The Malta Competition and Consumer Affairs Authority has asked victims of the Japan car mileage scam to return to their dealer and try to strike a deal.
It proposed three remedies.
The car owners may ask the dealer to:
- Exchange their car for another one. The new car must be the same model and with the same mileage that they were told the old one had when they bought it;
- Calculate how much the car would have cost if he had sold it with the actual mileage and refund the difference; or
- Declare the contract null and void, take the car back and give the buyer a full refund.
The director of information at the MCCAA, Odette Vella, told TVM that if the owner and the dealer fail to strike a deal, the owner may then file a complaint with the authority.
The complaint will trigger a mediation process between the dealer and the owner, and the consumer might have to take legal action in court against the dealer if they do not shake hands on a deal.
Times of Malta is informed customers are heading back to the two dealers over the weekend in search of an equitable solution.
On Wednesday, Minister Julia Farrugia Portelli said some 45 people filed official complaints with the MCCAA about the scam.
She urged people who may have been affected to check whether their car’s mileage has been accurately reported and complain formally to the authority if it was not, but car owners are saying the authority is asking them to go to the dealer first.
The scam, which runs back to early as 2019, saw the dealerships - Rokku and Tal-Qasab - allegedly register cars imported from Japan with a lower mileage count than what they had actually accumulated.
Dealership industry suffering blow of bad reputation
Meanwhile, after suspending the two dealers earlier this week, the Used Vehicle Importers Association said on Friday that it will "implement stricter measures" to ensure that such cases do not happen again.