By HELEN ZULU –
THE Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (CCPC) recovered a total of K11, 771.62 in product refunds with three replacements given to consumers in the second quarter of this year.
CCPC public relations officer Hanford Chaaba said of the refunds, 13 cases whose total value amounted to K3,972.58 violated of section 46(1) of the Competition and Consumer Protection Act which prohibits a person or an enterprise from engaging into unfair trading practice.
Mr Chaaba said further, eight cases, whose total value of refunds amounted to K7,799.04 violated section 49(5) of the same Act which prohibits a person or an enterprise from supplying a service to a consumer without reasonable care and skill within a reasonable time.
“We would like to appeal to consumers to take their time and shop around for the best, and ensure that they understand and agree to the terms and conditions attached to the product before exercising their purchasing decision.
“The commission, therefore, would like to pass a timely warning to traders of various goods and services across economic sectors in Zambia to ensure that they operate within the confines of the law, and desist from practices that both unfair and anti-competitive,” he said.
And CCPC has asked the Zambia Forestry and Forest Industries Corporation (ZAFFICO) to come up with a competitive process of allocating the soft and hard wood licences for both existing and new saw millers, other than foreclosing the market to potential entrants
completely.
CCPC Board of Commissioners recently said ZAFFICO should employ methods that were competitive, transparent and inclusive nature in the supply of logs.
The Board further asked ZAFFICO to award licences to saw millers who applied in 2013 through a competitive bidding process, and that the Government, through ZAFFICO, should come up with a deliberate policy for saw millers to be engaged in replanting trees in order to promote
sustainable forest management.
The Board noted that the policy for incentives in forestry replanting promotion under the Ministry of Lands, as well as the impending setting up of a Regulator to enhance the sustainability of the forestry industry, could act as a bridging measure.
On September 5, 2013, the Commission had received a complaint from Small Scale Saw Millers from Ndola alleging that ZAFFICO had only renewed old saw log licences for another year, after their expiry date in April 2013.
Meanwhile, the board of commissioners had granted Interim authorisation to the proposed takeover of Mr Price Stores in Zambia from Bright Horizon Limited (BHL) by Mr Price Group Zambia Limited, after the Board of Commissioners observed that the transaction would
not lead to substantial lessening of competition in the relevant market.
“The proposed transaction involving Bright Horizon Ltd, Mr Price Zambia Limited and Mr Price Group Limited would not lead to the substantial lessening of competition in the relevant market.
This is in view of the fact that the parties were not dominant and that post – merger, the market share and structure were likely to remain the same since only the acquired firm had a presence in Zambia”, the Board stated.
The Board also observed that very few barriers to entry into the market existed and as such, the transaction would not result into creation or strengthening of dominant market position in the relevant market, and that BHL, trading as Mr Price, was a failing firm.