TFG now joins the club
How retailers are fleecing customers with club fees
Behind retailers’ club fee racket
In an industry battling to hold onto customers as the economy stalls, club fees have been something of a consolation prize for the country’s retailers. Take Edcon, for example. It says the cash it pocketed from club fees offset an overall decline in total revenue, to R29.3bn, for the year to the end of March 2016. Now, the National Credit Regulator (NCR) has declared war on these fees, hauling Edcon, Lewis and TFG — owner of Totalsports and Foschini — to the national consumer tribunal for breaching credit regulations. "It began in 2015, when the NCR focused its efforts on investigations into charges relating to the cost of credit, with emphasis on club fees and credit life insurance charges," says Nthupang Magolego, senior legal adviser at the NCR. "The NCR is motivated not only by the strength of the evidence that supports the contention that a club fee is being charged by retailers as part of the cost of credit, but also by the fact that the tribunal has already ruled in favour of...
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