PUTRAJAYA: The Competition Act will be in place soon to protect consumers against market abuse from cartel activities and monopolies, said Domestic Trade, Co-operative and Consumerism Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob.
He said it was time for Malaysia to have such a law in place to ensure consumers were protected from the unscrupulous trading practices of cartels and monopoly businesses.
He said the draft of the new legislation had already been submitted to the Attorney-General’s Chambers and would be up for its first reading in Parliament in March.
“We are excited to have the Act in place because then we would have the authority to act against companies which gang up to set a high price for goods or services.
“The Competition Act will also allow us to act against those who monopolise certain type of businesses and prevent them from increasing their fees indiscriminately without considering the consumers just because the public are not able to get similar service elsewhere,” he told reporters after meeting representatives from consumer associations.
He said the Act was expected to be enforced by the end of 2011 as time was needed to educate the public as well as business operators on the new law.
Ismail Sabri said that several Acts under the ministry would also be amended to further protect consumers against indiscriminate and unfair business practices. This includes a review of the Price Control Act to include laws on anti-profiteering.
He said soon, consumers would be protected against businesses that were found to have increased prices of goods “to a ridiculous level,” citing an example where restaurant owners could face prosecution if they charge an additional 20sen or 30sen for a glass of teh tarik (pulled tea) when the increase of sugar was about 20sen per kilo.
He said with the amendments, consumers also need not worry about a surge in the price for goods that were suddenly in demand, such as the increase in the price of facemasks in the wake of the Influenza A(H1N1) outbreak last year.
Ismail Sabri said amendments would be made on the Hire Purchase Act to protect consumers from unfair practices when their cars were repossessed, while a review of the Consumer Protection Act would look at unfair contract terms.
The Copyright Act would be amended to allow action be taken against those who possess pirated DVDs.
“We are also amending the Direct Selling Act to further safeguard consumers from multi-level pyramid schemes and get-rich quick businesses because we can soon take action against companies which are not even registered with us,” he said.
Ismail Sabri said consumer associations were briefed on the amendments and they supported the efforts undertaken by his ministry to further protect consumer rights.
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