Judiciary

By Kennedy Nnamani

A High Court sitting in Enugu State has ruled against the “no refund policy” used mostly by service providers to prevent refunding customers, clients after payment has been made.

Justice C. O. Ajah, said that under the provisions of the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Act, 2018 under Sections 120, 104, 129 (1) (a) and (b) (iii) that the policy was ‘illegal, null and void’.

The incident, which lead to this legal suit took place in February 10, 2021 when Patrick C. Chukwuma, a legal practitioner and plaintiff purchased a ticket of Peace Mass Transit Limited for N500 to convey him from the Obollor-Afor branch to Enugu, but decided to ask for a refund as after a 2 hours delay occasioned by the absence of passengers and was told by the ticketing officer of the defendant that the policy of the company was that money paid for transport fare was non-refundable as indicated in the ticket.

After several attempts by the plaintiff to explain to them that it was unlawful as a policy not to make a refund for a service not rendered, the plaintiff rudely retorted, which triggered the learned counsel to leave and seek alternative similar providers to get to his destination.

It was also known that Chukwuma wrote to the defendant, demanding apology and refund, but the letter was ignored, prompting the Eze, Dimude, Eze & Co, his law firm to institute suit number: E/514/2021 action.

The suit asks the court to determine a sole question which was “whether the Defendant’s policy of “no refund of money after payment” is in violation of Section 120 of the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Act 2018, especially when the contractual obligation to convey the Plaintiff to his preferred location was terminated”.

Represented by his lawyers led by Tochukwu Odo, the Plaintiff argued that the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Act 2018 is the primary law on questions of consumer transaction in Nigeria and that by virtue of section 120 of the law, the consumer has a right to cancel any advance booking, reservation or order for any goods or services subject only to the deduction of a reasonable charge by the service provider.

However, the Defendant through Titus Odo, their counsel, raised technical arguments on the jurisdiction of the court and mode of commencement of the suit.

Justice C. O. Ajah of the High Court of Justice in his judgment delivered on April 7, 2022, promptly upheld the arguments of the Plaintiff and dismissed the objections of the Defendant.

After a thorough analysis of the provisions of the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Act 2018 vis a vis the conduct of the parties in the case, the Judge decided that indeed the policy of no refund of money after payment is illegal, null and void in light of the provisions of the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Act 2018.

The court thereafter declared that the refusal of the Defendant to refund the Plaintiff is unlawful and ordered the Defendant to pay the sum of #500,000 as damages to the Plaintiff.

This case puts service providers on notice that more Nigerians are now alive to their rights as citizens and will not hesitate to enforce the same should the need arise. It also puts an end to the menace of service providers who collect money from consumers and refuse to refund the same when they don’t offer the services for which the money was collected in the first place.

KN

Tags: Justice C. O. Ajah Kennedy Nnamani Patrick C. Chukwuma Titus Odo Tochukwu Odo