Selected consumer rights

Selected consumer rightsIntroductionThe jurisprudence is complex in whatever site whether it is a road traffic crime at a lower place the strict indebtedness rules or a serious manslaughter charge under the criminal law.The reach of consumer encourageion law is no unalike and is complex with edict plan of attack from m whatever varied sources, statute, familiar law and EU Directives to name average three sources.For guide eccentric person, Silberstein, 2007, argues that every consumer traffic is based on law of vex, hencece technic in all in ally every consumer should show the basics of urge law in the first interject moving on to understand the special rules and statutes considering consumer law. This is a complex realm for any undergraduate to understand and because an atomic number 18a that rough consumers, e.g. the elderly, would remember extremely difficult to understand.A consequence of complex consumer protection economy is commented on by Mars h in his 2008 book Consumer Law. Many good deal do non know their rights when encountering problems at the point of sale or after (p.7)HypothesisInitial query has led to the conclusion that consumer law is complex and because of this few consumers and businesses actually understand it fully and thus almost quantify customers and indeed businesses be applying the law wrongly. This regurgitate aims to envision at this in tip and to prove if the hypothesis is founded or non.The briny point of this piece is to first identify the master(prenominal) consumer legislation and then to investigate if Silberstein is lay out in her view that consumer law is complex and through first research if Marsh is correct when he says that many people do non know thither consumer rights.RationaleThis project forms part of the third and last year BA (Hons) Business Management (Legal Studies) degree at MMU Cheshire and is whence a substantial reason for completion of this project. However everywhere the cable of the legal studies program many topics suck been analyze and through this project the opportunity has arisen to explore and research a particular atomic number 18a of interest.Having studied this topic in Advanced Managerial Law and having experenice of retail and interchange consumer law was a topic that captured my imagination, it is unlikely that anybody will pretend non come into contact with it, knowingly or unknowingly, for example a stimulate is made for the simple corrupt of a loaf of bread and is therefore has an impact on every bodies life.Research MethodologyHaving laid down(a) some aims and objectives, a number of subaltern sources i.e. statutes, textbooks and journals will be looked at to try and establish what be regarded as the main consumer laws in the UK. Having through with(p) this and using the same research a to a greater extent(prenominal) in sense explanation of these laws will be written, providing practical examples, pos sibly through primary research to aid their understanding. primary(a) research will be utilise in the form of a distrustnaire to attempt to as certain what knowledge commonplace consumers and businesses have of the law using case studies and a Likert Scale respond system. The data will be collected from 20 consumers and 10 businesses. Primary data will be exclusive and original for this task because the questions tail assembly be tailored to my ad hoc needs and will likewise vouch direction oer the law of the data ensuring a fair patsy section and sample of society is utilize. Secondary data would be contradictory as it is unlikely someone has already conducted the exact research that is needful and as already mentioned no control or reassurance over the integrity of the data sourced would be functional.The primary data will be analysed to mountain conclusions and any applicable secondary research will be used to back up the findings.Finally using all the primary and secondary data gathered to date an evaluation of the findings will get into place to draw a conclusion on if consumers and business be apprised of the main consumer laws drawn from earlier research.Aims and ObjectivesTo research which laws are the main laws regarding consumer purchase and protection.Research to explain and go across examples of these laws in action and there coif on both consumers and businesses.To devise a series of questions/situations regarding the main laws determine to test the knowledge of consumers and businesses.To embrace and critique on the findings.To evaluate the name and findings from previous sections to draw a conclusion and befuddle any recommendations/suggestions to the new main consumer laws.What are the main consumer protection laws in the UK?As mentioned previously the law is complex and there could be many statutes and regulations that could be regarded as main consumer protection laws but a quick search on the net income produc es a long list that includesSale of Goods perform 1979 cheating(prenominal) Contract Terms work 1977Consumer shield act as 1987Consumer Protection ( length Selling) linguistic rules 1999electronic Commerce Regulations 2002General Product Safety Regulations 2005Consumer recognize proceeding 1974 parcel of land Travel, Package Holidays and Package Tour Regulations 1992Food Safety function 1990Consumer Protection (Unfair Trading) Regulations 2008As has been established the general law of contract gives some protection. Silberstein conjures that it is the grounding of every consumer transaction. Marsh, 2007 says that the civil wrong of negligence also gives limited protection in circumstances where a consumer has no contractual rights.It had to be decided which edicts and Regulations were to be investigated in this research project and which gave consumers most protection. The first unmistakable Statute to use was the Sale of Goods characterization 1979 (SGA) as this conc eals almost every consumer transaction that takes place. Marsh, 20089, says, The major area of law which supports and assists consumers is the Sale of Goods figure out 1979. This performance governs all transactions where goods are transferred for a apostrophize. By agency of further rase if goods are swopped or exchanged then the goods are covered by the Supply of Goods and Ser debilitys Act 1982, however if any amount of bills is involved no matter how small then the Sale of Goods Act 1979 will apply.The SGA covers any transaction where goods are transferred for a wrong un slight what statutes and regulations protect consumers in relation to how you pay for those goods? Transactions that are get change magnitudely popular much(prenominal) as purchase by course confidence card or hire purchase agreement? The answer is the Consumer assent Act 1974.Indeed, Broomfield, 200753, states The most important Act dealing with consumers and reference is the Consumer Credit Ac t 1974. The main aim of the Act was to regulate the formation, damage and enforcement of citation and hire purchase agreements.It was then felt that with Acts from 1974 and 1979 respectively that the next woof should be relevant to todays society. This is not to say that the Acts already mentioned are not relevant plainly back in the 1970s telephone and TV tradeing was very uncommon, and the increase in this type of selling is why the Consumer Protection (Distance Selling) Regulations 1999 were introduced. These have been kept up to date and relevant by the separate but intertwining Electronic Commerce Regulations 2002 which specifically apply to internet transactions or contracts concluded by electronic bureau over distance. These rules regulate regarding casts, cooling off periods, fraud and unsolicited goods.One Act to mention would be the Consumer Protection Act 1987 as this would be an obvious choice for inclusion, however, the Consumer Protection Act deals generally wit h after the event occurrences for example it deals with financial obligation for defective reapings, government powers to regulate consumer safety through delegated legislation and statutory instruments and finally a section on charge deceptive which is discussed briefly later. It was therefore decided as the first two sections regarded queen-sizely situations where it would be difficult or unlikely to propose scenarios that were easily classifiable and answerable by people to answer the question Do consumers and businesses understand and know their rights under selected consumer law? that it would be omitted after the section of this report that looks at the legislation in more detail.Consumer law is ever ever-changing and developing to opinion and the needs of consumers. Take for example the internet, Nowak and Phelps (1992) found that 91 percent of individuals surv nubd felt that businesses and governments were not doing enough to protect their concealment online. Bennett (1992) and metalworker (1994) commented that regulatory responses were usually triggered in reaction to an increasing level of discontentment within the populace, which is transmitted to legislators in some manner. Wirtz et al (2007) found that that beefy perceived business policies and governmental regulation had now reduced consumer privacy concern.Consumer Protection Laws in theory and exampleThe Acts and Regulations that we have identified as the main consumer protection laws in the UK that will be discussed in detail areSale of Goods Act 1979Consumer Protection Act 1987Consumer Credit Act 1974Consumer Protection (Distance Selling) Regulations 1999Electronic Commerce Regulations 2002Sale of Goods Act 1979thither is a common law Latin maxim of Caveat Emptor or vendee beware, this was meant to warn all buyers approximately the potential problem of get produces. Before the SGA 1979 a purchaser could not direct goods were defective unless he had arrive ated express guarante es from the vendor (seller) on the step, usage and condition of the product. (Law, 2008 Richards, 2009)By way of consumer law with regard to contract most purchases made by consumers or made on the basis of invitation to treat this comes from the Latin phrase invitatio ad offerendum and means an inviting an offer. For example, if you go to a supermart the items on display are creation offered to you as an invitation to treat, the offer and acceptance of the contract does not occur until you have paid for the items. A supermarket is well within its rights to read from sale any item or change the price, and refuse to sell it to you unless you have spotless the purchase and therefore the contact of sale and purchase, this if course works vice versa in that you loafer take items in and out of your trolley sooner purchase. Advertisements are also regarded as an invitation to treat and not an offer, the person placing the conjure up is not obliged to sell to every customer. This w as decided in the case of Partridge v Crittenden 1968, it was held that where the appellant advertised to sell wild birds, he was not offering to sell them. Lord Parker ruled that it did not make sense for all adverts to be offers, as the person making the advertisement could be obliged by contract to sell more goods than he actually owned. (Westlaw Database, 2010)In the Sale of Goods Act 1979 a seller is infallible via statute to compile with certain obligations there are certain periods when toll whitethornbe implied into the contract. I.e. it is not directly written into the contract but is made part of the contract due to statute. These are implied terms and take down an offence of strict liability on the seller if bucked.Implied terms were added to protect the consumer giving them certain rights and guarantees in every sale, we will now look in detail at the implied terms.Implied Terms under the Sale of Goods Act 1979This implied term states that a seller essential have the right to sell the goods and to transfer the agnomen of them to the buyer. Under the Act a seller can solitary(prenominal) compile with this in two slipway by all having ownership of the title themselves or if they are acting with the real title holders permission, such as in business transactions at the cadence of sale.A case involving and demonstrating surgical incision 12 is that of Rowland v Divall 1923Description (Section 13)There is an implied term that all goods must match and correspond with any comment used.Most goods are change with some type of description whether it be given by word of mouth, for example the shop keeper saying these boots are waterproof or by written respect, for example a bill poster saying pure lamb wool jumpers. In the case of some transactions it is necessary to note that the seller is also accountable for labels wedded by the manufacturer and notices on boxes even though he did not apply them. Description is important as some goods are sell enti curse on description, for example, mail order. Almost all goods are sold on description and the seller is in breach of contract if this is away (Adams, 2008)Again a case involving and demonstrating Section 13 is Beale v Taylor 1967 eccentric (Section 14(2))Where a seller sells goods in the course of a business there is an implied term that the goods are of currency in ones chips quality.Satisfactory quality means the criterion to which the reasonable man, sometimes referred to as the man on the Clapham omnibus would count taking into account all relevant circumstances such as price paid, for example the interior of a 50,000 car would be of easily better quality than that of a 5,000 car.An example of a case involving quality is that of Godley v Perry 1960. In this case there was a breach of Section 14(2) as the item was not of satisfactory quality and Wilson v Rickett Cockerell LTD 1954 where a spoken communication of coal contained fragments of detonators and caus ed an explosion and damage to property. The coal was not of satisfactory quality.There are however limits to liability under S14(2) this section only applies where a sale arises in course of business. The seller cannot be held nonimmune of the buyer knows about the defects and this can be achieved in two ways either by notice of the defect beingness given by the seller for example a tear on sleeve or spare tyre missing. The other way is by jawion by the buyer buyers are not under any obligation to inspect items but if they do sellers can then not be held responsible for defects that should have been reasonably evident. A seller however is not conceivable for misuse or damage caused by the ultimate consumer.Two cases that show this point are Aswan Engineering Establishment Co. LTD v Lupadine LTD 1987 and Heil v Hughes 1951.seaworthiness for Purpose (Section 14(3))Where goods are sold in the course of business they must be reasonably suitable for any purpose in which the goods ar e normally sold. (Adams, 2008231)Goods must also comply with any special purpose that the seller claims, also if the buyer makes cognise to the seller the purpose for which the product is being bought and to be used any recommendation must also comply with this and be reasonably fit for purpose.Fitness for purpose claims rely on the buyer being able to show that he rigid confidence on the seller when purchasing the goods such reliance may be either implicit or explicit.Implicit reliance is when a buyer does not rigorously inspect the goods or ask questions about then but they turn out to be not fit for the usual purpose of those goods. If a buyer does not ask then a seller is not liable if the goods turn out to be required by the buyer to perform above what is normally required. (Adams, 2008)A case to illustrate this point is Griffiths v Peter Conway 1939Explicit reliance is where the buyer asks questions and the seller recommends a product for that purpose for example, if you vi sit a boat shop and ask which motor is suitable for your type of boat, take the motor and it is not powerful enough then the motor is clearly not fit for purpose. (Adams, 2008)Sample (Section 15)When a sale takes place by sample there is an implied term that the bulk order will be the same as the sample in quality, for example, same materials, same resiliency to damage etc.There is also an implied term that the goods will be free from any defects not noticeable on reasonable interrogative of the sample.Looking back at Godley v Perry 1960 the catapults had been sold to the shop keeper by a supplier after a sample has been viewed. Godley had well-tried for quality by pulling back the elastic, when damages were later awarded to Perry for his eye injury the catapult was tested and found to have a manufacturing intermission that Godley could not have noted on reasonable inspection and therefore Perry could be repaid the allowance he had to pay Godley by the provider, as the provid er was in breach of Section 15. Likewise the supplier could claim the compensation from the manufacturer as the manufacturer has a duty under tort and negligence for duty to their neighbours, in this case the ultimate consumer Godley.It is clear that the implied terms in the SGA 1979 are of paramount importance and these are implied which means they are drawn into every contract and can be expected by the consumer and must be obeyed by the seller/manufacturer of such consumer products. early(a) rights given under the SGA 1979 include S6 and S7 regarding perishable goods, S29 and S30 regarding delivery of goods and Part V of the Act, grants additional rights in consumer cases such as those in S48(b) Repair or Replacement of Goods.Consumer Protection Act 1987This Act has three main part as discussed regarding liability for product defects, health and safety delegation and price misleading. Part III of the Act regarding price misleading is the part on which this project will focus as this is the main part concerning all consumers. Law of contract means a shop can withdraw an item for sale or change its price forwards purchase because of the rules regarding invitation to treat. The shop however cannot mislead as to the price of an item the Act states in S20(1)a person shall be inculpative of an offence if, in the course of any business of his, he gives (by any means whatever) to any consumers an indication which is misleading as to the price at which any goods, services, alteration or facilities are available (whether generally or from particular persons).So if a shop deliberately prices to mislead, for example giving prices exempt of tubful but not stating this they will have committed the criminal offence of misleading according to price, likewise if a shop was found to have deliberately mispriced an item in a sale saying it was more expensive then it has ever been offered for sale would also be guilty of the offence. This is one reason you will see disclai mers on sale boards such as this product has been offered at the higher price in at least 20 of our stores for the last 28 days.Cases considering incorrect and misleading price were Toys R Us v Gloucestershire CC 1994 and MFI Furniture Centres Ltd v Hibbert 1996 A shop would not be guilty if the item pricing was an candid mistake and any further mispriced items were removed immediately from sale.Consumer Credit Act 1974The Consumer Credit Act 1974 was introduced because according to MacLeod, 2007, In twentieth century, there was volatile growth in the use made of instalment recognise by both business and private consumption by 1980 80% of the market was lender credit largely due to the expansion of store cards. regrettably whereas the well-off were able to take part in exclusive offers, the less well off were found to be running up debt from pawnbrokers and loan-sharks, some lending modest amounts but using an unregulated industry to make large amounts in return. The CCA 1974 addr essed this bring out amongst others.Credit for consumers comes largely in two forms, either the borrowing of money and paying it back over a period of time for a specific item, commonly known as a hire-purchase (HP) agreement and borrowing by credit card. These are two main areas regulated by the Consumer Credit Act 1974 and the two areas to be discussed further as they affect shopping consumers the most.Sections 87-93 are some of the sections of the Consumer Credit Act 1974 that deals with HP agreements.Sections 87-89 deal with default (usually non-defrayment) and state that if there is a breach of the agreement the creditor must serve the debtor with a default notice before taking any action. This notice must explain the nature of the breach, what must be done to allay it and if it is not what will happen. The debtor must be allowed at least 14 days in order to remedy the breach from the time of issue. If it is remedied then the breach is treated as if it never happened, if it i s not then the creditor can take action to recover monies owed.Sections 90-92 deals with the repossession of goods and states that a creditor must obtain a greet order before he can ship a premise to repossess goods and that if a third of the amount in the agreement has been paid (not including interest) then the goods are protected and a court order is also needed to repossess the goods without the debtors permission.In Common Law, this has been seen in the case of Capital Finance Co LTD v Bray 1964 The main outcome of this case was failure to obtain a court order for protected goods which are repossessed has the effect of terminating the agreement, releasing the debtor from further liability and allowing recovery of all sums paid by the debtor.Also in regard to HP agreements the SGA 1979 states that a seller must have title of goods before they can sell items, however, in the case of hire purchase, who owns the product whilst it is mum under an HP agreement? This was decided by the case of Helby v Matthews 1895. It was decided that until the last instalment had been paid that the ownership stays with the supplier of the finance and title passes on payment of the final instalment. Helby v Matthews also deals with an issue over selling of goods under a HP agreement, it was once more decided that ownership is with the original supplier of finance until the last payment has been made so goods can be recovered.With regard to payments made by credit card, Section 56 of the Consumer Credit Act 1974 states that the supplier, from whom you buy the goods is the creditors agent. (For example, indorse or Mastercard) The creditor is responsible therefore for misrepresentations of supplier.Section 75(1) of the Consumer Credit Act 1974 statesIf the debtor under a debtor-creditor-supplier agreement falling within section 12(b) or (c)* has, in relation to a transaction financed by the agreement, any claim against the supplier in respect of a misrepresentation or breach o f contract, he shall have a like claim against the creditor, who, with the supplier, shall accordingly be jointly and severally liable to the debtor.On condition the cash price of the item being supplied is over 100 but not more than 30,000 (including any VAT). (www.oft.gov.uk)*Section 12(b) and (c) refer to the type of transaction that must be involved for it to be applicable (and explain in explicit terms what each means) under Section 75(1) debtor -creditor-supplier agreements.Debtor-Creditor-Supplier Agreements occur when there is a link surrounded by the creditor and the supplier. For example a credit card transaction.Debtor-Creditor Agreements are not covered by Section 75(1) and this would be things such as a bank overdraft.An example of a situation on which this Act can be valuable is used later in the scenarios for the questionnaire and means in practice that if a valid purchase was made from a shop and that product broke through not being of comfortable quality, if that shop has ceased trading you would be able to claim through your credit card company as they are both equally responsible under the law and there has been a breach of the SGA 14(2).Consumer Protection (Distance Selling) Regulations 2000 ((2005) as amended)The Distance Selling Regulations 2000 replaced large sections of the Unsolicited Goods and Services Act 1971 in response to the growing number of other ways to conclude contracts when get items, e.g. telephone, mail order etc. The Distance Selling Regulations are a statutory Instrument (SI2000/2334) that makes EU Directive 97/7/EC law in the United Kingdom.The Distance Selling Regulations specifically cover the practices set out in Schedule 1 of the Regulations these are unaddressed and addressed printed matter, letter, press advertising with order forms, catalogues, telephone calls with or without military man intervention, radio, videophone or videotext, e-mail, facsimile machine and teleshopping.There was a now uncommon practic e called inertia selling in which a salesman would send to households goods they had not say later followed by an invoice hoping that fear of reprisal for non-payment would see them pay the invoice. In fact, broadly speaking it is now that the goods can be treated, in certain circumstances, as an unconditional gift and kept without paying a penny. Although the liquidator will have to be careful a court would not rule that he had accepted the goods by conduct as seen in Weatherby v Banham 1832 or with regard to services in Trinder Partners v Haggis 1951. (Brownsword, 2009) This issue is specifically dealt with in Reg. 24.Another major regulation is regulation 7 this protects consumers giving specific enlarge on what information must be transferred to the buyer by the seller for the contract of sale to be legal, these is to interpret the consumer knows exactly what is happening in a distance selling situation.Regulation 7 states7. (1) Subject to paragraph (4), in good time anter ior to the conclusion of the contract the supplier shall- (a) provide to the consumer the following information-the identity of the supplier and, where the contract requires payment in advance, the suppliers addressa description of the main characteristics of the goods or servicesthe price of the goods or services including all taxesdelivery costs where appropriatethe arrangements for payment, delivery or performancethe existence of a right of cancellation except in the cases referred to in regulation 13the cost of using the means of distance communication where it is calculated other than at the basic ratethe period for which the offer or the price remain valid andwhere appropriate, the minimum duration of the contract, in the case of contracts for the supply of goods or services to be performed permanently or recurrentlyinform the consumer if he proposes, in the event of the goods or services ordered by the consumer being unavailable, to provide substitute goods or services (as t he case may be) of eq quality and price andinform the consumer that the cost of returning any such substitute goods to the supplier in the event of cancellation by the consumer would be met by the supplier.Regulation 10 sets out a customers and suppliers rights to cancel an agreement and gives specific examples of how this can be communicated and the timeframe that it needs to be issued within these methods are mail, fax and e-mail.Electronic Commerce Regulations 2002The Electronic Commerce Regulations are a Statutory Instrument (SI2002/2013) that makes EU Directive 2000/31/EC law in the United Kingdom.Electronic commerce was specifically unregulated until the introduction of these Regulations in 2002. The European Union was acting to protect consumers in the still increasing area of internet shopping.There are four main regulations that give powers to and protect consumers.Reg. 6 like Reg. 7 of the Distance Selling Regulations gives specifics to what details must be communicated t o the buyer to make a legal contract for sale.Reg. 9(1)(a) provides details of what must be provided specifically when communication and buying is by electronic means it states that9. (1) Unless parties who are not consumers have agreed otherwise, where a contract is to be concluded by electronic means a service provider shall, introductory to an order being placed by the recipient of a service, provide to that recipient in a clear, fathomable and unambiguous manner the information set out in (a) to (d) below-the different technical steps to follow to conclude the contractwhether or not the concluded contract will be filed by the service provider and whether it will be accessiblethe technical means for identifying and correcting input errors prior to the placing of the order andthe languages offered for the conclusion of the contract.9(3) states that terms and conditions must be made available to the consumer in a means of easy storage and reproduction.Regulations are different f or when the seller and buyer are deemed to have entered into the contract of sale, somewhat amazingly these do not occur at the same time.Reg. 11(2) states that a buyer is deemed to have entered into the contract of sale when they agree to or arrive at an acknowledgement of order screenReg. 12 states that the seller has not entered into the contract until they dispatch the item that has been ordered and can cancel the item up until this point or offer to dispatch an alternative as per the Distance Selling Regulations Reg. 7(b) and (c) as previously seen.Items in a shop are an invitation to treat and therefore as long as the price is not deliberately priced wrongly a shop can change the price and refuse to sell it to you for the lower price.70% of people thought they unimpeachably could insist on buying at the lower price or would certainly argue their case claiming the law was on their side.The most common mistake was people misinterpreting store insurance and goodwill as the law, therefore most consumers did not know the law in this area.When posed this question most people were aware that there was some sort of credit card protection in this area so they would not recidivate their money but nobody actually knew there was legislation regarding this and in a reverse of the first question, people mistook the law thinking it was just a marketing gimmick on behalf of the credit card companies. aught was certain they would lose their money with most either positive or mostly positive that the money could be recovered. People knew the law in this area but rather by default.Again a large proportion of people (70%) were insistent that as long as the product was in resaleable condition and had the labels attached there were entitled to an exchange, however there is no legislation adjoin this.Unless a product is faulty under the implied terms of the Sale of Goods Act 1979 there is no duty on the seller to exchange or refund your product not for cash or credit note. Again people had mistaken store policy for the actual consumer protection law, which calls into question whether there is enough distinction between what are your rights in a legal sense and what is store policy or goodwill.Pleasingly in this question 80% of people answered decidedly no when asked this question. In speaking to people they knew there was legislation surrounding this and a few commented that they had been sent items in the past on