The National Consumer Commission (NCC) has issued compliance notices to 45 noncompliant suppliers of goods across South Africa after uncovering numerous contraventions of the Consumer Protection Act (CPA).

“Food safety remains our top priority. This enforcement is part of targeted action to stem the sale of unsafe products to consumers. The NCC will continue to collaborate with other regulators to ensure compliance with the CPA and related legislation,” says NCC acting Commissioner Hardin Ratshisusu.

During a series of nationwide compliance and monitoring inspections, the NCC discovered that some suppliers were selling expired and spoiled food items, including dairy products, meat products, maize meal, eggs, snacks, biscuits and noodles.

In some cases, items had no expiry or best-before dates.

This contravenes the CPA, which guarantees consumers the right to safe, usable and good-quality goods. Date markings assist consumers in determining the shelf life and safety of the products before making any purchase, the NCC says.

“Some of the suppliers issued with compliance notices continue to sell products like sausage, chicken pieces and other foodstuffs without the proper labelling. This also contravenes the CPA.”

The CPA requires that a trade description must be applied to the goods or any covering or be attached to the goods and these labels must also not contain misleading information.

Additionally, the NCC further discovered that suppliers, especially in rural and peri-urban areas, displayed goods like noodles, sugar, soup and canned foods without any visible pricing.

The CPA requires all goods for sale to have prices on them or adjacent to them to ensure transparency of the pricing and consumer choice, the commission states.

During inspections, the NCC also observed widespread failure to issue complete sale records or receipts to consumers as required by the CPA.

Suppliers of goods and services must issue sales records for every transaction made by consumers. The sales record must include the supplier’s name and address, product description, quantity, price and total amount paid by the consumer, including value-added tax, it says.

“Affected suppliers have been instructed to remedy non-compliance by removing and destroying non-compliant goods from their shelves, properly labelling all products in accordance with the CPA and its regulations, including food and household goods and, where applicable, ensuring that prices are displayed on or near all products available for sale and to issue accurate sales records and receipts with all mandatory transaction information.”

Investigations against other suppliers are at an advanced stage, it adds.

Any business that fails to adhere to the terms of the compliance notices may be referred to the National Consumer Tribunal by the commission, and the tribunal may impose an administrative fine of up to R1-million or 10% of the supplier’s yearly turnover.