A business adds fees not disclosed at the time of agreement
Premiumfoundational7 minutes
The Situation
What They Said
“There's an administration fee, a processing fee, and a handling charge — it says so in the fine print.”
Undisclosed fees added after an agreement are a common form of consumer exploitation in Zambia across telecom, financial services, hospitality, and retail. The Competition and Consumer Protection Act prohibits misleading conduct and requires that material terms — including fees — be disclosed upfront. A charge that was not disclosed before agreement cannot simply be inserted later by reference to fine print the consumer was not shown.
The Fallacy
Fine Print Ambush Fallacy
The business argues that buried fine print — which the consumer was never shown, never read, and never meaningfully agreed to — is a legitimate basis for charging hidden fees. Courts and consumer protection law treat undisclosed material charges with suspicion. A fee that is not prominently disclosed before the agreement is made cannot be enforced simply because it appears somewhere in a document.
What the Law Says
Your Legal Foundation
Competition and Consumer Protection Act (Zambia)
Section 36 — Prohibition of Misleading Conduct
“A supplier shall not engage in conduct that is misleading or deceptive or likely to mislead or deceive a consumer as to the price, nature, or terms of a transaction.”
Failing to disclose fees upfront and only revealing them after the agreement is misleading conduct. You have the right to refuse to pay undisclosed charges and to report the practice to the CCPC.
Competition and Consumer Protection Act (Zambia)
Section 43 — Disclosure Requirements
“A supplier must disclose all material terms of a transaction, including all fees and charges, before the consumer enters into the agreement.”
If the fees were not disclosed before you agreed to the transaction, the business has failed its disclosure obligation. The undisclosed portion of the fee is not enforceable against you.
What Scripture Says
God's Word on This
Proverbs 20:17 (NIV)
“Food gained by fraud tastes sweet, but one ends up with a mouth full of gravel.”
God sees through the clever camouflage of fine print. Business practices designed to hide the true cost of a transaction from the consumer are fraudulent — regardless of how they are dressed up legally. You are entitled to know the full price before you agree to it.
🔒
You Know the Law — But Do You Know What to Say?
Reading your rights is one thing. Using them under pressure — calmly, correctly, in the right words — is what actually protects you. Members get the scripted rebuttal for this exact situation: what to say first, what to say if they push back, the tone to use, and the constitutional provision to cite. Practise out loud with audio until it's automatic.