A planned overhaul of the system for handling advertising complaints for therapeutic goods will not result in better protection for consumers, public health experts claim.
In July, the TGA will take over the role of handling complaints and doling out punishments for breaches to the TGA’s advertising code, a role that was until now handled by the Complaints Resolution Panel and the Therapeutic Goods Advertising Code Council.
The move – recommended by a review – is meant to reduce complexity and ensure more consistency and timeliness for regulatory action against advertisers who breach the code, potentially posing a public safety risk.
But while public health experts have welcomed the move to a single body with tougher powers, they are now voicing concerns the system proposed by the TGA will be less transparent and accountable than the old one.
Associate Professor Ken Harvey, from Monash University’s School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine, says flaws in the proposed new system include:
The new system triages complaints into low and high priority but complainants will not be told where theirs is ranked
Details on whether Code breaches alleged by the complainant were upheld or not will not be made public
There will be no routine evaluation on whether regulatory action undertaken by the TGA achieves the desired compliance