Nigeria’s FCCPC[1] sealed Abuja’s popular retail outlet, Sahad Store, on Friday, February 16, 2024, for violating consumers’ rights. The prices of items shelved by the sahad store differed from those at their customers’ check-out points.
Concise Summary
Nigerian consumers benefit from a supermarket’s duty under the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Act (FCCPA) 2018 not to display any goods for sale without adequately displaying the prices of those goods to the customers[2].
Sahad store shall not ask customers to pay a price for any goods higher than the displayed price for those goods, or if more than one price is shown at the same time, the customer must pay the lowest of the shown prices[3].
The FCCPC sealed the sahad store on Friday, February 16, and announced on Saturday, February 17, 2023, that it re-opened the sahad store at 6 p.m. on February 16, 2023.
Nigerians criticized FCCPC’s sealing of the sahad store as insensitive. Our retail lawyers who examined the FCCPA 2018 discovered that FCCPC lacked the powers to seal the sahad store for the alleged violations.
Rights of Nigerian Consumers
Although consumer rights awareness is poor in Nigeria, consumers enjoy fair and competitive rights under the FCCPA 2018 – such rights include paying lower prices where more than one price is on an item.
Nigerians are barely coping with fluctuating prices of goods and services. Business Day reported that the CBN hiked customs duty twice in three days[4].
Maybe Sahad stores did not hoard goods but suffered administrative inefficiencies in coping with volatile price changes in retail. Admittedly, any confusing price regime violates consumers’ rights under the FCCPA 2018.
FCCPC’s Powers to Seal Up Sahad Store
Premium Times stated that FCCPC relied on Section 33[5] to seal the sahad store. Meanwhile, Sahara Reporters stated that the sealing of the sahad store was under section 18 (5) of the FCCPA 2018.
Our retail lawyer, who examined the FCCPC’s powers, discovered that no provisions of the FCCPA authorized the FCCPC to seal sahad stores.
Section 18 (3)[6] allows FCCPA to “seal up any premises on reasonable suspicion such premises contain, harbour or are being to produce goods or disseminate goods that are fake, substandard, hazardous, or inimical to consumers’ welfare in collaboration relevant sector-specific regulators”.
Sahad stores failed to cooperate with FCCPC’s investigations under section 33[7]. Sahad store’s punishment for not answering FCCPC’s summons to produce documents, attend, and give evidence is imprisonment, NGN20 million fine, or both.
Adamu Ahmed Abdullahi, FCCPC’s acting Executive Vice Chairman, led the team that sealed the sahad store, worked beyond FCCPC’s statutory powers, missed clear revenue-generating opportunities, and failed to affirm his commitments to the rule of law.
Our retail law team discovered that the FCCPC that summoned sahad stores could have convicted it for failure to appear before it and slammed 10,000 million Naira fine on the sahad store.
Generally, a company that fails to comply with FCCPC’s cease order must pay a penalty equal to 10% of its preceding year’s revenue.[8] Sahad store potentially breached its duties to consumers, but the FCCPC preferred to act brazenly illegally.
Conclusion
FCCPC must realize it has no power to seal any premises except collaboratively with other sector-specific regulators for the reasons under section 33.
As a consumer rights ombudsperson, FCCPC must act lawfully under its acting Executive Vice Chairman. Obedience to the rule of law includes a careful examination of matters with the view to operating under the law.
Administrative efficiency is crucial to retail, as retailers square up to price fluctuations in Nigeria. Retail shelving policies must be agile and capable of promptly updating prices digitally and in real-time as soon as price changes occur.
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[1] FCCPC means Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission
[2] Section 155 (1) Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Act 2018 accessed on 03.08.2021 < https://fccpc.gov.ng/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/FCCPA-2018.pdf>
[3] Section 115 (3) Ibid.
[4] https://businessday.ng/news/article/cbn-hikes-customs-duty-rate-for-the-second-time-in-3-days/. February 12, 2024.
[5] FCCPA 2018, Lo cit.
[6] FCCPA 2018, Ibid
[7] FCCPA 2018, Ibid
[8] Section 74, Ibid.
