JUMIA, a global online retail marketplace platform, has been investigated by the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA)’s COMESA Competition Commission (CCC) for consumer breaches, the regional watchdog revealed on Tuesday.
The CCC has indicated that it reached a decision to order JUMIA to cut its unfair practices against consumers.
“The CCC observed that some of the terms and conditions of JUMIA could be termed as disadvantageous to consumers,” said the watchdog in a report.
“Some of these included: no guaranteeing the continuation of the platform in case there is a disruption in its availability, no comprehensive redress mechanism for aggrieved consumers and non-disclosure of the details of the seller on the platform,” it said further.
Failure to disclose the legal names of the parties involved on the platform was the other and a clause denying liability for goods bought on the platform by customers, in case of dispute, and not providing an online dispute resolution mechanism are some of the ‘‘terms and conditions’’ considered very disadvantageous to consumers.
Further, JUMIA excluding itself in its ‘’terms and conditions’’ from being one of the parties to the contract for a sale or purchase of goods on its platform, with a claim that it is not involved in the transaction, is not an agent of any buyer or seller and, therefore, does not have any liability in connection with a transaction under the contract, in inconceivable according to the watchdog.
“We are happy to report today that JUMIA complied fully with the review process, they were cooperative throughout the review process and complied to the CCC’s recommendations,” said the watchdog.
