Lackof authorised dealers and consumers’ desire to have more complex gadget at a cheaper price are one of the main reasons which widen the flow and prevalent of counterfeit mobile phones and other products in the local market.
Fair Competition Commission (FCC) Senior Communications and Public Relations Officer, Mr Frank Mdimi told the ‘Sunday News’ that the war against counterfeit product flooding local market could only be won if consumers’ habit is changed.
He said that purchasing forged products, the tendency which is common amongst consumers, means that the products have market, thus government efforts to bring the problem to its knees always prove failure. “Counterfeit products are now a national threat.
More blames go to consumers themselves, if they reject buying such fake products means that they will undergo natural death for lacking market,” he explained.
Mandated to protect consumers from unfair and misleading market conduct, FCC said that for the country to ensure that counterfeit products are banned in the market, consumers’ awareness and having authorised dealers was vital.
Mr Mdimi said that consumers were obliged to understand the fair competition act and how it can help in pursuing rights and remedies. “Buying a counterfeit product further escalates the prevalence of that good in the market, these products are cheaper but made of poor and substandard technology,” he further noted.
He said that existence of informal routes (panya routes) that unscrupulous business people were using to bring in substandard goods were hard to contain for the practice involved a number of players in almost all sectors.
Talking on existence of fake mobile phones in the local market, Mr Mdimi said that Tanzania Communication Regulatory Authority (TCRA) should intensify efforts to contain the problem. Currently, there are only two mobile phones brands closely working with FCC, that is Samsung and Nokia while other brands were still reluctant, thus making it difficult to source out flowage of the counterfeit mobile phones in the market.
Mr Mdimi also highlighted the weakness in some of the laws in the country, saying that they were not harsh enough to contain the problem, hence proposing more serious, harsh and cruel laws to deal with the rip-off.
He further said that the fact that Tanzania was a net consumer of imported goods, it was therefore hard to dictate the quality of products it required unless it is self sufficient and being able to manufacture its own products.
Source Tanzania Daily News