The Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (CCPC) has observed a continued trend of consumers being subjected to unfair trading practices mainly from the retail, financial and Information and Communications Technology (ICT) sectors.
This is contained in the CCPC January to August 2024 performance report.
CCPC Executive Director, Brian Lingela, says in a statement issued to RCV News in Lusaka today that of the cases handled, the retail sector accounted for 40.67% of the cases.
He said the financial sector accounted for 30.06% and the ICT sector accounted for 14.29% .
And Mr. Lingela said the Commission recovered over K2M, in refunds and over K980 000 in replacements, repairs and performance or re-doing of services from the various cases investigated across the country.
He said the Commission intensified inspections of trading premises over the period under review working collaboratively with the Zambia Compulsory Standards Agency (“ZCSA”), the Zambia Metrology Agency (“ZMA”) and the local authorities to proactively deal with some retail sector concerns.
Meanwhile, Mr. Lingela said in the retail trade, hire-purchase concerns remained topical as traders delayed supplying goods upon payment especially to payroll-based clients in the civil service.
“The Commission also noted the exorbitant cancellation fees for hire-purchase agreements usually calculated as a percentage of the full price of the item, said Mr. Lingela.
He also said the financial services sector saw concerns related to unsolicited deductions, continued deductions for settled loans, delayed or non-reversal of transactions on request, particularly mobile money transactions.
“These are serious concerns that threaten to weaken consumer trust in the digital markets and therefore require concerted effort to resolve,” said Mr. Lingela.
By Eva Hatontola
