CCPC urges consumers to take caution during the forthcoming Black Friday event

2019-11-28

The Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (CCPC) is urging the general public to take caution during the Black Friday event which falls on 29th November, 2019.

The Commission is aware that some firms are in a habit of hiking prices of their products during the Black Friday event by purporting discount bargains when in fact not.

It has also been noted that some traders have a tendency of limiting the number of items which are on offer with the aim to entice consumers to buy their product. CCPC is therefore urging consumers to consider conducting personal research on the products which they intend to purchase by tracking prices leading up to Black Friday so that they could be making reference to the older prices of a particular product or service and make informed purchase decisions. Consumers are further advised to shop around and compare prices before purchase and they should also be on the lookout for return policies to make sure that the store will not charge them a restocking fee for any item which they may wish to return.

In addition, consumers are also advised to be aware of the cheapest sets of products which are on offer as they may not be worth the price or about to expire. CCPC also urges all consumers who may engage in person to person transactions to remember requesting for receipts from their respective service providers which would be used as proof of payment for a particular service or product. Consumers are further urged to keep documentations such as receipts, warranty and guarantee safe as that is useful to the Commission for initiation of investigations especially in an event where a consumer is denied redress. Caution is also passed to all service providers to ensure that transactions that may expose consumers to unfair trading practices such as no-redress, false or misleading information, display of disclaimers, unfair contract terms and misrepresentation of actual state of affairs would be in contravention of the Competition and Consumer Protection (CCPC) Act No 24 of 2010.

Rainford Mutabi

Rainford Mutabi