Consumers’ association overwhelmed with complaints: from air travel to dodgy phones, from government departments to A&Es
Scrolling through the archive of complaints received by the Cyprus Consumers’ Association (supplied by the CCA, with personal data redacted of course), makes for illuminating reading.
“In July 2025 I travelled from Larnaca to Warsaw with [XYZ airline] and my flight was delayed by six hours. I complained in writing to [XYZ], who replied that they weren’t responsible for the delay…” begins one, going on to say that the department of civil aviation has found in their (the complainant’s) favour, yet it was still proving impossible to get their money back.
“The question is, what can I do to get the compensation?” wonders the passenger, adding: “We’re forever hearing about consumers’ rights, but I’m disappointed”.
That anonymous complainant has a point. The issue of consumer advocacy is bigger than ever – yet in Cyprus, at least, protection is seriously lacking.
The CCA makes a valiant effort – yet the reality is that they only have three permanent staff: president Marios Droushiotis, legal officer Virginia Christou and administrator Marios Michael. Beyond that is a board of directors – all unpaid volunteers – and 250 active members whose subscriptions (€15 a year) supply most of the funding, along with a small subsidy from the ministry of commerce and industry.
Despite these scant resources, the CCA is represented on all parliamentary committees, puts out announcements and annual reports, creates podcasts and videos, deals with media enquiries – and also handled 2,661 complaints in 2024, an increase of 24 per cent over the previous year.
The range of complaints is vast – from highly sensitive topics to problems that might be better suited to a Facebook post.
Thus, for instance, one consumer visited a taverna in Limassol then wrote in to the CCA’s website to complain, among other things, of “music at full blast, like they’re trying to drive you out, [and] very mediocre quality”. It’s unclear what, if anything, the Association can do about that.
All kinds of issues come under scrutiny. Someone reports that “the psychologist with Gesy number [XYZ] doesn’t use a machine for Visa payments, and forces his patients to pay in cash”. Another complaint has to do with being pestered by a company and their ‘Stop SMS’ number not working: “Can you please ask them, for GDRP purposes, to remove me from their mailing list and SMS sending?”.
There are complaints that are actually questions – one person paid for an organised trip to the Holy Lands but now has cold feet because of the trouble in Israel, and wonders if they can get their deposit back – but also, for instance, a long and very detailed description of unacceptable conditions at the A&E department of Nicosia General Hospital.
The CCA’s annual report for 2024 shows an increase in 13 out of 14 categories, the only exception being ‘Non-display of prices & difference in price between shelf and till’, where the number of complaints fell slightly.
Otherwise, every category went up. Passengers’ rights and organised trips, online scams, returns policy, energy and renewables, cost of living, distance shopping, unfair business practices, food safety, defective products and warranties (which had the most complaints, 492), banking services, telecommunications services, tourist services and ‘Other’ – which went up by a staggering 176 per cent and includes complaints about government departments and civil servants, a real growth sector.
In fact, complaints are so numerous that there probably won’t be a report for 2025, Christou told the Cyprus Mail – because the CCA hasn’t been able to operate its call centre for the past few months, due to understaffing and the sheer volume of phone calls, so it wouldn’t be possible to do a fair comparison.
Clearly, the Association is stretched to its limit. The hard-working Christou cites a variety of issues where the CCA is active, mostly to highlight ways that the system in Cyprus is deficient.
Thus, for instance, say you buy a mobile phone and it breaks; “what rights do you have?”. Almost every business will claim that it broke due to misuse – and what’s missing, she says, is what they have in Greece (for instance), namely a technical department working with the commerce ministry that’ll examine the product and make an independent appraisal. As it is, a consumer has to find a specialist themselves and go to court, which is far too complicated.
“The reality in Cyprus,” she says, “is that laws exist… [But] unfortunately, legislation for consumers’ rights doesn’t get enforced effectively.”
Another example: the unfair terms in contracts signed with banks, insurance companies and other large institutions. (Thus, for instance, many loan agreements allow the bank to change the interest rate unilaterally.) A law to regulate this has existed since 1996, says Christou – yet, from that time up till 2012, “not a single decision relating to credit institutions was issued by the Consumer Protection Service”.
That, incidentally, is another sign of our dysfunctional system: the fact that an official department, the Consumer Protection Service, exists at the commerce ministry, properly funded, staffed with dozens of civil servants, and actually able to punish offenders and issue fines – yet the CCA still receives such a high volume of complaints, obviously because people trust it more to look out for their interests.
“The difference between us and the Consumer Protection Service,” says Christou carefully, “is that [they] say, ‘OK, did a company commit a violation? We forgive it, and give it a second chance, because we want to be friends with industry’.
“Whereas the Association says, ‘The legislation is very clear. When a company commits a violation, they incur such-and-such a fine. Why don’t you impose the fine?’
“So I guess we have different ways of interpreting the legislation,” she adds diplomatically.
In the end, the fact that the official body for consumers’ rights is part of the ministry of commerce and industry speaks for itself. (Other countries make it subordinate to the finance or justice ministry, or else completely independent.) But there are also cultural reasons, says Christou, why consumers’ associations – which are powerful in most EU countries, “with budgets that can reach €1 million” – are struggling here.
Consumers often call them to complain about the cost of living, she says by way of example – a young couple with kids, or elderly people on a low pension who don’t qualify for any of the ‘vulnerable groups’. They’ll share their tale of woe – but then, when Christou asks, “Are you willing to come out on the street, if there’s a protest?”, they invariably reply: “No. You go”.
“In Cyprus, we’ve learned to solve our problems sitting on the sofa,” she says scathingly – which in turn makes those causing the problems more complacent, since they know people won’t react.
“And also, unfortunately, in Cyprus we’ve learned to work with connections,” the infamous ‘meso’. Often, she says, when the CCA asks someone to sign up as a member, the response will be: “I’ll just call this MP, or that minister, and they’ll solve my problem. So why should I become your member and pay you €15 a year?”.
“Our culture is such,” she concludes, “that we’ve never learned to stand up for our rights.”
It’s a bad situation. Consumers increasingly unhappy (the number of complaints makes that clear), unable to find satisfaction, stuck with systemic cronyism that tends to side with the big companies – yet also trapped by their own inertia and cynicism, unable to bestir themselves to actually try and make a difference.
The best solution probably lies in class actions, which allow consumers’ rights advocates – if they win the case – to receive a share of the money and fill their coffers, which in turn allows them to finance more class actions.
That’s how their counterparts work in the EU, says Christou – and the CCA are also gradually pursuing this strategy, though it’s early days yet.
Meanwhile, the complaints keep flooding in.
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