The Commission is endowed with various powers by the Fair Trading Act, 2022, and they are essential for delivery of its mandate. The powers include:
1. Powers of the Commission in relation to investigation of complaints. Thisentails but is not limited to:
a. summon any person to appear before an officer of the Commission, when in its opinion such person;
i. will be able to furnish any information relevant to the complaint; or
ii. will be affected by an investigation or outcome of an investigation or hearing of the complaint;
b. compel the production of such books, records, papers and documents as it may consider necessary or proper for any proceedings, investigation or inquiry by it;
c. examine any documents produced;
d. require that any document submitted to the Commission be verified by affidavit if necessary;
e. adjourn investigations;
f. make test purchases; and
g. grant corporate immunity;
h. to do all the necessary acts in the lawful exercise of its powers or, the performance of its functions under this Act.
2. Power to search and Seize on Warrant any book, document, electronic device, or article.
3. Power to enter any premises to prevent injury.
This power relates to entering a premise to inspect goods that will or may cause injury to a person, therefore authorized officers may:
(a) Inspect goods of that kind;
(b)Take samples of goods of that kind;
(c) Inspect any documents relating to goods of that kind and make copies of, or take extracts from, those documents; or
(d)Inspect equipment used in the manufacturing, processing or storage of goods of that kind.
4. Power to inspect premises to ascertain compliance with this Act or any order or notice made under this Act.
An officer authorized by the Chief Executive Officer to conduct an inspection, may at any time, in daylight enter any land or premises and inspect it to ascertain the compliance of the FTA, 2022 or any order or notice made under the FTA, 2022
5. Power to impose fixed Penalties in Certain cases.
Instead of only referring cases or serving compliance notices, the Commission have expanded its options to issue Fixed Penalties. Compliance notices are now limited to certain provisions only.
Compliance Notices will be issued in cases where a business is with 1-5 types of products in breach of the Act. This applies to sections 72 – Failure to disclose prices on goods or services, section 73 – selling above displayed prices and section 74 excluding 74 (1) – Product Labelling and Trade Description.
A fixed Penalty Notice shall not be less than SCR 1,500 and shall not exceed SCR 20,000 for each such prohibited conduct committed. The notice is not issued immediately after inspection. Upon collection of all evidence by the Commission’s officer, a report is produced and the final decision is taken by the Chief Executive Officer. The Chief Executive Officer will be the one to issue the Fixed Penalty Notice upon reviewing of all evidence put forth in the report.
To obtain a detailed overview of our powers, refer to Sections 37 to 41 of the Fair Trading Act, 2022 by clicking on the link below.
Fair Trading Act, 2022 