Indicating that its work is not being done in isolation, the Consumer Affairs Commission (CAC) said it has been partnering with a number of State agencies to secure meaningful redress for aggrieved consumers.

Following years of collaboration with a number of government agencies, Director of Field Operations Cheryl Martin Tracey said the CAC, in its quest to quickly resolve consumer issues, continues to develop fruitful partnerships with external bodies as it channels a myriad of complaints from customers.

“We have to develop relationships with other agencies…we’re all government…but we also have signed memoranda of understanding (MOU) with entities that are actually responsible and have the expertise to look at some of the complaints we get. For example, as it relates to a lot of the complaints about electric equipment and appliances, we don’t have labs so we can’t do testing and as such, we have to engage bodies such as the Bureau of Standards. For other issues such as rat droppings in your food, we may have to send those cases to Food Storage and the Prevention of Infestation Division, which will be more equipped to help us with those and other matters. However, where we do come in — even in these weird offshoots — is to ensure that we can, in most cases, continue to secure redress for the consumer,” Martin Tracey said.

“We’re not the police, so we can’t take products off the shelf, but we are partnering with our stakeholder agencies such as the Jamaica Constabulary Force that are empowered to do so. Our legislation does not allow us to wrap a yellow tape around your business but we can liaise with those agencies that can,” she stated during a Jamaica Observer Business Forum.

Pointing to real estate and securities as two important areas which falls outside of the Consumer Protection Act (CPA), complaints surrounding these issues, Martin Tracey said ,will have to be addressed by other State agencies.

“Although these two are sometimes pressing consumer issues, the remedies do not lie in the CPA but there are other agencies of government that have legislations for their remit,” she noted.

For her part, CEO of CAC Dolsie Allen, further speaking to the tiered approach taken by the organisation to address customer complaints, said that aside from using moral suasion in its first step of remediation, the commission could go as far as the courts for some matters especially in instances where all other channels have been exhausted.

Litigation, she, however, said is largely reserved for those harder to settle or more severe matters.

“We have a tribunal as well, so where and when we are not able to use moral suasion to have a matter resolved, then we can step things up to that level,” Allen said.

The six-member tribunal, which is currently chaired by Retired Justice Ferdinand Smith, she said, is made up independent persons across the areas of academia and business.

“When we have these hearings at least three persons must be present unless the parties agree that one person can sit to hear a case. To date, we have, however, not had many cases brought before the tribunal as what we have found is that once we threaten court action, businesses are normally more open to engaging those [alternate] channels,” she told journalists during the forum.

The CAC, established to inform, educate and empower consumers to protect themselves in the marketplace, is guided by the CPA, which is the legal framework crafted to govern its operations. The commission, now fielding approximately 1,500-2,000 complaints per year, has said it helps consumers to secure about $40 million-$45 million in refunds and compensation on an annual basis, backed by a strong resolution rate of 80-85 per cent.

“The Consumer Protection Act by which we are governed is a law, so our process naturally ends up in the legal realm. In addressing complaints from consumers, we normally first go in with mediation and should one of the parties not agree, whether vendor or consumer, we will then move matters over to our tribunal or in some cases straight to the court,” Martin Tracey said.

“Our first step, however, is always to have conservations as we try to settle amicably and never immediately to go to court. As such, we are always negotiating and advocating before any further action is taken,” director of communication at the CAC Latoya Halstead added.