of Malta editorial entitled ‘Who exactly is defending the consumer?’ (April 24), which criticised the Competition Office within MCCAA because it has not yet taken a decision regarding the case involving a petrol station that had to reverse a decision taken on its own initiative to decrease fuel prices.
The Competition Office launched the investigation on its own initiative after the issue was highlighted in the media and, at a later stage, the Consumer Association also lodged a complaint.
It should be pointed out that an infringement of the Competition Act may subject the offending party to a fine of up to 10 per centum of its total turnover in the preceding business year.
Therefore, the office must carefully and extensively analyse all the information before pronouncing itself.
When the Competition Office launches such investigations, it adopts certain procedures so as to afford fair hearing to all parties concerned.
Meetings are held with all these parties as well as other regulatory authorities when deemed necessary. The parties involved are then asked to submit pertinent documents as well as further information within certain timeframes. The office studies these and where necessary holds further meetings and/or requests further clarifications and possibly also more information.
This is then analysed to ensure that the parties concerned are not hindering the investigation by submitting misleading or false information.
It is only at this stage that the office will be able to start evaluating information upon which to base reach its decision, which requires both legal and economic analysis.
An antitrust decision takes time to be pronounced in view of the complexity of the analysis involved.
In fact, a recent decision of the French Competition Authorities regarding a cartel in the fresh dairy products sector took over three years to be pronounced.
Moreover, a decision by the local Competition and Consumer Appeals Tribunal on April 14 annulled a 2010 Office for Competition decision because it had not adhered to the principles of natural justice.
The MCCAA has various responsibilities when it comes to defending the consumer, including investigating anti-trust infringements, dealing with consumer complaints, investigating misleading advertising, ensuring price indication on products, air/sea passenger rights, product safety issues, metrology (including calibration of scales, petrol pumps, etc.), developing and publishing standards and numerous other responsibilities.
In fact, the authority tackles hundreds of complaints and requests for guidance made by consumers and businesses concerning the various sectors falling under its remit.
The MCCAA looks forward to better coverage from the media when it issues public warnings against rogue traders, who not only adversely affect consumers but also other traders.