Consumers raise red flag over false advertising

By Frankline Sunday

Kenyan consumers are being subjected to increasing cases of false advertising as rising competition for market share forces some traders to resort to underhand marketing methods to gain market share.

This comes even as consumers welcome the implementation of the Consumer Protection Act 2012- a new law ratified last month and meant to safeguard the interest of Kenyan consumers.

“There are many cases of false advertising today and evidence of this is clear across the various media platforms; print, broadcast and even online,” says Mr Stephen Mutoro, the CEO of the Consumer Federation of Kenya.

Mutoro further states that several marketers have resorted to carrying ad content that is neither factual nor representative of the goods or services being advertised.

Reported cases include misleading labels on packaging of products particularly some skin care products that are said to have vitamins or minerals but when tested fall short of the said minerals.

This is despite the fact that marketers use the vitamins and minerals displayed in the packaging to differentiate between other similar rival products in the market in a bid to gain an edge over the competition.

Aside from exaggerating the contents of a particular good or service being advertised, other cases of false advertising that have raised concern from consumer watchdogs include giveaways and sale bonanzas that play on availability of stock and pricing to trick innocent consumers.

“We have cases in which unscrupulous businesses lure consumers to their shops on low prices for products which are out of the stock eventually selling what they have in stock,” says Mr Mutoro.  This trend is said to be prevalent in particularly fast-moving consumer goods including mobile handsets, foodstuffs and other electronic goods.  Section 12 of the new Consumer Act 2012 terms it as an “unfair practice” for a person to make a false, misleading or deceptive representation.

Misleading information

The Act further goes on to outline what makes up unfair representation which includes and is not limited to; a representation that the goods or services have sponsorship, approval, performance characteristics, accessories, uses, ingredients, benefits or qualities they do not have.  Indicating that the supplier of the goods or services has sponsorship, approval, status, affiliation or connection they do not have is further considered as false representation.

It is also against the law to indicate that the goods or services being advertised are of a particular standard, quality, grade, style or model that they are not. The law also seeks to create consumer awareness on the goods and services in the market to ensure they are of quality and meet the health standards. This is expected to open several suits from consumers against unscrupulous traders who offer poor quality products and services purporting them to be of required quality.

The law also prohibits using misleading information to sell goods and services what is expected to make companies more responsible in designing advertisement material to ensure the messages reflect the utility and value of the product.

 Despite these restrictions in the law against false advertising, the vice is still rife in the Kenyan market and COFEK further states that it leads to increasing the instances of counterfeiting and consumers need to be more skeptical.

“It is important that consumers make time to plan for their shopping so that they can have ample time to scrutinise details and compare between various products before they procure any goods or service,” explains Mr Mutoro.  In addition to this, consumers have also been advised to report, resist or even boycott goods and services marketed under unethical and false contexts and that way nip unscrupulous businesses in the bud. Manufacturers and advertisers of goods and services will have to adjust to the new law that spells out stiff penalties for selling under false pitches.