More than a year after a landmark court judgment that stopped the competition watchdog from imposing fines, the government would not say when the situation would change.

The uncertainty still prevails despite the concerns raised by the Consumer Association, which had publicly urged the government to take action to solve this “unacceptable” situation.

In a ruling in May last year, a court of appeal confirmed that certain provisions of the Competition Act were unconstitutional. The case in question had been instituted by the Federation of Real Estate Agents in response to a €1.2 million fine imposed on it by the competition tribunal.

The court decided that the director general for competition could not decide cases over alleged breach of rules and impose fines because only a proper court could guarantee a fair hearing.

Consequently, the competition watchdog refrained from imposing any fines, even in cases when it had concluded that there had been a breach. A case in point happened last October when it was concluded that a fuel supplier and a petrol station owner had colluded to fix the cost of diesel at the pump. Yet, the watchdog could not impose any administrative fines.

Late last year, the government said it had decided on a radical overhaul of the existing legislation and presented a set of constitutional amendments.

The proposed changes provoked a negative reaction not only from the Opposition but also from academics like Faculty of Law dean Kevin Aquilina, who warned the changes could dilute the right to a fair hearing as they could pave the way for criminal cases being handled by tribunals instead of proper courts.

The Consumer Affairs Ministry insisted it was following the advice of the Attorney General, saying such changes would empower all tribunals to impose fines and not just the one in question. Nonetheless, the government was forced to go back to the drawing board because the Opposition did not back the proposed constitutional amendments, which would have required a two-thirds parliamentary majority. In January, it was decided to amend the Competition Act.

Since then, the issue has been relegated to the back-burner, as Parliament dissolved in preparation for the June 3 general election.

The issue is now in the hands of Parliamentary Secretary Deo Debattista, who is responsible for competition and consumer affairs.

The Times of Malta last week asked Dr Debattista about the state of play of the situation and whether the government would be moving the amendments to the Competition Act this October when Parliament reconvenes after the summer recess.

Questions sent to the parliamentary secretariat remained unanswered but a spokesman for the Justice Ministry said “work on the necessary amendments was still under way with legal and technical analysis being conducted through discussions and liaison with the Attorney General’s Office”.

No indication of time frames was given.