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THE CONSUMERS
ASSOCIATION - (MALTA)
The Consumers’
Association was set up on 3rd April 1982. It is the only
consumers’ association on the Island. It is recognised
under the Consumers’ Affairs Act of 1994. Previously it
was recognised under the Consumers’ Act of 1981.
It is a
voluntary organisation and has a democratic structure in
the sense that all officials are elected annually. It is
financed solely on membership fees. The membership fee is
nominal (Lm1 yearly) as we try to cater for those with low
education, pensioners and those with special needs. We do
not receive any assistance from the government.
The Consumers’
Union has 4 main principal areas of activity:
It acts as a
representative for the local consumers. We represent the
local consumers on several national Boards amongst them
the Consumers’ Affairs Council which is a national board
whose primary function is to advise the Minister
responsible for consumer affairs on policy and
legislation. We also represent consumers on other boards
mainly Users’ Boards of Public Utilities. We also
represent the local consumers in international fora.
The second
area of activity is educating the consumers. This is one
of the main activities that we have always embarked on.
We believe that it is better to educate consumers as only
educated consumers can make good choices and be aware of
their rights. The Consumers’ Association was instrumental
in making the concept of consumer understood. We have
also succeeded in making business owners accept that
consumers have rights.
We have a
weekly page in a local newspaper, and have used radio
programmes to educate the consumers at large.
The first
activity that the Consumers’ Association was engaged into
was client services. The basic aim is to get redress for
aggrieved consumers. We believe that this is a very
important aspect of our work as it
assures:
(a) redress to
the aggrieved consumer
(b) that we are close to our members
(c) that are aware of what is going on in the market
The bulk of
our resources is allocated to this activity.
The last area
of activity is being a pressure group. Our association
has been instrumental in bringing about two new pieces of
legislation. However, we have also contributed greatly in
pushing forward the consumers' agenda with all government
departments. We comment on new legislation. Periodically, we also issue press releases to the local
media.
We are also a
member of the Consumers’ International.
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