E-tolling facing another hurdle
E-tolling might be facing another hurdle in the road to being implemented after conciliation in front of the National Consumer Commission.
The National Consumer Commissioner, Momodopi Mohlala, told Moneyweb in an interview on Wednesday that the conciliation between Sanral and the DA has been concluded and that three issues have come to the fore.
One of these issues is around the terms and conditions that currently accompany contracts signed when opening an e-tolling account. Sanral sent out a statement on Wednesday morning stating that it will change these terms and conditions, taking into consideration issues raised by the public.
“We believe that these new terms and conditions will allay fears consumers may have. Importantly, the new terms and conditions will apply to everybody who has registered already or who registers in future. No registered user will be prejudiced or disadvantaged,” Sanral stated.
Mohlala, however, told Moneyweb that if these terms and conditions are changed Sanral would have to contact all registered e-toll account holders to sign new contracts as the existing ones would be null and void.
One of the other issues that could land Sanral in the Equality Court, is around the possible discrimination against consumers.
“In terms of the Consumer Protection Act you cannot allow discrimination against consumers, not unless there is proper justification for the discrimination,” Mohlala said. If discrimination is found to exist, the matter can be referred to the Equality Court.
With regards to e-tolling there is an issue with possible discrimination on two levels. The first is that there is different categories of consumers where public transport is exempt from tolls and other motorists aren’t.
The second level is where Gauteng consumers are possibly discriminated against vis-à-vis consumers in the rest of the country.
“We (the Commission) will discuss these issues tomorrow and make a decision whether to refer the matter to the Equality Court,” Mohlala said.
With regard to the terms and conditions of the contracts signed by consumers when they apply for an e-tolling account, there are also possible contraventions of the Consumer Protection Act.
Mohlala said that the problem is that full disclosure is not given to consumers when they originally sign these contracts.
“You fill in the forms and then sign and only afterwards you get a call where someone gives you further information around the methods of payment and this is when you are told about the full terms and conditions around which payment can be made. Now we are saying that this is problematic. The consumer must know the full terms and conditions before they sign. This is a problem in terms of the Consumer Protection Act,” she said.
Things like the fact that you have to pay for posted statements where e-mailed statements are free are also not made known to consumers before they sign, which is problematic in terms of the Act.
Another issue is that when consumers qualify for a refund they get this refund less a termination fee, which according to Mohlala Sanral has not been clear about what it is exactly.
“Tomorrow we will sit down and make an assessment as to the nature and extent of the transgressions and if they have been remedied. If some have been remedied and others not we will make a decision of how to proceed, for example around the discrimination issues, which we know has not been remedied, if we need to go to the equality court. It will then be referred on an urgent basis,” Mohlala said.
Source: Moneyweb
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