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Wednesday, 08 March 2017 09:31

EMPOWERING CONSUMER PROTECTION IN MALAYSIA & JAPAN THROUGH MEMORANDUM OF UNDERSTANDING BETWEEN NCCC (MALAYSIA) & NCAC (JAPAN)

Cross border complaints are becoming increasingly prevalent with the emergence of e-commerce. In e-commerce, where there is movement of product and service across countries an there is often an absence of physical premise; poses great challenges for consumer protection. This form of exchange where substandard and unsafe product can easily cross border and where seeking redress is a real challenge needs urgent attention. Thus, a joint collaborative effort between two consumer bodies from Malaysia and Japan is being formalized through a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to address these consumer issues.

The MoU is between National Consumer Complaints Centre (NCCC, Malaysia) and National Consumer Affairs Center of Japan (NCAC, Japan). NCCC was established in 2004 as a local, one stop complaint centre to help consumers solve their problems and complaints. NCCC was founded on joint initiatives with Education and Research Association Malaysia user (ERA Consumer Malaysia), Selangor and Federal Territory Consumers Association and provincial Ministry of Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs. NCCC is also a platform to deliver user feedback and user rights advocacy for changes for the better. NCCC also stress the role of the social responsibility of industry for the industry and educate consumers about their responsibilities besides than their rights. NCCC deals with about 40,000 complaints per year.

NCAC is an Incorporated Administrative Agency, works as a core consumer advocate organization in accordance with the Consumer Affairs Fundamental Act and NCAC Act, which has been handling consumer complaints since 1970 in collaboration with the government and local consumer affairs centers operated by local governments, manages the Cross-border Consumer center Japan (CCJ), which handles consumer complaints related to cross border commerce between Japanese consumers and overseas businesses, established by the Consumer Affairs Agency (CAA) in November, 2011, and was taken over by NCAC as a permanent project in April, 2015

The areas of cooperation for complaints handling will include business to consumer transactions, cross border transactions between Malaysia and Japan and over-the-counter transactions and/or transactions via the electronic systems. NCCC believes the cooperation will benefit consumers from Malaysia and Japan especially transactions involving products and services originated from either country. This will lead to improved consumer protection, empowering consumers in both countries.