The Consumer Affairs Unit – In pursuit of a balance of fairness amongst consumers and businesses

The Competition and Consumer Affairs Commission (CCAC) was established in 2006 and became fully operational in 2010. The Commission is the sole statutory agency charged with enforcing of the Competition and Fair Trading Act No.11 of 2006 (CFTA) and the Consumer Affairs Act No.13 of 2011 (CAA). The Commission is separated into two main facets, the adjudicative and the investigative.

The adjudicative comprises the Board of Commissioners, while the investigative consists of two primary Units the Com-petition Policy Unit and the Consumer Affairs Unit, inclusive of support staff. The foremost goal is to ensure the effective, efficient and objective administering of the CFTA and the CAA. The work of the Consumer Affairs Unit is complemented by the Consumer Affairs Division of the Ministry of Business which focuses primarily on consumer education.

This article focuses on the establishment of the Consumer Affairs Unit (CAU), its role and strides thus far, with emphasis on its achievements for the year 2017. The Unit’s two main objectives are to enforce the CAA and to empower consumers through consumer awareness programmes focused on rights and responsibilities provided under the Act. The Unit is also continuously engaged in educating the business community of its legal responsibility of adherence and the importance of compliance with respect to the CAA.