6. Public consultations
Public Consultation on Amendments to the Consumer Protection (Fair Trading) (Cancellation of Contracts) Regulations
29 December 2013
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Closed on 29 JAN 2013
The Ministry of Trade and Industry (MTI) is seeking feedback on the proposed amendments to the Consumer Protection (Fair Trading) (Cancellation of Contracts) Regulations ("COC Regs") to enhance consumer protection for timeshare and other related contracts.
In April 2009, MTI amended the COC Regs based on feedback from the Consumers Association of Singapore (CASE), to give timeshare consumers greater protection by extending the mandatory cooling-off period ('cancellation period' in proposed legislative amendments) from three to five working days, and requiring sellers to refund consumers within 60 days after a contract is cancelled during the cooling-off period. However, timeshare businesses have continued to account for the most number of consumer complaints to CASE.
Mode of Consultation
All submissions should be clear and concise, and should provide a reasoned explanation for any proposed revision to the proposed amendments. Where feasible, parties should identify the specific clause of the proposed amendments to the Regulations, or specific paragraph of the consultation paper on which they are commenting. Where parties choose to suggest revisions to the text of the proposed amendments to the Regulations, they should state clearly the specific changes to the text that they propose.
Parties submitting comments should include their personal/company particulars as well as their correspondence address, contact numbers, and email addresses on the cover page of their submissions.
MTI reserves the right to make public all or parts of any submission and to disclose the identity of the author. Parties may request that any part of the submission that they believe to be proprietary, confidential or commercially sensitive be kept confidential. Any such information should be clearly marked and placed in a separate annex. Where MTI agrees with the request, it will consider the information but will not publicly disclose it. If MTI rejects the request, it will not consider the information and will return the information to the party. As far as possible, parties should limit any request for confidential treatment of information submitted.