The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) has revealed that consumer complaints filed to the government agency in 2022 amounted to 27,947, with 44 percent or 12,170 of these complaints related to online transactions.
According to Trade Secretary Alfredo Pascual, “liability for product and service imperfections” make up the bulk of these online transaction-related complaints. He cited as an example over 2,500 complaints pertaining to torn clothes, while another 2,200 of the complaints involved fraudulent transactions, including instances where buyers didn’t receive the expected item.
So far, almost 2,500 of the complaints were already resolved, while around 9,900 were forwarded to the appropriate government agencies. The rest of the complaints were either withdrawn or issued a certification to file action.
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The DTI chief also noted that in the span of three years, from 2019 to 2022, the world saw an 80-percent rise in digital transactions, but it also spurred an 80-percent growth in suspected attempts of digital fraud.
On the plus side, the DTI received fewer complaints this year, indicating a downward trend. There were about 57,000 complaints received in 2020, which declined by 44.96 percent to 31,372 in 2021, and further decreased by 12.15 percent to 27,947 in 2022.