In today’s fast-paced world, consumers are inundated with adverts for a wide range of products and services. Amid this abundance of information, consumers may end up victims of unfair commercial practices that can result in financial losses.

Unfair commercial practices encompass a wide range of tactics that some businesses use to entice consumers to make purchases they may eventually regret.

Consumers have a fundamental right to information. More importantly, they have a right to accurate and clear information about products and services, including their prices, features, benefits and potential risks.

This means traders are legally bound to provide consumers with clear and unambiguous information so they can make an informed purchase decision. To safeguard this right, consumer legislation specifically bans unfair trading practices.

Consumers have a fundamental right to accurate and clear information about products and services, including their prices, features, benefits and potential risks

There are two main types of commercial practices that are considered unfair – misleading and aggressive practices. Misleading commercial practices are normally the result of false or omission of important information when the trader promotes products or services. Traders may also be found guilty of engaging in misleading practices if the information they provide is unclear, hard to understand, and/or ambiguous.

Consumer legislation lists specific practices that are considered misleading and hence prohibited. These include:

• false claims that a particular product or service is free when in reality it is not;

• prize promotions where there is either no prize or consumers must make a payment in order to claim a prize;

• false claims that a trader is about to cease trading or move premises;

• untrue claims that products can cure illnesses or disabilities;

• limited offers where the trader falsely states that a product will no longer be available in order to elicit an immediate buying decision;

• giving the wrong impression that after-sales service is available in another EU member state; and

• falsely creating the impression that the trader is not acting in the course of their trade but on behalf of a consumer.

A commercial practice is also considered misleading if it is likely to deceive the average consumer, even if the information presented is correct. An average consumer is a person who is considered to be reasonably well-informed, observant, and quite cautious.

Aggressive sales practices are also considered unfair as such practices impair consumers’ buying decisions. Aggressive sales tactics include ones that try to intimidate or coerce consumers, or try to take advantage of consumers who can be foreseen as vulnerable because of mental or physical infirmity, age or credulity.

As in misleading practices, consumer legislation lists a number of trading practices that are considered aggressive.

These include situations where:

• the trader creates the impression that the consumer cannot leave the premises until the sales contract is signed;

• the trader refuses to leave a consumer’s home after being requested to do so; or

• the trader takes a consumer to a remote destination with no apparent return transport.

Adverts directly aimed at getting children to buy products or to persuade adults to buy for them are also considered as aggressive.

Unfair commercial practices are banned in any business-to-consumer transaction irrespective of the product or service, or the circumstance of the transaction, being it face to face, via telephone, internet or mail.

Should consumers encounter trading practices that are either misleading or aggressive, they may report them to the MCCAA’s Office for Consumer Affairs either by calling on 8007 4400 or via the ‘Flag a Concern’ form available on the MCCAA website.

www.mccaa.org.mt

odette.vella@mccaa.org.mt

Odette Vella is director, Information and Research Directorate, MCCAA