THE
Trading Standards Institute is compiling a dossier of complaints against
operators over brochure prices with a view to bringing legal action.
The
consumer watchdog has approached all of its 200 regional offices to supply cases
of customer complaints about supplements adding to the price of their holiday.
Trading
Standards head of package holidays Bruce Treloar said: “We are getting more and
more complaints over the lack of pricing transparency in brochures.”
UK
trading standards offices are to supply files up until October 9, which will
then be handed over to the Office of Fair Trading to investigate.
Treloar,
who has already received a number of files said: “The soundings are that there
is great cause for concern.”
He
said he had received a good response so far from the OFT on the issue. “As long
as customers come to us with complaints, we will be approaching the OFT to show
the signs of consumer detriment,” he added.
Once
the dossier has been submitted, the OFT has a number of courses of action it
can take against operators if it decides to do so.
The
first step involves urging any offending operator to change its behaviour. If
this move fails, a civil action injunction, or “stop now” order, can be taken
out, which, if ignored, could see operators facing contempt of court charges.
Operators
have so far denied their pricing structures are causing distress among
consumers, but a recent Holiday Which? report claimed supplements made it
difficult for customers to determine the exact cost of their holiday (Travel
Weekly September 16).
A
statement issued by Holiday Which? advised consumers to make sure they had all the
pricing information for their holiday when booking, and to shop around if they were
not happy.