DSTV vs CPC: CPC dismisses DSTV claim over cooperation
Ladesope Ladelokun
The Consumer Protection Council (CPC) -now known as Federal Commission and Consumer Protection Commission – has dismissed the claim by a cable television services provider, DSTV that it has always cooperated with the Commission to deliver better services for the sake of its customers.
Speaking exclusively with our correspondent on Sunday, Director General of the Commission, Barr. Babatunde Irukera said that the claim by DSTV could not stand scrutiny, wondering why the CPC dragged DSTV to court if there was cooperation.
Irukera explained that the CPC couldn’t have taken DSTV to court if the claim of the Cable television services was valid, adding that even when a court of competent jurisdiction ordered a reverse of its subscription rates, it refused to obey.
“We went to court. The court gave an order. They didn’t comply with that order. The question you should have asked is that if you have always cooperated with the CPC, how come CPC took you to court?
And when the court ordered that you should reverse the hike, why did you not obey the order of the court?” he queried.
On the way forward, he said the CPC had recently released orders for issues that are not being challenged in court, noting that it would monitor to ensure total compliance.
“We can’t penalise them for something they are challenging in court, for the things that are not in court, we released an order that mandates them to do certain things, and we are watching.
We are monitoring to see that they obey all these other things that we have ordered. The question of their price hike is reserved for another day. It’s outside what we can do now based on the fact that we are in court.”
The CPC DG had in a statement in Abuja said the Commission on June 17, 2018, filed an action against Multichoice (owners of DSTV and GOTV) before the Federal High Court in Abuja.
He accused Multichoice of acting in bad faith in preempting the CPC after a broad investigation, and a proposed mutually agreed consent.
The statement read in part:” The court granted interim injunctive relief prohibiting Multichoice from proceeding with the conduct that the Commission alleged constituted bad faith.
Multichoice failed to obey the injunctive Order of the court, preferring instead to challenge the validity and proprietary of the order and powers of the court. The court order became the subject of an appeal to the Court of Appeal.”
Meanwhile, in order to address broad consumer protection and quality issues that were lacking and had become sources of unceasing complaints by consumers, according to CPC, the Commission released what it called the Final Order recently.
In an interview with The Daily Times during the weekend, Carol Oghuma, DSTV’s spokesperson, said the cooperation of the cable television services provider with the investigations of the CPC for the sake of its customers was never in doubt when asked if DSTV would comply with the Final Order released by the CPC recently.
Her words: “We’ve always cooperated with every investigation the CPC has launched. We always work with the CPC; cooperate with their investigations for the sake of our customers. We always cooperate.”
