Measures to Protect Consumers who Buy from Parallel Car Importers
Ministry of Trade and IndustrySpeakers
Summary
This question concerns Miss Cheng Li Hui’s inquiry on enhancing consumer protection and tightening registration criteria for parallel car importers failing to deliver vehicle orders. Minister S Iswaran explained that dealers do not require licenses, as the government focuses on promoting fair trading and informed purchasing decisions. He noted that contract failures represent less than 1% of transactions and advised consumers to engage with CaseTrust-accredited dealers who maintain performance bonds. SPRING Singapore assists dealers with accreditation costs and investigates unfair practices under the Consumer Protection (Fair Trading) Act. Cases involving potential criminal activity are referred to the Police for investigation to ensure industry accountability and consumer safety.
Transcript
50 Miss Cheng Li Hui asked the Minister for Trade and Industry (Industry) in view of repeated incidents of parallel car importers who fail to deliver the car orders, what measures are there to enhance protection for consumers and tighten the criteria for companies which register themselves as parallel importers.
Mr S Iswaran: The Government's approach to consumer protection is based on promoting fair trading among retailers and helping consumers make informed purchasing decisions. Motor vehicle dealers, including parallel importers, do not require a licence to operate.
The majority of motor vehicle dealers engage in fair trading practices. Over the period of 2013 to 2015, the Consumers Association of Singapore (CASE) received an annual average of about 120 consumer feedback on car dealers failing to honour contracts. This is less than 1% of the average annual motor vehicle transactions over the same period.
It is a common business practice for motor vehicle dealers to collect prepayment for motor vehicle purchases. This is not considered an unfair trading practice. Consumers can protect their prepayments by making informed purchasing decisions, such as reading reviews on the dealer, finding out if the dealer is on CASE's alert list, and transacting with dealers which participate in the CaseTrust Accreditation Scheme, as they are required to maintain a performance bond to protect consumers' fees and deposits. Car dealers who are members of the Singapore Vehicle Traders Association may leverage on the association's Local Enterprise and Association Development programme with SPRING Singapore to reduce the cost of signing up for CaseTrust accreditation.
Motor vehicle dealers who indulge in unfair practices will be investigated by SPRING Singapore, the administering agency for the Consumer Protection (Fair Trading) Act. Egregious cases that involve criminal activities will be surfaced to the Police for investigation.