MOROCCO: Consumers Unprotected, Activists Disarmed

Abderrahim El Ouali

CASABLANCA, Apr 3 2008 (IPS) – NGOs are stepping in to support consumers in the absence of a law to protect them.
Twenty-five associations now work in the field of consumers #39 protection, according to the Tanmia (Development) independent group. Six months ago the Consumer Protection Association in Oujda (CPAO), a city 635 km east of Casablanca, with a population of nearly a million, opened a centre Le Guichet du Consommateur to deal with complaints from consumers.

The office has so far handled 180 cases, according to Moroccan daily al-Ahdath al-Maghribia. The centre also provides consumers with necessary information and advice.

But associations could do more if there were a modern law to protect consumers, Mohamed Abou Lifida, president of the Consumer Protection Association in Berrechid (CPAB), 32 km east of Casablanca told IPS.

A consumer protection bill has been pending since 1998 and even revised several times in a way that would not allow enough protection for consumers, he said.

In the absence of law, other means to protect consumers remain inefficient, Mohamed Yasser Gmira, member of the Moroccan Human Rights Association (AMDH) told IPS.
This is believed to limit the action that consumer protection associations can take, and explains why most of them focus on communication with consumers rather than effective measures to protect them, Gmira says.

As the law stands, associations cannot complain against practices. That is for consumers to do and they are not given the rights to. There is a political push to stop the bill because it is against the interests of economic lobbies, Gmira said.

In the absence of law, some leaders are calling on people to do more. Protecting consumers is everyone #39s responsibility , Mostafa Lamodene, a writer and AMDH member campaigning against fraud over quality, told IPS. Lamodene, who campaigns through the web and local newspapers, says law alone cannot be enough and that more engagement from the entire society is needed.

Morocco also lacks the technological tools to protect consumers. An example, Lamodene said, are some imported toys that contain toxic materials. Some of these toys are not authorised for sale in the U.S. and Italy, Lamodene said, because they have the necessary technological tools to discover what they really contain.

In Morocco, he said, the matter has been raised on many websites, and by a daily local newspaper, and later by the state-controlled TV channel #392 M #39. Specialists confirmed on TV that the toys contain toxic materials, but we did not hear about any measures on the part of authorities.

In the 1980s, the Moroccan government built makeshift schools using asbestos. That kind of building has a limited useful life after which it becomes dangerous for health, Lamodene said. We now expect related health problems with pregnant women and new-born children especially.

The lack of a consumer protection law hits citizens #39 health, and also their pockets.

Samir Jaafari, president of the Moroccan Confederation of Consumers Associations (MCCA), says the absence of law has a direct impact on the quality and price of bank services. These are similar in form and content and do not allow the consumer to put pressure on banks on a competitive basis, Jaafari told journalists.

A bill to protect bank services consumers was introduced to the general secretary of the government Nov. 29 last year. The bill is intended to protect consumers from illegal practices by bankers.

It will especially allow consumers to benefit from a general protection and to get information from banks in full transparency, Jaafari said. There have been many complaints over lack of transparency in banks over accounts management fees and deductions on money transfers, Jaafari said.

But nobody knows how long this bill will go into limbo. Bills introduced by the government and the parliament must first be approved by the general secretary of the government.