Consumer laws face review

DEPUTY Prime Minister Charles Abel has announced the government’s approval to have the consumer protection, competition law and industry regulation framework improved.
He said many things have changed in PNG’s competition and consumer environment since the Independent Consumer and Competition Commission Act was passed by Parliament in 2002.
“Technologies have evolved and advanced in ways that completely changed the landscapes in which businesses conduct themselves these days,” Abel said in a statement.
He said new business ideas and models had emerged in marketing, sales, production, acquisitions, mergers, and even legislative amendments on business operating environments.
“PNG has progressed in the last 15 years without any attempt to review the consumer protection and competition laws, including the processes involved in administering these laws consistent with these changes,” he
said.
Abel said that in 2014 the government sanctioned the Consumer and Competition Framework Review (CCFR) to provide an assessment of whether existing laws protected consumers and the competitive process and whether current legislative provisions and institutional arrangements were functioning as intended.
“On March 27, the government approved the recommendations to improve PNG’s consumer protection, competition law, and industry regulation framework,” he said.