–Competition and Consumer Affairs Commission Director reports, says over 400 cases were resolved over the past year

OVER $107 million was refunded to various consumers in 2022, Director of Guyana’s Competition and Consumer Affairs Commission (CCAC), Anil Sukhdeo has said.
Sukhdeo, during a webinar in observance of World Consumer’s Day, said within the last year, the commission has resolved over 400 cases and now has an 87 per cent resolution rate.

“Within four weeks, you come to us and we can have your matter resolved and 90 per cent of the time the consumers are reimbursed one way or the other. Just last year, we would have resolved over 400 plus cases and we would have returned a monetary value of over $107 million to consumers and speaking to the stats of our resolution rates of that 400 complains that we would have seen, we have a resolution rate of 87 per cent,” Sukhdeo said.

Supported by a new legislation, the body now has the authority to seek redress through the courts; however, this is done when all other options of resolution are exhausted.

“We do have the legislation behind us that will empower us to seek redress through the courts, which can lead to imprisonments and/or fines. It’s not necessarily a route that we want to take but we will take it when it’s needed,” Sukhdeo related.

He disclosed that there are three cases before the courts. Once taken to the courts, persons can face a hefty fine or prison time varying from six months to a year.

Further, to level the playing field, he said that the commission has embarked on several behavioural incentive programmes to promote consumer rights.

“What we currently have is a certification-based programme to say if you are a supplier and you are compliant with the local legislation, you are provided with a certificate and you should have that displayed in your place of business, [if] a consumer should enter they can know that they can get redress from you,” Sukhdeo said.

Additionally, the commission has an awards programme which encourages suppliers to advance and maintain their standards in compliance with the rights of consumers.

Sukhdeo related: “We have an awards programme, so we have a number of categories where we invite service providers to compete to maybe have the best policy, the best warranty, so they compete on the basis of those categories and they are rewarded.”

Further, to widen the public’s awareness about consumer rights, the commission, he said, is constantly engaging its stakeholders and members of the public.

“We do work at the consumer’s level; we want to address that information [and] knowledge gap. So, if we can provide information to consumers that can prevent complaints, that’s wonderful for us because administration burden of cases, it’s lengthy and it’s costly,” Sukhdeo said.

The CCAC was established under the Competition and Fair-Trading Act (CFTA) of 2006. The body is mandated to investigate complaints by agencies and consumers, and determine if there has been any contravention of the CFTA and to take prescribed action.

Additionally, the body eliminates anti-competitive agreements and provides information to consumers on their rights to enable them to make informed choices.