The Consumer Claims Tribunal has decided 1,300 cases and awarded compensation to consumers amounting to €371,000 in four years.

A total of 1,200 cases were opened with the Malta Competition and Consumer Affairs Authority, which oversees the tribunal, this year, 44 per cent of which reached an out of court settlement through mediation between the parties.

Consumers Minister Jason Azzopardi visited the MCCAA offices this morning and said that not all consumers knew about this avenue of redress.

He noted that it cost just €23 to open a case, through which one could claim up to €3,500.

Last year, the tribunal doubled its arbiters from two to four and the 600 cases at the beginning of last year went down to 277.

The most popular cases are latent defects, guarantees not being respected shoddy work or not as promised and as broken promises by travel agencies.

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