Making Competition Law a Platform for Consumer Protection in Nigeria: A Proposal

• Jurisdiction: South Africa
• Author: Job Odion
• Pages: 31-56
• Citation: (2016) 3(2) Journal of Comparative Law in Africa 31
• Date: 16 August 2019
• Published date: 16 August 2019

31

MAKING COMPETITION LAW A

PLATFORM FOR CONSUMER PROTECTION

IN NIGERIA: A PROPOSAL

JOB ODION

Senior Lecturer, Department of Business Law, University of Benin, Nigeria

The relevance of competition law to consumer protection has long been identified in

developed economies. Although, private enterprise was vigorously pursued in these

economies, there was, however, serious emphasis on fair trading and competition

in the supply of goods and services to the consumer.1 The idea behind this was to

prevent the existence of monopolies in the marketplace. The belief is that when there

is competition in the marketplace, the quality of goods and services supplied to the

consumer would be high as each manufacturer or supplier would work assiduously

to outdo the other.2 The consumer would not only benefit from improved quality of

goods and services, he would also get them at fair and reasonable prices.3

Therefore, in this article, we examined the relationship between competition law

and consumer protection law and suggest that it is necessary for a synergy to be

drawn between these disciplines in Nigeria in order to evolve an effective legal

framework for the protection of the consumer.

Keywords: consumer, consumer protection, competition, competition

law, regulation, law, economies

La pertinence du droit de la concurrence à la protection des consommateurs a

longtemps été identifié dans les économies développées. Bien que l’entreprise privée

ait été vigoureusement poursuivie dans ces économies, il y avait un accent mis sur

le commerce équitable et la concurrence dans la fourniture de biens et services au

consommateur. L’idée était d’empêcher l’existence de monopoles sur le marché.

La croyance étant que quand il y a concurrence sur le marché, la qualité des biens

et services fournis au consommateur serait élevée parce que chaque fabricant ou

fournisseur travaillerait assidûment pour surpasser l’autre. Le consommateur ne

serait pas seulement le bénéficiaire des biens et des services de meilleure qualité, il

pourra également les obtenir aux prix justes et raisonnables. «

Dans cet article, l’auteur examine la relation entre le droit de la concurrence et le

droit de la protection des consommateurs et suggère qu’il est nécessaire d’établir

une synergie entre ces disciplines au Nigeria afin d’avoir un cadre juridique efficace

pour la protection du consommateur.

1 See http://wikipedia.org/wiki/competition_law (accessed on 25 November 2011).

2 See generally Taylor Martyn, ‘International Competition Law: A new dimension for WTO’

http://www.google.com/books (accessed on 25 November 2011).

3 See S.Apinega, ‘The Goal of Anti-Trust Laws and the Concept of Consumer Welfare’ (208-

2009) 4 (1) ABU Law Journal 161–174.

(2016) 3(2) Journal of Comparative Law in Africa 31

© Juta and Company (Pty) Ltd

32 JOURNAL OF COMPARATIVE LAW IN AFRICA VOL. 3, NO. 2, 2016

Mots clés: protection des consommateurs – consommation –

concurrence – droit de la concurrence – règlement –

communications

Introduction

The relevance of competition law to contractual undertakings and

businesses generally has attracted a lot of commentaries lately. It is

increasingly clear that unless there is some form of legislative framework

to regulate the supply and demand ends of the chain of production,

the consumer will continue to be at the receiving end of the business

stratagem of businessmen.

Studies on consumer protection law in Nigeria have revealed that the

use of legislative prescriptions and the penal sanctions therein have failed

to sufficiently address the multifarious problems of the consumer.4 This is

because in spite of these laws and the elaborate institutional framework for

the enforcement of these laws, the consumer in Nigeria is still inundated

with the incidences of fake or adulterated products, expired products and

poor or low quality goods and services supplied to him in the chain of

production and supply.

It is against the background of the aforesaid, that this article x-rays

the potentials of competition law on a comparative basis between the

United States of America (USA), England and South Africa, with a view

to determining the potentials inherent in competition law that have been

used to improve the level of effectiveness of consumer protection laws

in these jurisdictions. The desire is to find out what best practices are

inherent in competition law that could be harnessed for the benefit of

the consumer in Nigeria.

Clarification of conceptual issues

Competition law is an off-shoot of the convergence of the forces of

law and economics. It is the belief that where there is a complementary

relationship between law and economics, the laws that are enacted would

be more effective in the resolution of the socio-political and economic

4 N Anayo et al, ‘Consumer Protection in Market Transactions in Nigeria’ (2009) 5 (4)

Journal of Innovative Marketing 89–94. See also V Ochigi, ‘Curbing the Menace of Fake Drugs and

Counterfeiting in Nigeria’ published in the National Vision Newspaper Online Edition, available at www.

nationalvisiononline.com (accessed on 20 September 2014). See also J Akpan, ‘The Calamity of “My

Pikin”’ published in the online version of Leadership Newspaper, available at wwwleadershipnigeria.

com/news (accessed on 20 September 2014). See also ILouis et al, ‘Sub-standard Products in

Nigeria a Growing Menace’, a featured article available at http://www.nigerianbestforum.com/

blog/?p=68286 (accessed on 20 September 2014). See also N Sams, ‘China still Floods Nigeria

with Sub-Standard Products’, a featured article available at http://www.nigerianbestforum.com/

generaltopics/? (accessed on 20 September 2014).

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