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Anastasia Balezdrova

How many times have you come across commercials ensuring you that the promoted product will give you great health, eternal youth and beauty, burn the unnecessary fats forever or do all the housework for a few minutes? Lately, many Greek TV channels have been showing a commercial of a device for ozonation of water and its presenter is promising to consumers that if they are drinking it and washing fruits, vegetables and meat products in it they will escape all diseases and will enjoy excellent physical condition.

A few days ago, however, the National Organization for Medicines banned these commercials, arguing that the specific allegations are part of definitions of medicines, and the product is not certified as such. Therefore, its effects on the human body are not clear.

Supervisory authorities took actions after the signal given by the consumer organization Centre for Consumer Protection, which protects their rights since 1982. GRReporter contacted the President of the organization Nikolaos Tsemberlidis. He stated that most consumer complaints are connected with getting into huge debts and noted that the well-informed consumer helps correct the market functions.

What was the reason to ban the commercial for appliances for ozonated water?

This happens with any commercial, which does not contain certified claims but exaggerations. Such was the commercial of the plates for mobile phones that are stuck on them to stop the radiation. We have experts in almost all areas and when we receive a complaint, we immediately begin to examine each case. We talked to two professors about the allegations in the commercial. We knew immediately that these devices cause serious problems, because drinking water often contains various metal components. Even carcinogenic units could form between them. Then we found out that the manufacturers of these devices do not have certificates. Therefore, we informed the General Secretariat for consumers. Then, we began a correspondence with the National Organization for Medications on whether the device could affect human health in this way. The commercial states that ozone is almost a panacea for any health problem. The Organization responded that the manufacturers are not certified and therefore they are not entitled to make such claims.

After receiving the information, we addressed the consumers, many of whom had turned to us with questions about those specific devices. Many people doubted that the devices for the separation of ozone have all these properties. Similar was the case with a device that cost between 35 and 50 euro, which when plugged saves the consumers 30-40 per cent of the electricity they use. We even joked that if we have invented such a device in Greece why not give it to the rest of the Europeans. We want to reduce the energy consumption by 20 per cent by 2020, aren’t we? And here we save 30 per cent against only 35-50 euro. In this case, we are talking about 100 per cent fraud. There was no saving, and of course, the sale was terminated immediately.

We had to act in the same way in the case of devices for ozonation of water. We found that despite the ban, the commercial is still running. The General Secretariat for Consumer Affairs should now intervene and impose fines on those who advertise such products. If this does not happen in a certain period, we will make complaints against specific advertising companies.

To what extent do consumer complaints determine your research?

We rely mostly on them. It is impossible to track everything that happens in the market. Consumer complaints do not seek only to resolve a dispute between a consumer and a company or give them any explanations. We collect the complaints and make statistics in order to determine in which market sectors there are the most problems. Then we look for the reason that causes the problem. We received 3000 complaints in the first quarter of this year. Foremost among them are the huge debts of households to the banks. Years ago, weight loss centres and gyms were in one of the first places. We found that we had so many complaints because there was not a legal framework for consumer protection. Our actions resulted in the imposition of a deontological code and a law regulating the operation of these centres was voted three years ago. From that moment on, those specific complaints fell from the first to the eighth place in our list. Other possible reasons include the behaviour of firms and consumer unawareness.

Have you registered any increase in the number of complaints after the economic crisis?

This is true for some industries. We see that consumers have started to care more about their rights, because their financial capacity decreased. The bad thing in Greece, however, is that the consumer reaction is sporadic; it is not conscious and constant.

For example, we witnessed in the period 2004 - 2005 how the households were obtaining loans from banks on a mass scale. Bad loans were increasing, and the banks were lending irresponsibly. We had complaints about lending to people without any income, such as students. Banks were issuing credit cards, sending them to the homes of the consumers without having their consent. And all this in order to increase their financial capacity.

We filed complaints, based on the German experience with hugely indebted households and since 2005 have made efforts to adopt a law on consumers’ settlement. Ultimately, it was voted two years ago. This is the positive outcome in this story.

However, consumer response indicates that on the one hand they are unaware of their rights and do not know how to solve their financial issues and that they forget the organization and their rights after resolving their personal problems. It would be proper to have a constant connection with the collective organizations like ours to inform continuously, because any change in the law changes their rights. Of course, it is not possible for a consumer to be aware of the legislation on any matter connected with his everyday life.

That is why we have made a website where consumers are able to find useful information such as how and where to go on holiday, by plane or boat, how to rent a car, in what hotel to stay, etc. Each consumer can get informed to exercise his or her rights thereafter. If the sites the consumers visit do not observe the law, those consumers who are members of the organization can file a complaint with us. We embark on their protection and our intervention yields results. Last year, around five hundred thousand euro were returned to consumers only with a simple action by us, without judicial proceedings and at no cost to consumers.

This is possible because we know the law and that businessmen are not willing to lose their image. There is nothing to prevent them from being sued because they have legal departments but it is not easy for someone to turn to the court for a small amount of money. Our intervention is more direct and more effective and contributes to good market competition. Conscious businessmen insist on control and complaints because they are affected by illegal competition.

However, I could say generally that over 80 per cent of the consumers are interested only in their personal case. Few are those who become members of organizations like ours and provide it with information and complaints, and financial assistance to enable it to cooperate with good professionals who provide effective intervention at national, European and global level.

What is your message to the consumers?

They should understand that manufacturers and suppliers are few in number in a free market and have the opportunity to unite and cooperate. If there is not an opposite pole, i.e. a dynamic movement involving all consumers, the market will not work in their favour, regardless of legislation and control mechanisms. It is impossible to inspect every businessman separately. The consumers must know their rights, be informed and act as a "supervisory authority" when they see something wrong. There is no need to go into a quarrel. They simply have to submit a complaint. Then the control mechanisms can act purposefully and the businessmen will have in mind that they are dealing with informed consumers. Then, they will perform their services in the right way and the market will act in favour of both parties.