Clause 201 - Consumers
Enterprise Bill
8:00 pm
Mr Nigel Waterson (Eastbourne, Conservative)
We leave behind the arcane mysteries of cartels and move to consumer protection. We have precisely one hour and 44 minutes to cover clauses 201 to 226—many very important provisions—as a result of the guillotine imposed on us by the Government. That is a pity, but let us make progress. We cannot say that we dallied over cartels; some important issues had to be raised and we did so, as did Liberal Democrat Members.
My one point about clause 201 concerns the definition of consumers. It has been raised with me by the Retail Motor Industry Federation and the Petrol Retailers Association. They make the case that the definition of consumers all too often refers to individuals—little old ladies who buy things that are overpriced or do not do what they are supposed to do—whereas a small company can be a consumer of goods and services supplied by a big organisation. They say:
''This particularly applies to petrol retailers who are consumers of goods and services from very large multinational companies.''
One can see that there is as massive a disparity of bargaining power between a large petrol supplier and one independent petrol retailer as there is between a supermarket chain and one consumer, yet small retailers do not seem to be covered by the normal definition of consumers in the Bill. The issue is worth raising. They continue:
''. . .who is a consumer that the Bill proposes to protect and will it be wider than just an individual member of the public?''
I should be grateful for the Under-Secretary's clarification of what is meant by a consumer.