ICCC, international watchdog looking out for unsafe products

By DALE LUMA
THE Independent Consumer Competition Commission (ICCC) is working with international consumer and competition watchdogs to ensure that products sold in Papua New Guinea are safe for consumers, says a senior official.
ICCC chief executive Paulus Ain told The National that upon consultation, if a product was identified as unsafe, the commission could ban it from sale in the country.
“The ICCC also liaises with other consumer agencies such as the Australian Consumer and Competition Commission (ACCC) and New Zealand Commerce Commission, among others, on product safety matters,” he said.
“When there is an alert on an unsafe consumer product in the market (commercial distribution), we subsequently conduct a market survey to determine whether the product is in PNG and distributed commercially.
“If it is, we assess the risks or potential risks to the consumers and whether to apply an interim ban on the product, where there is a standard.
“We also assess whether the product requires improvement to a certain specification, or apply a permanent ban on the product if it cannot meet the standard.”
Ain said the commission also conducted monthly and quarterly monitoring throughout the country on any non-English labelled products, net weight in metric unit and packers (manufacturer and distributor) information to ensure that the concerned products comply with the requirements of the Packaging Act 1974 and Packaging Regulation 1975.
He said ICCC was not only a consumer watchdog, but also the country’s competition authority.
“We are also responsible for regulating the State-owned entities, like PNG Power, PNG Ports, MVIL (Motor Vehicles Insurance Ltd) and other natural monopolies,” he said.
“We ensure that there is effective competition amongst businesses so benefits such as lower prices, more choice, better goods and services are available to consumers.
“An example of a business practice that may be considered as harmful to competition, hence harming consumers is the formation of a cartel.
“A cartel is formed when businesses (mainly competitors) agree on how to conduct their business in terms of pricing and quantity to supply and where to conduct their businesses.
“If this happens, consumers are harmed in terms of higher prices, lower quantity and quality of goods and services, or both.”