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lucky688 Tricked by fake reviews and false discounts? Meet the people who stop deceitful businesses
SINGAPORE: As consumer disputes continue to make headlineslucky688, Singapore’s national consumer protection watchdog is stepping up enforcement and taking more proactive steps to stop retailers’ unfair tactics.
“We are taking bolder steps. We want to go out there, we want to take action so that other people who are interested to do the same thing will be deterred,” chief executive Alvin Koh told CNA in an interview in September.
The Competition and Consumer Commission of Singapore (CCCS) took up the additional mandate of consumer protection in 2018.
In the six years since, that responsibility has grown to one-third of its workload, and the work is becoming more urgent. Almost 14,000 complaints were lodged with the Consumers Association of Singapore (CASE) in 2023.
A series of enforcement actions by CCCS this year implicated some well-known brands and shone a light on the range of deceitful tactics that sellers deploy against consumers.
In February, CCCS started investigating purifier company Sterra after receiving complaints about its advertisement that Singapore's tap water was not safe for drinking unless filtered by the company’s water purifiers.
The probe revealed that Sterra also used “strikethrough pricing” – offering false discounts where the supposed pre-discount prices were not genuine – and misled customers about where its purifiers were manufactured.
Sterra apologised in August and gave an undertaking that it would stop these unfair trade practices.
Then, in a first for Singapore, beauty chain Nail Palace and its director were punished for contempt of court after breaching court orders to declare and inform customers about their misleading representations on nail packages.
In June, CCCS also slapped Loft Home Furnishing with a warning over fake five-star reviews the furniture retailer published on its website.
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CNA Explains: That's not what I ordered – what can you do when a purchase goes sour? 
Fearmongering, pressure tactics: Why it's difficult to say no to hard selling in a nail salon MORE INVESTIGATORS, WORKING FASTERThese cases had been in the works for a while, Mr Koh said. But in announcing the outcomes, the deterrent effect this would have on other businesses was top of mind.
“The process of investigation obviously takes some time, but we have also made it a point … to get the right messages across to members of the public and to businesses who might be thinking of acting this way.”
Mr Koh, 49, is a career legal service officer whose last appointment before CCCS was at the Ministry of Manpower. He took over leadership of the commission in April.
Under his watch, “bolder steps” has also meant raising the headcount of CCCS’ staff who investigate cases by about 10 per cent.
There are about 50 such “case team members”lucky688, of whom 10 concentrate on consumer protection. Another 40 lawyers and economists may also participate in cases.
Staff of the Competition and Consumer Commission at their workplan seminar in 2024. (Photo: CCCS)