Commission considers harsher penalties

THE Fijian Competition and Consumer Commission has received complaints from consumers claiming that some fuel traders were holding back fuel stock prior to the fuel price coming into effect for this month.

According to FCCC CEO Joel Abraham this was unacceptable.

He said the commission was considering making submissions to the Government to impose harsher penalties on fuel traders or businesses found engaging in hoarding.

Mr Abraham, emphasised that any trader found in breach of the FCCC Act would be dealt with harshly to prevent repeated offences and to set an example for those who might be considering similar actions.

“Hoarding mainly serves to harm the most financially vulnerable members of our society who often can only afford to buy items from paycheque to paycheque,” he said.

“Depriving them of essentials is extremely unethical behaviour.”

FCCC stated hoarding, in this context, referred to when unscrupulous traders stocked up on items for which a price increase was expected and refrained from selling them until later, so they could make a higher profit once the price increase kicked in.

Section 87G FCCC Act 2010 states: “a person who is in possession of goods for mercantile purposes must not destroy or hoard the goods or refuse to sell the goods or make them available for sale if the destruction, hoarding or refusal is done to charge a price higher than the price it is normally sold at a time convenient to the person or immediately before the higher price is fixed”.

A breach of this section was said to attract penalties of up to $10,000 for the first offence and $100,000 for a second or subsequent offence, or imprisonment for up to 10 years.

For bodies corporate, the maximum penalty was five times higher.

“Our Act sets out significant penalties, but if traders are bold enough to test the system we will not hesitate to prosecute them to the full extent of the law, and even make submissions to the legislature seeking higher penalties until we hit a point of sufficient deterrence,” said Mr Abraham.

The public was urged to report instances of hoarding to FCCC with photographs and other evidence directly through the FCCC web app at https://fccc.app/.