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4.8 Consumer Protection

Submitted by admin on Thu, 2009-10-01 13:10

Consumer protection is dealt with principally by the Consumer Protection Act, 2008, which exists to promote and advance the social and economic welfare of consumers. In addition to implementing the concept of producer responsibility, the NWMS must give effect to the principle of duty of care, which amongst other encompasses consumer protection. In doing this the relevant requirements of the Consumer Protection Act and the Competition Act will be considered.

The Consumer Protection Act provides support for the implementation of EPR in that it obliges industries subject to an industry waste management plan to provide the facilities and information required to give effect to EPR.
 
In terms of waste management, section 59 (2) of the Consumer Protection Act requires suppliers, distributors, importers or producers to take responsibility for the disposal of products and items, subject to an industry waste management plan. This means providing take-back facilities or collection facilities for the receipt of the product at the end of its life, without additional charge to the consumer.
 
A further provision of the Consumer Protection Act is the requirement for product labelling for:
  • categories of goods that are required to have a trade description applied to them, or
  • goods which have been reconditioned, rebuilt or remade and bear the original producer’s trade mark.
This requirement should also be adhered to when reuse or recycling practices fall within these conditions.
 
It is important to clarify that these measures will apply equally to industry waste management plans that have been prepared and submitted voluntarily, in order to avoid disincentives for industries that produce voluntary industry waste management plans.
 
A further issue is the requirement that returned goods and packaging must be accepted without charge to the consumer (section 59 a), which may have implications for the use of taxes and levies, especially the legality of adding a tax or levy to the product price. This will be further explored and clarified in the NWMS.
 

A broader concern is the degree to which the recycling sector is dominated by de-facto monopolies, either funded by industry or state-owned. While these initiatives have been undertaken in order to take advantage of economies of scale, they may serve as a barrier to entry in the sector, and risk introducing pricing inefficiencies that run counter to the interests of consumers. This needs to be investigated further in the NWMS.