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Consumer White Paper – Protection For All Consumers

August 3, 2009 by admin  
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The consumer White Paper, which outlined proposals to but a stop to unscrupulous lending by credit card companies, also contained measure to strengthen the rights of ALL consumers- those who feel ripped-off or conned.

The paper, entitled A better deal for consumers – delivering real help now and change for the future’ and delivered by Labour MP Kevin Brennan, is set to tackle consumer rights with various proposals, including the banning of unsolicited credit card cheques and credit limit increases. But as well as helping credit card customers, new measures introduced will help everyone beat the rogues. Measures such as:

Appointment of a Consumer Advocate

A media-friendly public figure who will lead the emphasis on consumer rights by educating the public and by helping consumers recover money when they have been let down. He or she will even have powers to take up class actions on behalf of consumers against companies and the Government and will appear on television to get the message across.

Mr Brennan said: “Consumers cannot always be expected to tackle dishonest and unfair practices individually. Accessing information and taking legal cases can be complex, expensive and time consuming. The Consumer Advocate will be part of Consumer Focus, the Government watchdog. Currently getting money back can be very difficult. This new appointment will have some clout to do so,” Mr Brennan said.

Some criticism met this appointment though, with experts saying that this position in unnecessary with the fact that such services already exist through organisations such as Directgov and Trading Standards.

However, Ron Gainsford, chief executive of the Trading Standards Institute said it was important to help consumers in the recession and backed the appointment.

”The ‘consumer advocate’ proposal is really good news because it will help to further foster a healthy balance between consumers and businesses,” said Mr Gainsford.

Cracking down on rogue traders

Courts will have new powers to crack down and ban persistent rogue traders from dealing with customers. This will stop ruthless traders only out to fleece customers and looking to part them from their money.

National specialist team for internet enforcement

Tackling internet scams such as extremely annoying ‘lottery winner’ emails and other cons. Many people have lost money and valuable private data to these scam-artists, so a dedicated team will be welcome news to a lot of people.

Opposition unsurprisingly didn’t react over-enthusiastically to the paper with Mark Hoban, Shadow Financial Secretary, saying: “This is yet another cobbled together package of re-announcements from a Government that has run out of steam, and a desperate attempt to divert attention from the country’s own debt crisis of their own making.”

Time will tell how well the new measures will work out for consumers with the relatively low sum of £3million earmarked for them, including the Consumer Advocate role. It’s hoped however that a lot of shady practices will become a thing of the past thanks to the Paper.

Tags: MP Kevin Brennan, Trading Standards Institute, paper, consumer protection, cannot, Credit card

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