I move: "That the Bill be now read a Second Time."
Níl aon reachtanna ann go fóill a bhaineann go háirithe le gnó trádála stampaí sa tír seo. Dá bhrí sin is rud nua an Bille Stampaí Trádála, 1979. Is rud iomlán ann féin é, tríd is tríd, agus baineann a fhorálacha chomh maith céanna le stampaí a thugtar nuair a cheannaítear earraí agus seirbhísí. Cuireadh an Bille amach go dtí na Teachtaí ag druidim le críoch an tseisiúin deiridh.
The objects of the Bill are threefold:—
(i) to regulate the issue, use and redemption of trading stamps,
(ii) to regulate the business of issuing and redeeming trading stamps, and
(iii) to provide for other connected matters.
Much has been written, and spoken, on the subject of trading stamps. I do not think, therefore, that the House will expect me now to describe either the features of trading stamps schemes or the economics of their operation. In one famous American court case, however—namely the Rast case of 1916—trading stamps were said to be a "lure to improvidence". In the circumstances of 1979 that is, perhaps, too extreme a statement of their persuasive power. But it does, nevertheless, summarise one side of the debate on the merits or otherwise of trading stamps. The other side, of course, as argued by those who defend the concept of stamp trading, is that it is no more than a long established and efficient form of sales promotion. In between, there is a wide range of other arguments both for and against.
Both points of view have already been expressed and are well documented in other countries where trading stamps schemes appeared and were then made the subject of legislative attention. Some countries, notably Canada, Denmark and Norway, saw fit ultimately to ban such stamps. Others, such as the United Kingdom and some states in America, adopted a more flexible approach by introducing varying kinds of regulatory provisions.
The type of stamp trading which is covered by the Bill is the general kind of scheme organised by a specialist stamp firm which serves a number of different retail outlets. Excluded are "private" voucher or stamp schemes, that is to say, schemes which are organised by a single retailer or his supplier and under which stamps are redeemable from that retailer or supplier alone.
The Bill now before the House opts for regulation as distinct from prohibition. Its nature and scope spring from a close study by the Department over some years into trading stamp business as it developed in Ireland. One major finding, in favour of regulation instead of suppression, was that it is the features of certain schemes, and not so much the schemes themselves, that are disquieting. In 1971, the question of stamp trading was raised at the public inquiry by the then Fair Trade Commission into grocery goods. Though the commission's report, in July 1972, made no recommendations in the matter, the view was offered that trading stamps were an undesirable method of sales promotion and an unsatisfactory method of savings.
In their report for November 1972 the National Prices Commission recommended that the Minister should explore the possibility of legally prohibiting trading stamps. The Prices Commission felt that stamps were an unsatisfactory method of savings and created difficulties for individual retailers and housewives. However, in their report for May 1973 the Prices Commission recognised the legal difficulties involved in producing such legislation and recommended instead a higher cash redemption value for stamps and that advance notice be required of changes in the numbers of stamps needed for items in a gift catalogue.
In its present form the Bill takes account of the recommendations of the National Prices Commission. It has been framed with the interests both of retailers and of consumers in mind. It is concerned with the needs of retailers, because of their susceptibility, on one hand, to pressure to sell stamps and, on the other, their legitimate need to adopt competitive devices. But the predominant concern is that the interests of consumers as stamp holders should be best served.
To this end the Bill adopts the approach that all pertinent and relevant facts about trading stamps themselves—and about the companies which promote trading stamps schemes— should be made fully available and accessible to the buying public. The facts I have in mind would include, in respect of the stamps themselves, information as to their real value in terms of purchasing merchandise and, in respect of the companies, information as to their financial standing. For there is no evidence to suggest that the buying public generally lacks shrewdness of judgment or common sense in determining good value for money.
Section 1 contains definitions for the purposes of the Bill. Excluded from the definition of a "trading stamp" is a stamp, coupon, voucher, token or similar device which is redeemable from the seller of goods or his supplier or from the person who provides the service. Such schemes come closest to being the acceptable type of competitive tool for retailers that trading stamps are sometimes claimed to be. Moreover, because of their limited spread in terms of use, such schemes do not pose the same problems for consumers in the area of price comparisons as do the more widespread schemes.
Independent stamp operators on the other hand—meaning the specialist stamp firms which serve a number of different retail outlets—will be covered by the provisions of the Bill. Such operators are few in Ireland but it is, ironically, this very fact that often leaves them in a position, by the use of the franchising system, to influence the structure of competition in the retail trade.
Section 2 of the Bill provides that only a company within the meaning of the Companies Act, 1963, having a place of business within the State, will be permitted to carry on business as the promoter of a trading stamps scheme. More importantly, however, the section waives the right of a private company which is the promoter of a trading stamp scheme not to annex prescribed accounting data to its annual return. This provision aims to make sure that the public can get essential facts about the stamp company's financial state and the likelihood of its remaining solvent. This is somewhat similar to the approach adopted in the United Kingdom in its legislation and it is an approach which has not been found wanting there to date.
One of the allegedly essential features of the business of the trading stamp company is the operation of the exclusive franchise. This is the system whereby the stamp company allocates stamps to one retailer, or to a limited number of them, in the same line of business in a particular area. Inherent in this approach is the freedom to be selective which is enjoyed by the stamp company. However, unintentionally such an untrammelled right to be selective can lead to abuse. I am sure that all Members of the House have heard complaints from time to time from traders who claimed to have been refused the right to participate in a trading stamps scheme for reasons which in their eyes were less than sound economic or business ones.
Section 3 of the Bill tackles this problem. It provides that the unreasonable withholding by a company which is the promoter of a trading stamps scheme of a supply of trading stamps will be an unfair practice within the meaning of the Restrictive Practices Act, 1972. The section does not pass judgement on what is deemed to be unreasonable. The determination of this can clearly depend so much on the circumstances of individual cases; and in the operation of the investigative machinery that is available under the Restrictive Practices Act the differing circumstances of different cases can be fully taken into account.
Sections 4 and 5 deal with the notion of the "cash option". This option has two main objectives. Firstly, it provides for the indication of the worth of the stamps in cash, thus aiding rational comparison with the value of goods offered in exchange for stamps. Secondly, it offers the stamp holder the right of choosing between redemption for cash or for goods.
Under section 4, the Minister may, by order, prescribe the value to be specified on the face of a trading stamp. The alternative would be to leave the option entirely to the stamp company to decide on the level of the cash value and if this were done an artificially low value could be fixed. It is important, therefore, that a corrective power be available to meet such a situation.
In the case of section 5, a provision worthy of specific mention, the holder of the trading stamps is enabled to recover the value of the stamps as a simple contract debt in any court of competent jurisdiction where a stamp trading company fails to redeem the stamps for cash. This is a much more realistic and effective formula from the stamp holder's viewpoint than would be, say, the creation of an offence for the trading stamp company in such circumstances. If the stamp holder's wish is to obtain cash in exchange for stamps there is now an unequivocal statutory right to sue for that purpose.
The main objective of the cash option—namely, to permit stamp holders to calculate the worth of stamps in merchandise—would be frustrated, of course, if adequate provision were not made for the availability of catalogues where goods are offered in exchange for stamps.
Section 6 makes such provision and obviates the possibility of confusion among stamp holders by making sure of a reasonable time-lag between the replacement of old catalogues by new ones.
Two of the offences created in section 7 deserve elaboration. An alteration in exchange values clearly affects, in turn, the real value of the stamps held by shoppers. Where more stamps than before are required to obtain goods in exchange, this is in effect akin to a price increase. Hence, an offence is being created where exchange values in catalogues are altered without the Minister's prior approval. Likewise, the expectations of stamp holders can be seriously jeopardised if specific goods publicised in a catalogue, and for which shoppers had been collecting stamps for the purposes of an exchange, are found later to be unavailable from the stamp company. Accordingly, an offence is being created too to prevent this type of situation.
The Sale of Goods Act, 1893, provides for implied conditions and warranties in contracts for the sale of goods. Such conditions and warranties are, of course, being improved by the Sale of Goods and Supply of Services Bill, which is still before the House. In the context of the present Bill, however, there is no good reason why goods exchanged for stamps should not carry the same implied undertakings as to quality and fitness. Section 8 of the Bill makes the requisite provisions in this respect.
Generally, stamps are offered to shoppers at retail outlets. It is at this point of doing their business, therefore, that shoppers should have access to certain basic items of information relating to stamps offered with the goods purchased. Section 9 makes obligatory the display of specified items of information which items are considered to be those most fundamental to the shopper.
Section 10 deals with a kind of misrepresentation which is peculiar to stamp trading business. This poses as a type of promotional inducement in the form of a statement which describes the worth of stamps in terms of the money the prospective collector must spend in order to receive them. Misleading though they are, these statements, nonetheless, serve their purpose by enticing consumers into shopping in the outlets concerned. The use of such deceptive claims should clearly be stopped and section 10 has been drafted for this purpose.
Finally, there is section 11 of the Bill, which declares contracts of a specified type to be void. This section is emphatically a protective provision for traders as distinct from consumers. Complaints have been made to the Department, predominantly by petrol retailers, that their suppliers have sometimes compelled them to offer trading stamps by reason of their operating from leased or licensed premises. Terms of leases, which have a promotional emphasis from the viewpoint of the lessor, have been invoked for this purpose. That such can happen is a most unsatisfactory and inequitable state of affairs. It is contrary to any principle of fair play that any trader should be forced into doing a business that he does not want to do, particularly when, as some complaints have alleged, the trader must fund the cost of the unwanted business from the profit gained on his normal business. Section 11 is designed to put an end to this practice. Given its objective, I am sure it will have the full backing of the House. Its purpose is none other than to ensure that lessees and licensees of premises cannot be forced to handle trading stamps on foot of a condition of a lease or licence. The section will not curtail competition or limit the competitive use of stamps by those traders who themselves choose to handle stamps by agreement with a stamp company. Nor will it affect the contractual obligations as between a retailer and his customers where the retailer decides, of his own free will, to offer stamps and the fact that he offers them acts as an inducement to shoppers to take their custom to him.
Because of what has been happening recently in relation to petrol supplies and because of certain other developments both in this country and in Britain, some people may be inclined to say that stamp trading as a marketing tool is on the decline. They might then ask if there is really any need for the present measure. My answer to that is, "Definitely yes", and from their remarks on another Bill not too long ago, I believe that most Deputies—and particularly those Deputies who have shown a special interest in the subject—would agree with me. For trading stamps are still a prevalent factor in our trading sector and there are few, if any, who do not think that they should be subject to some kind of legislative control. It is important that the type of control in this area be balanced and effective, yet free from the danger of "overkill".
Is é mo thuairim go bhfuil an bunús ceart chuige sin sa Bhille seo atá os bhur gcomhair. Molaim go láidir chun an Tí é.
