By Ginika Okoye
Abuja: The Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC), has hailed the Federal High Court, Abuja division’s judgment affirming the commission’s authority to investigate consumer complaints in pricing of airline tickets.
This is contained in a statement by Mr Ondaje Ijagwu, FCCPC’s Director, Corporate Affairs, in Abuja on Friday.
Ijagwu quoted Mr Tunji Bello, the Executive Vice Chairman of the Commission, as saying that the judgment was an important judicial affirmation of the Commission’s statutory responsibility to investigate market conduct where reasonable grounds pointed that consumers or competition was adversely affected.
Bello said that investigating consumer complaints was fundamentally different from regulating prices.
According to him, the FCCPC neither sought to fix nor regulate Air Peace’s fares.
”It simply exercised its lawful authority to obtain information as part of an investigation into a matter of legitimate consumer concern.
”An investigation is a fact-finding process. It is neither a finding of liability nor an enforcement action.
”Every responsible regulator must be able to inquire into credible complaints affecting consumers and markets without those inquiries being misconstrued as findings of liability, enforcement action or price regulation,” he said.
Bello noted that the judgment provided important judicial clarity on the scope of the commission’s investigative powers.
He further said that the development confirmed that the exercise of statutory price regulation powers remained governed by the separate legal framework established under the FCCPA.
He reaffirmed the commission’s commitment to exercising its statutory mandate fairly, transparently and in accordance with the rule of law.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Air Peace Limited had challenged the commission’s authority to investigate complaints concerning possible exploitative ticket pricing. (NAN)(www.nannews.ng)