The Association had received a total of 21782 complaints for the year 2009. Out of 21782 complaints, CASE has taken up 1597 cases in the year 2009. In comparison to 2008, there were more assisted cases and fewer filed cases. This goes to show that consumers are more empowered and savvy in taking up their disputes with retailers after receiving a written opinion from CASE.

The chart below shows the Top 10 categories  

The top 3 common disputes received by CASE, in relation to the provision of services or product by the supplier, are as presented in Table 1 below:

CASE MEDIATION

Since the inception of our mediation centre in 1999 and as part of its process, CASE has arranged for mediation between disputed parties. Table 4 reflects the number of cases that was mediated in 2008 and 2009.

There were 111 cases resolved in the year 2009. This accounts to a 68.5% resolve rate.

This Act provides the legislative framework to allow consumers aggrieved by unfair practices to have recourse to civil remedies before the courts. It also provides for a cooling-off period for direct sales and timeshare contracts, and allows specified bodies to enter voluntary compliance agreements with, or apply for injunction orders against errant traders - Ministry of Trade and Industry, Singapore.

On doing a year to year comparison, the number reported breaches of the Act by consumer are as presented in Table 2 below:

The Top 3 industries, whose business practices or products are reportedly suppose to have breached the Act, are presented in Table 3:

Voluntary Compliance Agreement is a voluntary document signed by a business whereby the business admits to committing unfair practices under the Consumer Protection (Fair Trading) Act and promised not to commit further unfair practices. Should the business commits further unfair practices, CASE may take out an injunction/declaration proceedings against the business. Injunction proceeding is to stop the business from further carrying out the unfair business practices.

Table 5 below presents the number of VCAs that have been voluntarily signed by businesses since 1 March 2004 to 31 December 2009. Table 9 presents the injunction/declaration proceedings that have been taken against the businesses in the same period.