First four months of 2007 saw nine Outside Promotional Contacts fined a total of Lm3,000 for various infringements

Timeshare Touts – Enforcing the rules

In May 2006 Legal Notice 299 of 2004 was amended by Legal Notice 151 of 2006. The amendments include various measures to regulate the behaviour of the Outside Promotional Contacts employed by Marketing Companies.

In 2006 following various inspections performed by personnel from the Enforcement Section of the Regulatory Directorate fifteen OPC’s were fined a total of Lm 5,300. The infringements varied from operating without a valid licence to failing to display prominently the identification tag while selling timeshare. Other infringements were loitering in front of commercial premises, selling from inside a vehicle, not approaching tourists on foot for the last twenty five metres and for being aggressive.

Since first January of 2007 up to the time of writing this article, nine OPC’s were fined a total of Lm3,000 for various infringements.

During this year, 11 complaints on harassment by OPC’s and 27 timeshare contract disputes were investigated while 212 spot checks on OPC’s were performed.

In April of this year the Regulatory Directorate employed two Officers who’s main duty is to monitor the selling of timeshare. These two new Officers together with the other members of the Regulatory Directorate patrol the areas frequently used for the promotion of timeshare to ensure that the behaviour of the Outside Promotional Contacts is within the law.