11 JUNE 2025
The National Consumer Commission (NCC) welcomes the decision by the National Consumer Tribunal (Tribunal) against Ms Lana-Jane de Jager, a trustee of the Shabach Trust, trading as Droom Troue. The Tribunal found that the actions of Droom Troue contravened the Consumer Protection Act (CPA).
Droom Troue is a reality television show that recruited participants through a competition where they were promised the chance to “win a dream wedding” to the value of R500 000.00 (Five Hundred thousand Rand). Ms de Jager promoted this competition across various platforms, including bridal magazines and social media. To participate, readers were instructed to follow Bruidsgids on Instagram, like Droom Troue on Facebook, and text “Droom Troue” along with their names and e-mail addresses to 36996. Participants were charged R5.00 per text message.
Between August 2022 and April 2023, the NCC received complaints from dissatisfied participants. The NCC investigated the matter and found that, after entering the competition, participants were informed by Droom Troue that they had won the prize. To claim the prize, participants were required to sign a memorandum of understanding (MOU) and pay a non-refundable “commitment” fee of between R25,000.00 (Twenty-Five Thousand Rand) and R60,000.00 (Sixty Thousand Rand) to claim the prize of a wedding valued at R500,000.00 (Five Hundred Thousand Rand).
The investigation concluded that by informing participants that they had won a competition while there was no competition, Ms Lana-Jane de Jager contravened section 36 (2)(a)(i) of the CPA. Section 36 (2)(a)(i) states that a person must not directly or indirectly inform another person that a participant has won a competition if no competition has been conducted.
While the Tribunal found that there was no competition, Droom Troue’s MOU referred to the complainants as “entrants” participating in the competition or competition process. This, according to the Tribunal, gave consumers the impression that the competition they were entering existed.
Further, the Tribunal determined that the CPA provides that “if any provision of the CPA, read in its context, can reasonably be construed to have more than one meaning, the Tribunal or court must prefer the meaning that best promotes the spirit and purposes of the CPA. In this context, the Tribunal found that the definition of a participant includes an instance such as this. The fact that no competition took place does not mean the complainants cannot be viewed as participants since they still participated in the competition process, which we now know was just a ruse.”
Section 4(5)(b) of the CPA states that in any dealings with the consumer in the ordinary course of business, a person must not engage in any conduct that is unconscionable, misleading, deceptive, or likely to mislead or deceive.
The Tribunal found that the conduct of both Ms Lana-Jane de Jager and Droom Troue was set out to intentionally mislead and deceive multiple consumers and displayed little or no regard for the spirit and purpose of the CPA. In this regard, the Tribunal inter alia ruled that Ms de Jager and Droom Troue contravened sections 4(5)(b) and 36(2)(a)(i), found their actions unconscionable and declared the conduct prohibited.
The Tribunal imposed an administrative fine of R250 000.00 (Two Hundred and Fifty Thousand Rand) against Ms de Jager and refund the affected seven complainants a sum of R265 550.00 (Two Hundred and Sixty-Five Thousand Rand Five-Hundred and Fifty Rand).
Welcoming the judgement, the NCC Acting Commissioner, Mr Hardin Ratshisusu said, “Consumers should be circumspect when participating in schemes with a promise of monetary returns or other benefits. In this case, consumers were deceived and promised a dream wedding, and robbed of their hard-earned cash. Importantly, this case affirms the role of the Consumer Protection Act in guarding against misleading schemes disguised as promotions targeted at consumers.”
Issued by: National Consumer Commission (NCC)
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