RIGHTS: Cubans Still Waiting for Consumer Protection Law

By Patricia Grogg Reprint | | Print |

Patricia Grogg

HAVANA, May 8 2001 (IPS) - Consumers in Cuba will have to wait at least until 2005 for a law designed to protect their rights, while the government implements a multi-phase consumer protection programme.

“We are creating the material, institutional and subjective conditions, before talking about a law,” said Manuel Santos, director of the programme being put into effect by the Ministry of Interior Trade, at a recent seminar in Havana on consumption and the environment.

The initial preparations include a comparative study of legislation from other countries and the prototype created by Consumers International (CI), which represents consumer groups in more than 100 nations, Santos said at the three-day gathering that ran through Apr 28.

However, some experts believe it would suffice to merely update already existing laws and norms and unify them in a single text.

“There are laws and legal provisions protecting consumer rights,” said lawyer Santiago Cuba. “It’s just a question of enforcing them.”

He cited, for example, government resolutions on prices, and chapter eight of the Penal Code, which addresses infringements of consumer protection norms.

Chapter eight provides for prison sentences of six months to two years for those convicted of selling incomplete goods, cheating on the weight of goods, selling products in poor condition, charging prices or rates higher than the ones set by the government, or hiding merchandise from the public (hoarding).

However, complaints about such abuses have increased in the past few years, and consumers say they feel defenceless because they do not know where to turn with their complaints.

Statistics from the Ministry of Interior Commerce indicate that 1.7 million infractions were documented in 556,000 inspections carried out in food and service establishments in 1999, and sanctioned with fines that amounted to nearly 70,000 dollars.

“They cheat you on the scales, they stick bruised or spoiled products among the ones in good condition, and if they can, they keep part of the change,” Manuel Jardines, a 60-year-old pensioner, told IPS outside one of the free farmers’ markets that were opened in the mid-1990s as part of the special measures adopted to tackle the severe economic crisis that broke out after the disappearance of the Soviet bloc.

Everything from meat to vegetables can be found at the “agromercados” or farmers’ markets, although at prices that are virtually unaffordable to the average Cuban, who earns a monthly salary of 249 Cuban pesos, equivalent to less than 12 dollars at the government exchange bureaux.

Jardines admitted that he was sceptical with respect to the effectiveness of the ministerial consumer protection programme, which will involve the creation of offices in charge of making sure providers of goods and services respect existing consumer protection policies.

Those offices will be given the mission of raising awareness on “the rights and responsibilities” of consumers, who they will represent in the face of infractions, as well as informing consumers on the products available on the market.

Once that phase of the plan is completed in 2002, technicians and specialists will begin to be trained, and consumer protection arbitration panels will be created to act free of charge at the request of all of the parties involved in a given dispute.

In the years 2003 and 2004, “the system will be gradually developed and perfected…The idea is for the process to be as balanced as possible,” said Santos. And in 2005, he added, a consumer protection law could begin to be drafted.

In the meantime, the media – which is controlled by the state in this Caribbean island nation of 11 million – have apparently taken up the task of convincing consumers that they must be the prime defenders of their rights, regardless of whether or not a consumer protection law exists.

“The country can do much with respect to consumer protection, but at the same time consumers must play a much more active role in defence of their pocketbooks and their interests,” stated the daily Trabajadores.

Some customers have taken that exhortation literally. “If someone tries to cheat me on the weight of something I’m buying or attends me poorly, I give them an earful. I defend myself on my own,” Efrenio Valle, a former sugar worker, told IPS.

Less feisty consumers believe the solution does not lie in arguments, and prefer to place their trust in legislation that protects them. Meanwhile, many stores have an employee in charge of hearing and settling complaints.

Signs have also been posted in highly visible locations to instruct customers on consumer rights and responsibilities, recommending that they fully inform themselves about a product or service before deciding to purchase.