After a national sting by the National Consumer Commission, 62 suppliers in South Africa have been flagged for being non-complaint with consumer law.
Investigations from July 2025 until this month revealed that businesses have been violating and unfairly treating their customers.
These suppliers failed to display clear pricing, provided inadequate or misleading product information, sold unsafe or expired goods.
Some denied consumers the right to return defective or unsuitable products and failed to maintain proper sales records.
The suppliers
The inspection covered cellular devices, clothing and footwear, furniture, household goods, electrical and non-electrical appliances such as paraffin stoves and paraffin products.
Food items included canned food, unlabelled goods, unbranded sweets, as well as hardware supplies and service-related offerings operating under unfair contractual terms.
None of Dragon City V99 and V99’s items in Gauteng showed prices and the supplier issued sale records with terms and conditions that were unfair and unreasonable.
Inspectors served Bathu’s Pavilion Mall branch with a notice after finding 1 898 imported sneakers missing the required labels and trade descriptions.. None of the goods in the store displayed prices,
Bipul Kumar, a Northern Cape discount supermarket, sold expired cold drinks, sweets, spices and cereals, among others. Shazaib Ali Traders in KwaZulu Natal also sold expired goods.
Discount Dry Atchaar in Gauteng imported various sizes of atchaar without labels.
E Best Buy in Northern Cape subjected its customers to a no-return policy.
See full list below
Notices
The commission has clamped down on these suppliers, ordering an immediate halt to all unlawful operations under the Consumer Protection Act (CPA).
They must fix the identified problems and put safety measures in place.
If they fail to meet the set deadlines, the matter will be moved to the National Consumer Tribunal.
This could result in heavy administrative fines and further legal action.
Acting commissioner Hardin Ratshisusu has expressed concern about non-compliance with the CPA.
“The scale and nature of non-compliance identified during these inspections is concerning,” he said.
“The NCC will not hesitate to take firm enforcement action against businesses that continue to disregard the provisions of the CPA.”
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