The Director General (Consumer Affairs) hereby issues this Public Statement in accordance with Article 8 of the Consumer Affairs Act (Cap.378), by means of which she hereby identifies and gives information to the public that

Beauty Bar Venofye (Valletta) – Miro (Meir) Assouline

has not honoured the decision delivered by the Consumer Claims Tribunal.

The consumer was approached in the street by a salesman of the shop, convincing the former to buy an anti-acne product, which cost €250. The consumer accepted to purchase the product. However, during the purchase the salesman added other products and the consumer was given the impression that the extra products were being given to him for free.

When the consumer realised that he was charged for the extra products, he felt that he had been deceived by the salesman and thus asked for his money back. The consumer ended up paying a total of €750 which meant €500 more than the originally agreed price. Initially, the shop accepted the consumer’s request to return the products and to refund the extra money paid but this solution never materialised.

The Tribunal remarked that there was an element of confusion concerning the actual conditions of this transaction. The one certain thing was that the consumer was willing to buy a product costing €250. As the consumer was about to pay, at the very last moment, the salesman began mentioning other products which he included in the sales transaction.  The consumer only realised afterwards that he had been misled. The Tribunal stated that this was not right as in such transactions, everything must be made clear from the very beginning and the buyer must know exactly what he is buying and how much he is paying.

This was not the case and the Tribunal thus ruled that the second part of the transaction should be cancelled and ordered the shop and Mr Assouline to pay the consumer the sum of €500.

Josephine Borg

Director General(Consumer Affairs)