Business
FCCPC, Lagos consumer agency warn businesses on price tags, refunds, product labelling
The Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC) and the Lagos State Consumer Protection Agency (LASCOPA) have stepped up efforts to address unfair practices in marketplaces, with a renewed focus on price tagging, product labelling and businesses’ obligations to honour returns and refunds where applicable.
The initiative was unveiled on Wednesday during a stakeholders’ engagement organised by both agencies in Ikeja, Lagos, as regulators sought greater compliance with consumer protection laws through dialogue with businesses.
Speaking at the event, the Executive Vice Chairman of the FCCPC, Tunji Bello, said consumer confidence remains central to a healthy marketplace, particularly in Lagos, Nigeria’s commercial hub, where millions of transactions take place daily across markets, supermarkets, shopping malls, neighbourhood stores and online platforms.
Mr Bello, represented by the FCCPC’s South-west Coordinator, Olubumi Otti, said those transactions not only drive economic growth and create jobs but also depend on trust between businesses and consumers.
“Consumers must be confident that the price they see is the price they will pay,” he said.
He added, “They must be able to rely on the information provided about the products they buy. They must also know that where the law gives them the right to a refund, replacement, or repair, that right will be respected.”
According to him, transparent business practices encourage consumer spending, build customer loyalty and promote fair competition.
He said the engagement focused on three recurring issues affecting consumers and businesses: price tagging, minimum product labelling requirements, and return and refund obligations.
“These may seem like ordinary aspects of doing business, but they play a vital role in building confidence in the marketplace.
They help consumers make informed decisions, encourage fair competition, and create a level playing field for businesses that choose to operate responsibly,” Mr Bello said.
Engagement before enforcement
Mr Bello said the commission’s objective was not merely to remind businesses of their legal obligations but to explain why compliance benefits both consumers and businesses.
According to him, the FCCPC believes engagement is often more effective than confrontation because businesses are more likely to comply when regulatory expectations are clearly understood.
“We expect businesses to deal with us honestly and transparently,” he said.
He noted, however, that the commission continues to receive complaints from consumers over avoidable marketplace practices.
Highlighting one of the issues, Mr Bello said displaying prices is a basic requirement of fairness.
“A consumer should know what an item costs before deciding whether to buy it. No one should have to take a product to the checkout before learning its price. Neither should two customers be quoted different prices for the same product simply because a seller believes one can afford to pay more than the other.”
Partnership
Also speaking, the General Manager of LASCOPA, Afolabi Sholebo, said the engagement reflected a shared commitment to making the marketplace fair, transparent and deserving of consumers’ trust.
He said businesses had recently faced regulatory sanctions over practices such as failing to display prices, selling expired products, inadequate product labelling and refusing legitimate requests for returns or refunds.
READ ALSO: FCCPC resumes digital lending regulations as court upholds powers
Mr Sholebo said compliance with pricing regulations, labelling standards and consumer redress mechanisms is a legal obligation under the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Act, 2018, as well as the Lagos State Consumer Protection Law.
The engagement comes amid increased consumer protection enforcement by the FCCPC.
In recent months, the commission has intensified actions against businesses over alleged exploitative pricing, misleading trade practices and violations of consumer rights. It has also repeatedly urged businesses to comply with provisions of the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Act by displaying prices clearly, providing accurate product information and respecting consumers’ rights to appropriate remedies where provided by law.
The FCCPC has consistently maintained that strengthening compliance with consumer protection laws is aimed at promoting transparency, encouraging fair competition and improving confidence in Nigeria’s marketplace.
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The executive secretary of UN Climate Change, Simon Stiell, told the ministers at COP31 that climate finance must be redesigned to lift developing countries out of a cycle of debt and disaster, adding that meeting a headline figure will not do it.
“Meeting a financial target does not always meet countries’ needs. To do that, we need to look at how finance is delivered,” Mr Stiell said on Friday at the opening of a high-level ministerial dialogue on climate finance in Antalya, Turkey.
Countries agreed at COP29 that developed nations would lead in providing $300 billion a year by 2035, as part of a wider effort to raise $1.3 trillion annually from all sources.
Mr Stiell said the roadmap for reaching those sums “must become reality”, but that the terms of the money mattered as much as the amount.
“Many developing countries are trapped in a downward loop of debt, disaster, and devastating capital costs,” he said. “The threat of floods, fires, storms and droughts hangs over them, pushing up the price of borrowing even before disaster strikes.”
He stated that the terms of finance should reflect each country’s debt position.
“Private finance, loans and guarantees are essential to achieving our collective goals. But grant-based and highly concessional finance will remain critical, particularly for Least Developed Countries, Small Island Developing States and other very vulnerable economies,” he said.
According to him, broader action on debt is also needed to prevent countries from being forced to choose between repayments and resilience.
International climate finance for developing countries reached about $137 billion in 2024, and almost 70 per cent of it came in the form of loans, according to a UN Women flagship report released on Tuesday in Antalya.
Countries in sub-Saharan Africa paid more than twice as much in external debt service between 2021 and 2023 as they received in climate finance, according to an analysis published by the Heinrich Böll Foundation.
The analysis found that interest payments consumed more than 10 per cent of government revenue in 27 African countries in 2024.
The chair of the African Group of Negotiators, Nana Antwi-Boasiako Amoah, has said that a transition could not be called just if poorer countries have to “mortgage their futures” to pay for it.
The group lost a bid on Monday for a separate agenda item on tripling adaptation finance. It now wants the target prioritised in the summit’s cover decision.
Nigeria is not on the UN’s list of least developed countries, which places it among the states the UN climate chief expects to rely more on loans, guarantees and private capital.
It needs about $337 billion between 2026 and 2035 to implement its climate commitments, according to the National Council on Climate Change.
Omotenioye Majekodunmi, the agency’s director-general, said more than 80 per cent of that will have to come from private investment, commercial debt, and international carbon finance.
About $2.5 billion a year went to climate action in Nigeria in 2021 and 2022, counting domestic and international sources, according to the Climate Policy Initiative’s tracking.
The dialogue was the last in a series that began in 2013, and its conclusions will go to COP32 in Ethiopia next year, Mr Stiell said.
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