In line with practices in Australia and Hong Kong, Singapore’s consumer protection laws may be changed to offer better protection against unfair trading practices.
Proposed amendments to the Consumer Protection (Fair Trading) Act would empower Spring Singapore to gather evidence so injunction applications can be filed more speedily. Injunction applications can lead to court orders requiring a person or entity to carry out or stop specific actions, such as an unfair business practice.
Spring would also be granted powers to enter the premises of suspected errant retailers with or without a warrant, and seize goods.
As the administering agency, Spring will ensure compliance. Retailers who refuse to comply will face fines or imprisonment for contempt of court.
Courts may also gain extra powers under the proposed amendments. For example, judges may require an errant retailer to publicise that it is under injunction, including notifying and obtaining written acknowledgement from consumers before any transaction. Errant retailers might even be required to detail their injunction order on receipts and invoices to customers.
The courts may also be given powers to require entities and individuals under such orders to notify Spring of any changes to their company or employment status. These would guard against attempts to sidestep the injunction orders.
“In the past, there were shady businesses that, having been sued, closed down their shop front and set up another company under a different name,” says Consumers Association of Singapore (Case) president Lim Biow Chuan.
Under the proposed changes, Case and the Singapore Tourism Board (STB) will still mediate in retailer/consumer disputes.
Even in the case of an injunction, consumers need to action against businesses through Case or the Small Claims Tribunal to recover their losses.
The proposed changes follow a consumer protection laws review led by the Trade and Industry Ministry (MTI). In the past few months there have been several high-profile convictions of errant retailers at electronics hub Sim Lim Square.
Public input on the proposed amendments is being accepted, and it is hoped the Act will be amended by the end of the year.
