Watchdog claims Director of Consumer Affairs too lenient

The Director of Consumer Affairs, Ms Carmel Foley, was too lenient with those who violated consumers' rights, the State's main independent consumer group claimed last week.

Consumers' Association of Ireland chairman, Mr Dermott Jewell, criticised the low level of prosecutions by the director last year, following the publication of the Annual Report of the Director of Consumer Affairs 1999.

According to the report, a total of 22,424 phone queries were recorded by consumer offices throughout the Republic and 1,767 cases were investigated.

Legal action was pursued in three of the cases resulting in two successful prosecutions.

By contrast, some 1,320 investigations were undertaken in 1998 resulting in 29 convictions.

Considering the level of investigations last year there should have been a higher number of prosecutions, maintained Mr Jewell.

The Office of the Director of Consumer Affairs' laissez faire attitude to prosecutions was not sending out the right message to wrongdoers, said Mr Jewell.

"While it's true more companies are trying to attend to the rights of consumers, there still remains a core group that are unaware, and unconcerned in some instances, of the rights of the consumer," he said.

In the director's two successful challenges last year, supermarket chain Tesco was fined £3,800 (€4,825) after pleading guilty to accusations of incorrect charging at supermarket checkouts. A judgment of £300 was also awarded against one of the State's largest concert promoters, MCD Management, for failing to advertise booking and credit card fee charges for the Slane, Co Meath concert in 1998.

The director should make more of an effort to keep consumers informed said Mr Jewell. He suggested that a list of all complaints to the director of consumer affairs should be published quarterly.

The majority of queries made to Ms Foley's office last year related to clothing, goods and services and motor vehicles.

In the report, Ms Foley says she will continue to take court proceedings where necessary. "In other instances, I believe that, through advice and information, we can empower consumers, whether in ensuring that they will have the knowledge required to make informed choices or to take action themselves in the event of faulty goods or services," she says in the report.

More than 27 per cent of the cases investigated last year related to misleading advertising. As a result of its findings, the director's office started a programme aimed at increasing compliance with the advertising provisions of the Consumer Credit Act, 1995.

"While the initiative has resulted in a high level of compliance, the message does not seem to have got through to all concerned," the report says.

The director is still monitoring the situation and will consider prosecutions in the event of non-compliance. However, consumers should pay particular attention to penalty clauses and the terms for an early settlement as these can be quite onerous, says the report. Other investigations included 315 product safety cases and 265 queries related to price displays.

Mr Jewell expressed surprise that written and in-person complaints had not been included in the report. Spokesman for the director, Mr Colin Bird, said there was "no particular reason" that these requests were omitted.

The Consumers' Association was also disappointed in other aspects of the report. "It doesn't clearly say whether the director feels consumers are being adequately treated or protected across the market."

Mr Bird says the report is a statement of the director's actions over the year rather than an indication of her opinions.

The 1999 annual report covers the first full year in office of the Ms Foley.

Her office's total expenditure was £1,807,983 last year. Surplus income over expenditure of £864,309 was surrendered to the Exchequer as required under Government accounting procedures.

The office employs 46 people in Dublin and five in Cork, and operates a number of consumer advice clinics throughout the State.