Consumer Affairs Commissioner John Dalli has no intention of apologising to those involved in the EU’s sweep which checked compliance of internet sites offering goods and services to the public.
Maltaticket.com has demanded an apology from Mr Dalli after an EU-wide investigation concluded that five internet sites with a Maltese connection, selling online tickets for cultural and sporting events, were deceiving clients and not adhering to consumer protection laws.
However, an apology will not be forthcoming from Brussels. “Commissioner Dalli’s statements were based on the information received from the Maltese public authority which participated in this EU-wide enforcement exercise and no names were made public during or after this press conference,” Mr Dalli’s spokesman told The Times.
In the coming months Maltese authorities would be contacting the operators of the websites which have been checked and found to fall short of consumers’ expectations, he added.
“The identity of those operators may be made public by the national authority, according to national law, following the conclusion of the proceedings,” he said.
David Pollina, Maltaticket. com’s CEO, took Mr Dalli to task for putting all the websites in this sector in one basket.
“It is simply disgraceful, unprofessional and highly irresponsible for an EU regulator to pat himself on the back gratuitously by casting aspersions on an entire industry with vague claims of non-compliance with law,” he charged.
“We view such comments as potentially libellous and demand they be immediately retracted,” he insisted.
According to Mr Pollina, Mr Dalli’s exercise did nothing but instil fear in the consumer and mistrust of every website in the sector.
Defending the record of his company, Mr Pollina said Malta-ticket.com had never been notified of any inquiry by the EU Commission, and therefore assumed it was the “one” operator referred to by Mr Dalli’s report which was in full compliance.
“We would appreciate if this fact were publically confirmed by Mr Dalli, as our company goes to great lengths to make sure it complies with the law,” he said.
According to the results of the sweep exercise, coordinated in Malta by the Ministry of Finance’s Consumers and Competition Division, five internet sites available in Malta are being investigated after they were found to be deceiving clients and not adhering to strict consumer protection laws.
Among the irregularities found were missing and misleading information about the final price to be paid, unfair terms and conditions, and incomplete information about the trader.
Mr Dalli said the defaulting sites were being given some time to regularise their position or face sanctions under Maltese law.