Andreas Filippus  

Consumer protection law are laws made to protect consumers from falsified business practices, defective products, deceptive marketing and dangerous goods and services. This law plays a crucial role in a reliable market economy like Namibia for the following reasons; it helps build trust between consumers, producers and suppliers in the market place. 

Further, it avoids unfair trade practices that has potential to sabotage competition in the economy to mention few. Namibia is among countries around the globe that do not have national consumer statute/act which regulates the interactions between consumers and market industries, hence protecting the rights of consumers. However, as of last year, Namibia has launched a National Consumer Protection Policy which in my opinion is a step in the right direction. 

 a nation we need to understand that, the fundamental concern of consumer economic welfare in consumer protection laws is the protection of consumer rights. Consumers constitute the largest economic group in any economy and Namibia is no exception. They spend on various goods and services to gain their satisfaction and in doing so they contribute immensely to gross domestic product (GDP) of any country. Thus, their rights must be protected at all cost.

One would want to know, what are the consumer rights to be protected? 

Firstly let me give you a brief story about this rights. The historical development of consumer protection (rights) started away back 1962 as a result of the proclamation of the four basic consumer rights by then President John F. Kennedy in the USA. 

He promulgated four basic rights, namely the right to safety, the right to be informed, the right to choose, and the right to be heard. In addition to this, in 1985, the UN adopted guidelines for consumer protection, and it was from these guidelines that the above mentioned rights were further expanded to include the right to redress and the right to consumer education, to mention but the few.

In details, consumer rights include, the right to safety, this is to notify you that as a consumer you have a right to be protected against marketing activities that are harmful to your health and life. These activities frequently happens when certain restricted products/commodities that are sold to consumers through misleading information. These might include among others, contaminated products, low standard products, uncertified or products or services with potential hazards to consumers health and well-being.

Another important right is that, as a consumer, you are entitled to be informed. This means that you have a right to be given complete information about a product or service offered to you in order to make informed decisions at the market place. Thus, as a consumer you should be protected against misleading marketing information.

Moreover, consumers have the rights to choose, this means that, at a market place, you have the right to choose goods and services that are of reasonable quality, price and satisfy your needs without the influence from the seller.

The right to be heard is also one of the most violated consumer rights, consumers have rights to express themselves without fear or favour in influencing policies that have impacts on their economic welfare.

The right to redress is to do with compensation. This is to say that, business must be held accountable of their practices. They should be able to compensate consumers for any cost incurred to them due to their unfair business practices such ambiguous or falsification of information about a product or service trade in market place.

Moreover, consumers have right to education. It informs us that consumers have the rights to be educated to gain knowledge and skills required for them to make informed decisions at market place. It’s proven by many reliable sources that providing adequate and accurate information to consumers on a certain product or service would enhance the possibility for such consumer to make appropriate and informed decision in relation to his or her purchasing motive.

The last of the group is the right to privacy. The right to privacy also became a great concern when it comes to consumer protection. This is one of the sensitive right that has resulted into much loses of resources to consumers particularly in financial industry. 

The protection of consume privacy is significant when conducting transactions as more of the services are now digitalised and consumers have to provide personal information on internet in order for them to perform transactions. Nowadays payments are done online by the use of electronic devices, and as such, their rights to privacy is at risk if their private information is not protected by service providers.

To sum up, for any policy or law, it normally takes time and efforts to implement it. However, I am of the opinion that through a joint effort and collaboration from different angles of government institutions, the implementation could see lights of the tunnel. 

Most importantly, consumer education should be seen as opportunity to inform consumers about their rights and responsibilities. Further the Namibian government should fasten the legislation processes for consumer protection act in order to ensure that unfair trade practices and exploitation of consumers are prohibited in all possible circumstances.