By Freddy Tyapa
A consumer protection bill is a document that safeguards the intra trade conditions between a consumer and suppliers.
Have you ever been offered a product or a hire purchase for a good and days later your change your mind due to the terms not being favorable?
This often becomes very difficult to resolve as there is currently no bill in place that guides on trade-related resolutions.
According to consumer bills promulgated in other countries worldwide, the standard of the bill is – “ To promote a fair, accessible and sustainable marketplace for consumer products and services and for that purpose to establish national norms and standards relating to consumer protection, to provide for improved standards of consumer information, to prohibit certain unfair marketing and business practices, to promote responsible consumer behavior, to promote a consistent legislative and enforcement framework relating to consumer transactions and agreements.
This bill has the capacity to change or improve the standards on conduct currently practice in the market place.
After 36 years of independence, we as a nation still have our consumers which sustain our economy not protect from traders and common deal makers.
The sad part in Africa, Namibia form part of the 5 countries which still do not have a bill that protects its consumers alongside Burkina Faso, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Gabon, and Guinea-Bissau.
The consumer protection brings a level of assurance to the consumers in Namibia with few focal points which are to advantage both the consumer and supplier. Currently the country has no legal frame which protects both parties involved in the consumption market. Below are some of the points which will be addressed directly by the consumer protection bill.
- The right to equality – the concept of equality ensures that all customers are treated equally in the buying and supplying space.This would ensure that the prices and product offering are all aligned with every potential customer without considering the consumers background whether it is race, class or social background.
- The right to privacy – in most cases purchase agreements are contracts that contain both parties’ information. Currently due to the lack of any bill in place, the supplied information is not protected and the extend to which the consumers information is exposed without their consent still poses a certain level of risk. Practical examples can be suppliers marketing their products directly to their consumers without their consent. This often lead consumers making uninformed decisions to make purchase as they are being lured to do so.
- The right to choose – the consumer deserves the right to choose what they intent to buy. Currently in the market certain consumers are force into closing purchase deals. It has been a proven fact that most consumers are force into making purchases without enough time to consider on the final decision. This is an infringement to the consumer rights.
- The right to disclosure of information – often times suppliers fail to fully reveal the full details on contracts. This is mostly made easier through making the contracts to long with unnecessary details which makes it hard for the consumer to read it all. The bill would enable to amendments to be done to these contracts and have them simplified for the consumer to fully understand what they are committing to. Majority of consumers that have disputed their contracts are often deprived from information.
- Right to fair and responsible marketing – the bill would prohibit unfair marketing practices, which includes bait marketing, negative option marketing, catalogue marketing, referral selling, sets standards for customer loyalty programmes and regulates promotional competitions.
- The right to fair and honest dealing – the contracts between the consumer and supplier should always be beneficial to both parties. A deal can never be considered to be fair if one party is used or baited into that contract.
- The right to fair and reasonable terms and conditions – A supplier must not offer to enter into an agreement to supply any goods or services at a price or on terms that are unfair, unreasonable or unjust, and must not negotiate an agreement for the supply of any goods or services in a manner that is unfair, unreasonable or unjust.
- The right to safe and quality goods – the supplier would be required to make sure the any product traded to a consumer does not possess any unsafe or hazardous risk at all time. The bill would help ensure that products are of the highest quality standards approved.
It is interesting to note that our currency is pegged with the South African Rand and this allows Namibians to do trades on regular basis.
According to the trading economics website, South Africa is Namibia’s largest bilateral trading partner for both imports and exports. Namibia heavily relies on South Africa for consumer goods, vehicles, and petroleum oils, while exporting commodities like precious stones, live animals, and fish in return.
Trade between the two countries consistently results in a trade deficit for Namibia. South Africa as a counterpart has a consumer protection bill whilst we are still to table one. This means that when a Namibian consumer is trading with South Africans we are not protected by our laws.
*Freddy Tyapa – Seasoned banker, economic and legal analyst who writes in his own capacity
