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The Consumer Protection Commission is now flexing its muscles having started regular inspections, with more than 1000 checked out in the last two weeks, and finding 180 retailers were definitely breaking at least one regulation and 48 others needing to become more compliant.
There has been a lot of slackness in recent years. Local authorities, the licensing authorities for most businesses, are supposed to do the routing checking with regular inspections but along with a lot of other urban services these, if they exist, are just to see if the fees are paid.
The commission is now picking up some of the burden and has found that things are far from ideal, with around 20 percent of retailers not following all the regulations and laws that apply to their particular business. On the other hand it appears that around 80 percent are compliant, so while we need to hit those who are not, things have not reached disaster levels.
A lot of consumer law was brought together and made into statute law by the Consumer Protection Act by the present Second Republic Parliament. This plugged loopholes, updated legislation to fit the 21st century, and set up the Consumer Protection Commission fairly recently so there was a body that could implement the Act full time.
For decades the Zimbabwe Consumer Council had been the only effective port of call for disgruntled consumers but it had not statutory powers and could not force anyone in business to do anything. The council remains important, and as the Act recognises voluntary associations presumably will continue to play a useful role, especially as a pressure and information organisation that represents consumers.
We hope the commission, the council and other consumer activists will work together.
The commission is now also determined to go behind the retailers and start checking out manufacturers and service providers. A fair amount of blame for some dodgy points at the retail level actually arise from dodgy manufacturers, and from cartels that form, usually informally, between manufacturers in some sectors.
We need to remember that a lot of the manufacturing base in Zimbabwe has a fair number of monopolists, or practical monopolies since the smaller producers between them might just be a couple of percent of the market. You can also get sectors where two or three manufacturers dominate the sector.
So the fact that the commission has been establishing close links with the Competition and Tariffs Commission and the National Competitiveness Commission shows a very practical approach to dealing with these sort of problems. Exchange of data between the three commissions seems to be essential.
Enforcement of rules and regulations needs to be educational as well as punitive. Sometimes the rules can seem complex and need to be explained, and sometimes a retailer, especially a smaller one, might not even be aware of all the regulations. While ignorance of the law is no excuse when you are in court, for practical purposes it would probably help if a simple on-line site or a handbook was available.
Other agencies do this. Zimra, for example, are more than happy to explain to any taxpayer just what they need to do in language that is a lot simpler than the range of Finance Acts that set the taxes.
The Consumer Protection Commission could possibly do the same for the groups it polices, telling them exactly what a small shopkeeper needs to know to be and remain legal. That 80 percent of compliant businesses suggests that there is a desire by many to be legal and perhaps they need to be helped.
This would allow the commission, and others that it works with, to throw the rule book at those determined to break the law.
Consumers also need to be advised to be honest and open. They should complain when they think their rights are being degraded or ignored, so perhaps the website could summarise in clear language the most common rights of consumers that can be infringed and suggest ways that these can be sorted out before formal and official complaints are made.
We also need to understand that manufacturers and shopkeepers also have rights and then work together to see how the rights on both sides can be enforced equitably. One example is the fault reporting and return policy. One common area is with electric goods, and unfortunately far too often these come from factories outside the country so it is difficult to activate a guarantee.
Some retailers with a reputation for honesty insist that any appliance, from a lamp bulb upwards, is tested in the shop before the customer leaves. That does not preclude future disputes but it does help minimise them. Retailers have their own horror stories, of a customer for example who buys a kettle, and then switches it one before putting in the water. Clearly the resultant damage is the customer’s fault, but they get customers who complain the thing was broken to start with.
You also hear stories of people who buy a dress or a suit and then bring it back two days later saying they have changed their mind and want a refund. Meanwhile, they wore the clothes to a wedding. These sort of problems need to be addressed from both sides. We need honest customers as well as honest shopkeepers and industrialists.
This is why the Consumer Protection Commission has started off well by linking up with others so the whole gamut of enforcing rights can be done thoroughly and properly.
Online Reporter