The Malta Chamber of Small and Medium Enterprises (GRTU) formally presented a request to the Cabinet during a meeting it had with the Prime Minister, asking the Cabinet to introduce a fair right of appeal to the Consumer Claims Tribunal.

GRTU director-general Vince Farrugia told Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi that the chamber had objected to the limited appeal allowed at the tribunal since its inception. Appeals were allowed on one point only, he GRTU, and this related to the lack of a fair hearing. Although this was a principle of natural justice, it was not the grounds of complaints by traders and lawyers appearing at the tribunal.

As the process stood at present, the GRTU argued, it was totally discriminatory against traders, who as far as possible were being advised by the GRTU to accept the decisions of the Director for Consumer Affairs and avoid appearing before the tribunal.

In this way, most cases ended up not appearing before the tribunal. Those that did were cases where, because it would not cost them anything, consumers insisted on appearing before the tribunal. In the majority of these cases, however, a case was taken before the tribunal because a trader felt that not only was a consumer in the wrong but that a negative decision against him would be very costly.

But statistics showed that regardless of the case, traders stood little chance of getting a favourable decision from the tribunal.

The GRTU said it had analysed many cases and it had no doubt that traders were faced with decisions that were wrong both in fact and on points of law. This was why, it said, it was asking for wide and just grounds of appeal, as were available against decisions by other administrative tribunals.