Consumers of the world, unite
Openly monopolistic practices and soaring prices have driven consumers to form more active organisations to protect their rights. Mona El-Fiqi reports
Two new civil society organisations recently successfully defended consumers' rights in Cairo and Giza governorates, and have vowed to continue the fight against unfair business practices and price gouging.
Due to the absence of a consumer protection law or an anti-trust and competition law, consumers are running up against virtual monopolies in many products like steel and mobile phones services.
Driven to action by unprecedentedly high prices and heavily publicised incidents of monopolistic acts, citizens formed new two societies to protect consumers' rights. The first one, the Committee for Citizens' Rights, is backed by the Press Syndicate and the Lawyers' Syndicate in Cairo. The other is the People's Society for Consumers Protection against Corruption (PSCPC) in the governornate of Giza. Both societies are determined to play a greater role than most of the nearly 100 consumers protection societies established since 1994.
Though the two societies are in a nascent stage, they have already successfully defended consumers' rights on two occasions. The new societies have a long list of consumer protection issues to address, starting with the rising prices of public utilities such as electricity, water and telephone service.
Two weeks ago, the Committee for Citizens' Rights was formed after Egypt's two mobile phone operators, MobiNil and Vodafone, simultaneously decided to change the pricing scheme for pre-paid cards.
Consumers were angered by the move, which would have reduced the duration period for subscribers to make and receive calls from three months to two months. The grace period during which they could only receive calls would have been cut from one month to 10 days.
The new committee held several meetings and issued a statement called for boycotting the services for both mobile companies if they do not respect customers' complaints.
In response to the committee's efforts and the wave of consumer complaints, the two companies were pressured to modify their decision. The mobile phones companies announced that the duration period of LE100 cards would still be two months, but that the grace period during which subscribers could receive calls before the card expired will be extended to two months.
The compromise is considered a promising beginning for aspiring consumers' rights activists to play a more prominent role in society, but the Committee for Citizens' Rights is not satisfied. Ahmed Taha El- Nakr, a journalist at Akhbar Al-Youm and a member of the committee, said that in light of the two mobile companies' monopolistic practices, "the modification of the decision is not enough."
Not stopping its efforts, the committee held another meeting and decided to boycott the use of mobile phones for 24 hours on 5 February in an attempt to pressure the two mobile companies to revert to the previous system for pre-paid card subscribers, who represent the majority of mobile users.
Ahmed Samir Mukhtar, a retired diplomat and a member of the committee, said the threat of boycott is the greatest weapon in the hands of the consumers.
In the case of mobile phone pre-paid card subscribers, according to Mukhtar, the company has no right to change the system for current subscribers without their approval, but can only offer a new system to potential subscribers.
According to El-Nakr, civil society should have an active role in fighting monopolistic practices, and "the committee will handle any sort of monopoly, not only in mobile phone service but also in the pricing of food products and electricity bills," El-Nakr added.
Due to the unjustified increase of meat prices, particularly on the occasion of the Eid Al-Adha holiday, a recent statement issued by the committee warned butcher shops that the committee will incite consumers to boycott meat if they do not stop raising prices without offering a credible explanation.
Using legal tactics instead of a boycott, which would have been impractical in their case, the PSCPC met with similar success in its fight with the Electricity Distribution Company in Giza. The society was formed early last year when the electricity company suddenly began adding trash collection fees to consumers' electricity bills.
Reacting to people's outrage at the decision, the society began a campaign to promote consumer solidarity in refusing to pay the bills, since their contracts with the electricity company does not include paying trash collection fees.
Mohamed El-Ashkar, a civil engineer and member of the society said that the society distributed pamphlets throughout much of Giza to increase consumer awareness of their legal rights.
At first, people were hesitant to act, but they found comfort in the overwhelming opposition to the new billing system. The society also encouraged consumers to pay only the value of their electricity consumption, so that the company would not have the legal right to cut their electricity.
The majority of consumers refrained from paying their bills. In May 2003, members of the society filed a suit against the Electricity Distribution Company and the Giza governor to prove that the electricity company has no legal right to charge a trash collection fee. In December, the court issued its verdict, requiring the electricity company to stop the charging trash collection fees from Giza residents.
El-Ashkar said that the court verdict is a real success story for consumers, and problematic for the electricity company, which had signed a 15-year-long contract with various foreign trash collection companies. According to the contract, the electricity company is responsible for billing consumers for the trash collection and delivering t to the foreign companies in return for five per cent of the total value of the fees.
However, even after the court's decision, the company's collectors are threatening customers who refuse to pay the trash collection fees with a fine of LE1,500. For its part, the society is still encouraging people to resist paying the trash collection fees en masse.
In response to the recent consumers movement, President Hosni Mubarak announced during his meeting with intellectuals last week that the anti-trust and competition law will soon be discussed in the People's Assembly.
