BEEF UP LAWS

There is a call for the new government to introduce additional legislation to beef up existing laws which seek to protect consumers.

It has come from local consumer advocate, Reverend Malcolm Gibbs-Taitt, who contends that this country remains “badly in need” of legislation that would regulate advertising and truth-in-lending. Such, he explained, should be added to the suite of legislation that currently falls within the ambit of the Fair Trading Commission and the Office of Public Counsel.

In a recent interview with The Barbados Advocate, Gibbs-Taitt, while admitting that the Consumer Protection Act contains a section on advertising, touching briefly on what advertisers should not be able to do, maintained that it does not go far enough. As such, it is his firm belief that comprehensive legislation needs to be drafted and put in place to fill the gap that exists. He made the comments while contending that advertising is too powerful a medium for the stakeholders to be self-regulated.

Gibbs-Taitt maintained that there are too many advertisements being publicised on a daily basis in this country, which are misleading and given that there is no specific legislation in place, consumers have no recourse.

“Advertising is the most serious medium in a country and I am amazed that we still do not have any legislation that sensibly affects advertising laws. Today, advertising is still left in the hands of people who self-regulate and I feel this new Government owes it to consumers to put some legislation in place to control advertising and bring proper regulations thereto,” he indicated.

The consumer advocate added, “It is an area that can infringe our rights and it is left alone; something needs to be done about that. You cannot go into any modern society and find that advertising is not governed by the laws of its land… It is too powerful a medium to be left to a few rich cats.”

Gibbs-Taitt suggesting that Barbados is perhaps the only place where there is not ample legislation to regulate advertising, says he wants an act of Parliament to deal with advertising in general, ensuring that what is put forth to the public is not deliberately false or deceptive. Additionally, he is recommending that a committee, with established codes of practice, be set up to indicate the correct way advertising should be carried out.

“To me, that has been the biggest omission our country has been making since 2000 and then there is truth-in-lending, that too needs to be dealt with sensibly, because they both impact on ordinary people’s lives,” he said.

Gibbs-Taitt made the point while lamenting that the annual percentage rate (APR) is rarely quoted in this country. He said while companies often indicate the monthly or weekly interest rate, for a person to know what the APR is, they would have to try to calculate it, which he said is sometimes not easy.

“We still have people telling us that the interest rate is two per cent, per month and when you try to calculate it you cannot get the annualised percentage rate properly calculated unless you are a financial wizard. We don’t need to be financial wizards to know what the annualised percentage rate is; we need it to be told to us. These are things that need to be ruled out and dealt with effectively by a government,” he stated. (JRT)