Rescue from property sharks
(From The Japan Times July 31 issue)

不当契約から消費者を守れ

    In a typical case, the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department arrested four former salesmen June 30 on suspicion of having cajoled or pressured some 5,400 people in 34 prefectures into signing contracts for housing renovations in the past three years.

    The amount of sales attributed to coercive methods used by the suspects was estimated to have reached ¥11.5 billion. Most of the victims were elderly people living alone or suffering from senile dementia.

    To protect consumers against such crimes, the government is proposing an epoch-making bill based on a report written by the Quality of Life Council of the Cabinet Office. The bill, to be submitted to the ordinary Diet session in 2006, would enable consumer organizations to seek injunctions against questionable sales methods or contracts on behalf of people who have suffered financial losses. Revising the Consumer Contract Law so that a third party can file such a lawsuit is a first in the nation's legal practices and represents an important step toward rescuing consumers from malicious practices.

    Only consumer organizations that have been authorized by the Cabinet Office would be able to file such lawsuits. The main criteria will be that they have corporate status, legal representatives and a history of activities aimed at protecting consumers and operate independently of business interests.

    At present, all that consumers and consumer organizations can do is file requests with the companies concerned or the municipal governments in which they operate. The bill would give consumers and consumer organizations an effective legal weapon. They would be able to confront salespeople and companies from a stronger position, including warnings that they would go to court if rectification measures are not taken. If the salespeople and companies fail to respect a court decision in favor of consumers, state authority could be invoked to implement the decision.

    In fiscal 2004, the National Consumer Affairs Center of Japan, an independent administrative body, and the consumer advice centers of municipal and prefectural governments received 1.78 million complaints or requests for advice — double the corresponding number in fiscal 2002.

    About 80 percent of the cases brought to the attention of these centers concerned sales conducted over the telephone or during visits to homes in which consumers were deceived into buying unnecessary items or coerced into paying exorbitant penalties for canceling contracts.

    The examples of the types of contracts and sales tactics that would be targeted by lawsuits allowed under the bill are; refusing to leave a prospective customer's home or to let a prospective customer leave (confinement); luring a prospective customer to buy a financial instrument without guaranteed capital by saying that the value of the instrument would be certain to increase; giving false information concerning important clauses of a contract; and preparing a contract that calls for an unreasonably high cancellation penalty, exempts the company from any compensation liability, or contains clauses that run counter to recognized principles of good faith.

    Some well-meaning enterprises have started contributing money to establish funds to help consumer organizations in filing lawsuits under the bill. Such a move will not only help raise people's and the business community's awareness about the problems stemming from questionable sales methods and contracts but also build up social pressure against companies ready to use such methods.

    While consumers and consumer organizations would be able to stop unreasonable contracts or sales methods through lawsuits under the bill, lawsuits aimed at seeking compensation for losses caused by such contracts or sales methods are not provided for under the revision bill.

    The report by the Quality of Life Council says the lawsuits should likewise be filed in areas where the head offices of the companies concerned are located.

    The government should make further efforts to make the revision bill reasonable from legal and practical viewpoints and, at the same time, as user-friendly as possible for consumers and consumer organizations that may have cause to resort to lawsuits in their conflicts with fraudulent businesses.

The Japan Times Weekly
August 6, 2005
(C) All rights reserved

      警視庁は6月30日、過去3年間に34都府県で約5400人に詐欺的契約を結ばせた容疑で、4人の元住宅リフォーム会社販売担当者を逮捕した。契約総額は115億円にのぼるという。被害者の多くはひとり暮らし、または認知症の老人だった。

      被害拡大を防ぐため政府は、消費者団体が被害者に代わって事業者に対し裁判を起こすことができる消費者契約改正法案 「消費者団体訴訟制度」（現消費者契約法の改正案）の関連法案を来年の通常国会に提出する見通しだ。悪質な販売業者から消費者を保護する画期的な案だ。

      上記の法的措置を取ることができるのは、内閣府に認可された消費者団体のみで、法人格、顧問弁護士を持ち、消費者保護活動の実績があり、業界の利益とは無関係であることが基準になる。

      日本消費者センターと地方自治体の消費者センターが04年度に受けた苦情・相談は178万件、02年の2倍にのぼっている。その80%は、営業電話や訪問販売で不必要な物を買わされたり、契約解消のため不当な手数料を払わされたものだった。

      訴訟の対象となる販売活動・契約は、・退去を求めても消費者の住居や職場から帰らないこと、・消費者が事業所から退去の意思を示しても帰さないこと、・「必ず儲かる」などといって元本保証のない金融商品の購入を勧誘すること、・契約の重要部分について虚偽の情報を与えること、・不当な解約手数料を含む契約などだ。

      一部の良心的企業は、新制度の下で消費者団体が訴訟費用を捻出するための「消費者支援基金」に寄付をしている。

      法案は、不当な契約や販売方法を差し止めることはできるが、そのために被った損害に対する賠償措置は含んでいない。

      政府は法案をさらに合理的に、悪質業者に対する法的措置を簡素化すべきだ。