The Business Practices Committee (the Committee) was established in terms of section 2 of the Harmful Business Practices Act, 71 of 1988 (the Act). The purpose of the Act is to provide for the prohibition or control of harmful business practices. A "harmful business practice" is any business practice that, directly or indirectly, has or is likely to have the effect of harming the relations between businesses and consumers, unreasonably prejudicing any consumer or deceiving any consumer.

The Committee, in terms of section 8(1)(a)(1) of the Act, investigated the business practices of JCS Development (Pty) Ltd (JCS), trading as Leisure Club (Leisure Club), Bishum Dwarika Maharaj (Maharaj) (ID 620509 5167 085) and any director, employee, agent and/or representative of the aforementioned parties relating to the activities of JCS. The sole shareholder and director of JCS Development (Pty) Ltd was Maharaj. The notice of the investigation was published on 12 December 1997 in Government Gazette No.18631 under Notice No.1950.

Before discussing the complaint received by the Committee it might be useful to explain a number of terms used in the time sharing industry, such as timeshare rights pooling systems and points rights, a property-owning trust and the management associations and its functions.