International Consumer Product Health and Safety Organisation conference
In early December 2006 the International Consumer Product Health and Safety Organisation held an international conference to discuss ways to ensure global product safety and international cooperation between consumer safety authorities. The aim of the conference was to foster learning and the exchange of best practice between all global key players.
Canada
New legislation to protect consumers
The Canadian Government has tabled legislation that will enable the Competition Tribunal to order telecommunications companies to pay fines of up to A$16 million if found guilty of abusing their market power. The proposed amendment to the Canadian Competition Act will give the Competition Tribunal more power to protect consumers from abuses by big companies.
New Zealand
Company fined for selling unsafe toys
Following an investigations by the New Zealand Commerce Commission, Southern Gold Limited, trading as Just $2, has been fined A$11 000 for breaching the product safety requirements of the Fair Trading Act by selling toys that did not comply with the Product Safety (Children’s Toys) Regulations 2005. Southern Gold Limited had previously entered into an out-of-court settlement with the NZCC for the sale of another unsafe toy in 2000.
United Kingdom
Debt collection compliance review findings released
The Office of Fair Trading has published the findings of a review into how guidance to debt collectors has changed behaviour within the sector. The review found that the guidance has been a success in terms of content; awareness has increased among collectors of debts, individual debtors and consumer advisors; and there have been positive changes in industry behaviour.
Consumers gain better protection from cross border scams
The Consumer Protection Cooperation regulation, adopted by the European Commission on 18 July 2003, has come into force in the United Kingdom. The aim of the EC regulation is to establish a network of public enforcement agencies in every member state to facilitate effective cross-border cooperation on breaches of consumer law. Although the Office of Fair Trading, elected as the UK’s CPC-coordinating enforcement body, already protects consumers against scams in the UK, the new measures will improve protection against scams originating abroad.
United States of America
New law to assist cooperation
The United States Congress has passed its Undertaking Spam, Spyware and Fraud Enforcement With Enforcers Beyond Borders Act 2005 (the SAFEWEB Act). The legislation will authorise the Federal Tarde Commission to start cooperative cross-border law enforcement projects and will improve the FTC’s ability to provide more effective international consumer protection specifically to combat spam, spyware and internet fraud and deception.
The Act was filed to fix a flaw in the anti-spam legislation enacted in 2003. Under the earlier law, US regulators chasing spammers were limited in their ability to catch them because they could not disclose information to counterpart international enforcement agencies.
