Consumer protection in Malta : review and analysis

Abstract

The plan for this dissertation was originally to make a comparative study of European Community consumer law and Maltese consumer law. However, on becoming better acquainted with EC law, it was realized that little comparison can be made between that extensive body of law and the meagre provisions of our own legislation. Maltese law has very little to say about competition, unfair contract clauses, misleading advertising, services safety and services liability and a host of other subjects regulated in the Community either by directives or by decisions of the European Court. I therefore decided, with the concurrence of my supervisor, to retain the topic of consumer protection but to make instead a review and analysis of the present situation in Malta. With this end in view, various organizations providing some kind of consumer protection were investigated and an account of their activities is given in the following chapters. At present most forms of consumer protection are provided by government organizations. Consequently the review of their activities is longer than that of other organizations. In order to maintain balance, the account of their activities is spread over two chapters. The arrangement of the chapters is as follows: Chapter 1 covers the Health Department, the Standards Laboratory and the Water Services Laboratory. Chapter 2 deals with the Hotels and Catering Establishments Board, the Department of Trade and the Department of Consumer Affairs. Chapter 3 is dedicated to non-government organizations providing some sort of consumer protection. The ones described in this chapter are the Chamber of Commerce, the General Retailers and Traders Union, the ‘Kampanja Konsumatur Alternattiva’ and the Consumers' Union. Besides these four two other bodies were contacted. These were the Federation of Industries and the Chamber of Pharmacists. The Federation's representative informed me that they do not conduct any consumer service but they do have a code of ethics that stipulates the provision of good quality goods at fair prices, and respect for free competition. One of its sections, that of the building industry, has also drawn up a code of practice. The representative of the Chamber of Pharmacists informed me that the Chamber does not operate any consumer service as such, but it is using its influence to urge the government to take some actions for the benefit of consumers. Such measures would be the formation of a suitably trained inspectorate to enforce the law, enforcement of the law that stipulates that in every pharmacy there should be a qualified pharmacist, effective supervision of importation of medicines and the launching of educational campaigns. Chapter 4 consists of a description of relevant provisions in the Civil Code and the Commercial Code of the Laws of Malta. Chapter 5 contains an analysis of the present situation based on the information in the preceding chapters. Chapter 6 is the concluding chapter. It discusses some possible solutions to the problems analyzed in Chapter 5. It also takes into consideration some of the proposals of the White Paper on Consumers' Rights issued by the government in August 1991. The Appendix contains a brief description of the laws and regulations mentioned throughout the dissertation. The stipulated length of the dissertation placed some limitation on the material to be included. Therefore, it was decided to omit accounts of consumer protection by the suppliers of public utilities especially since such protection, where it exists, is limited to that particular service or utility only. Thus, Telemalta would be concerned with consumers as subscribers only, and Enemalta would be interested only in consumption of electricity and fuel. Moreover, a study of services such as Health or Education would constitute a thesis in its own right. It is the aim of this dissertation to give as comprehensive an account as possible of the consumer protection at present available in Malta and also of its problems and deficiencies.