Consumer protection, Blue Jeans in the spotlight
One of the nuggets of information that has come out of the Parliamentary vetting of nominees for ministerial appointments is the hint that Ghana will soon get a Consumer Protection Law.
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Minister for Trade and Industries-designate Alan Kyerematen gave the indication on Monday in response to a question from Mr Sampson Ahi (NDC, Bodi, Western Region), as to what Mr Kyerematen would do to protect consumers if his nomination was approved.
The nominee responded: “My understanding is that a consumer protection policy is in the pipeline”.
Interestingly, recently there has been a social media consumer rights campaign by a concerned citizen about the Blue Jeans Energy Drink, leading to a ban of the said 250ml product by the Food and Drugs Authority (FDA).
A source at the Authority told me that although there are various consumer protection regulations in the country, as at now there’s no “complete Act on consumer protection”. However, other sources claim that a Consumer Protection Law was passed last year.
One can only say that a comprehensive law to protect consumers from all negative trading and market practices, bad-faith on the part of business people and downright cheating, is long overdue. Even if there is a law it’s apparently not being implemented.
Seemingly, every time the Ghanaian consumer has an interaction with a trader or a service provider, we’re at risk of having our rights trampled on, being disrespected or being made to feel as if they are doing us a favour when it should be the opposite.
Usually, we don’t know where to take our complaints or where to seek redress. Sometimes you go to the management but if you get no joy there, where do you turn next?
Abuse of consumer rights takes many forms, ranging from the known trick of market women padding the ‘American tin’ standard measure or hammering in the bottom of the tin so as to reduce the quantity of, say, rice or gari; to items on sale with no instructions in English.
Anyway, is there supposed to be a standard weight for a loaf of bread? Not only is bread getting lighter, the taste is also questionable!
As for the butchers in the markets …! It is very interesting that although they will dutifully show the scale to the customer as they weigh the meat, there is no guarantee one is getting ‘value for money’.
Isn’t it curious that more than 40 years after Ghana adopted the metric system of measurement (in September, 1975), butchers still sell meat by the ‘pound’ and not by the kilo?
In recent years, powdered products have grown considerably lighter, whether they’re in tins or sachets. Apparently the manufacturers long ago hit on the strategy of not increasing prices too much, for fear of losing sales. Instead, they subtly decrease the quantity while maintaining the same size packaging.
A spoonful taken off every tin or sachet if you’re producing in thousands and millions surely adds up to great savings and profits at the expense of consumers.
Another area that is of increasing worry is that of electrical and electronic goods. Who is monitoring that products imported for sale in Ghana have manuals or instructions in understandable English? At present it seems to be a free-for-all. I have come across a Digital Video Broadcasting appliance whose directions on the box has no English text at all.
One finds other products on sale here whose instructions are not in English. Some of the instructions are even in what looks like Chinese - or even Greek. Yes, the proverbial ‘it’s Greek to me’ is a reality that the Ghanaian consumer has to grapple with regarding some product manuals.
There are also manuals or leaflets in what is supposed to be English, but a strange kind of English, an English that Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, for all her reported good humour would certainly disown!
For example, what is one to make of the label: “Food Crrier heat presering mention pot; Double Insulation Bot”? (This is the text on a Made in China food carrier.)
Of course in this case the buyer suffers no harm, but what about when food or drink is involved? Or even medicines?
No doubt it was such concerns that led to the social media SOS about the Blue Jeans Energy Drink suspected to be “fake” which got the FDA to act promptly.
A concerned citizen circulated a video which showed him holding two cans of the supposed “fake” brand. He said he happened to unpeel the label of a ‘Blue Jeans Energy Drink’ a colleague had bought and found that underneath the can had a different name, over which the Blue Jeans label had been pasted!
A second can was bought from the same vendor and when that label too was stripped off, it showed yet another name on the can! He posed the question: “Does the FD know about this?”
Well, the FDA took action. The Ghanaian Times of January 20 reported that in response to the video, the FDA has stopped the distribution and sale of Blue Jeans Energy Drink across the country.
For its part, the importer, Budget Cash and Carry, has recalled all the 250ml Blue Jeans Energy Drink from the market, the Daily Guide of January 24 reported. One of the company’s lawyers assured the media that the 250ml drink in question is not fake.
He explained that a “production challenge” regarding the supply of the 250ml cans for Christmas resulted in a decision “which unfortunately has not been accepted by some sections of the public in spite of all efforts made to address the problem through public announcements”.
But just where did they make those announcements and how many times?
Also, it seems to me that the reason for the 250ml can having a different name under the known label needs to be better explained.
If the producers had added just one line to the label warning that the name under the known label might be different, probably there would have been no concerned citizen’s alert on social media.
And, of course, if the country had a comprehensive Consumer Protection Law, one being applied, every manufacturer targetting the Ghanaian market would know not to take things for granted.