Last Monday we celebrated World Consumer Rights Day. Malta joined other countries and over a two day period there were a number of media contributions on the subject. Many of us may have found such contributions a bit odd, as when one looks at a 25-year span, we have certainly come a very long way in this country in the area of consumer protection. Some businesses even believe that today consumers have too many rights and too few responsibilities; thereby tilting the balance too much in favour of consumer protection and against the interests of producers.
On the other hand there are still those who believe that consumer interests are not protected enough in practice, even though there is the appropriate legislation. I believe that the history of consumer rights in this country is intrinsically linked to the liberalisation of the economy and the strengthening of the democratic process that occurred in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Before that, government played a very strong role in the operation of the economy, intervening directly in the provision of financial services, importation, the provision of utilities, and even manufacturing.
Consumer protection was simply an issue of price control. As long as prices were kept from increasing, aspects such as customer service, quality, accessibility, availability and choice were all seen to be irrelevant issues. The liberalisation of the economy increased competition between suppliers and the rules of the market economy tended to make a contribution towards improving consumer rights in practical terms, even if not from the point of view of legislation. In their drive to increase market share, suppliers started to compete not just on the basis of price but also on the basis of the factors I mentioned.
However, government was still exercising a significant role in the operation of the economy. So where government was the supplier, the exercise of consumer rights remained problematic, especially since in these economic activities, government was all too often in the position of a monopolist. There was no alternative source of supply and no legal protection against government actions. It was that the democratisation process of the country helped. At this point government accepted to let moral persuasion to bear on it and increasingly the public sector started to feel more accountable to its consumers.
The legislative process on consumer protection needs to be linked with our drive to join the European Union. EU membership meant that we had to adopt EU legislation on consumer protection and product safety. Opinion research conducted between 1998 and 2003 consistently showed that one of the reasons why the Maltese were in favour of EU membership was because of stronger consumer rights. As legislation was put in place, consumers became increasingly aware of their newly-acquired rights and happily exercised those rights. On its part government increasingly withdrew from its operating role in the economy, and this brings us to the present day where the level of competition in our economy coupled with improved legislation have meant that consumer rights are fairly well protected.
The Consumer Affairs Division still has to handle a number of complaints from consumers who would have felt that their rights were impinged upon by one supplier or another. Up to a certain extent this is to be expected because not all the business sector managed to adapt itself to the new scenario. The wrong-doers are few and represent a very small minority. One may also complain that there are still areas where legislation in favour of consumer protection is still not strong enough and one must admit that there are proposals within the EU to relax some consumer protection rules. This explains the need why vigilance is still required.
On the other hand I believe that the business sector needs to take a bolder step itself. It needs to adopt a two-pronged policy. First it needs to isolate those suppliers that seek to cheat consumers. Second it needs to take a pro-active approach in promoting effective choice for the consumer, excellent service, fair prices and appropriate redress in the case of consumer complaints. Through such an initiative, consumer rights need no longer be seen as a cost but as a contributor to profits.