Part 5
Consumer protection
This area of law is of use to all students as a life skill, in that most people
will find at some time that they are a victim of some problem regarding
goods purchased, possibly as a result of faulty production. If you buy a new
radio tomorrow and it proves to be faulty, what can you do about it? What
rights do you have in law? These are the kind of questions that this aspect
of law addresses.
This chapter contains the main statutory material on consumer
protection, but for some topics it is necessary to look back a little. The
following chapters of this book contain material which supports this unit:
Formation of a contract
Part 1 of this book provides the basic information that you will need on
forming a contract.Whilst much of the protection for consumers comes
from statute law, a lot of this still depends on there being a valid contract.
You will find information on this in the following chapters: Chapter 2, Offer
and acceptance; Chapter 3, Consideration; and Chapter 4: Legal intent.You
may find the summaries at the ends of these chapters particularly helpful,
especially as this is only part of the law needed for your unit of study.
Privity
The relationship between parties to a contract, which gives the right to
sue, is very important in the protection of consumers. Some measures
only apply if there is a relationship of privity, and you will find information
on this in Chapter 9, Privity.
Exemption clauses
Exemption clauses are terms within a contract where a party attempts to
exclude or limit liability. The expression can include exclusion clauses
(where a party attempts to totally exclude liability) and limitation clauses
(where a party limits liability to a certain amount). Information about these
clauses can be found in Chapter 8, Exemption clauses.