Consumer Rights Act 2015 (October 2015 – textbooks will be out
of date)
EU Directive – to be implemented by national legislatures
1) What contracts are covered
- S.68 is it plain/intelligible language?
- S.61 need a contract between a trader and a consumer (s.61(1))
Key definitions in section2 in the act:
(2) “Trader” means a person acting for purposes relating to that person’s trade, business, craft or
profession, whether acting personally or through another person acting in the trader’s name or on the
trader’s behalf.
(3) “Consumer” means an individual acting for purposes that are wholly or mainly outside that individual’s
trade, business, craft or profession.
- Broader scope (includes insurance contracts that UCTA excludes)
- Narrower scope – section 2 CRA 2015 – only applies to business (trader)
to consumer contracts (NOT business to business) (trader to consumer)
- ‘Consumer’ limited to individuals (‘natural persons’ excludes companies),
traders can be corporations or individuals
Small businesses/universities/charities cannot be charities
2) Clauses covered
- No restriction to exclusion/limitation clauses (unlike UCTA)
- Any contractual provision can be challenged
- An unfair term towards a consumer is not binding – clause is subject to
regulation unless it is excluded by the statute
- DOES NOT COVER ‘core issues’, but these can be challenged if the term
is not ‘transparent (understandable) or prominent (seen clearly in the
contract)’
- Consumer Rights much broader than UCTA
Core Issues
- S. 64(1): SEE HANDOUT
- Can you challenge selling the wrong thing, eg: a blue car instead of a red
car
- Can you challenge whether it is good value for money?
Both = no, parliament have not allowed the courts to do this
Designed to protect market from over-regulation: E Brandner and P
Ulmer, (1991) 28 Common Market Law Review 647, 656. –
capitalism should be as unregulated as possible – it is not for the
courts to intervene in
Not a UK domestic law concept, but familiar in some civil law jurisdictions
(Germany).
of date)
EU Directive – to be implemented by national legislatures
1) What contracts are covered
- S.68 is it plain/intelligible language?
- S.61 need a contract between a trader and a consumer (s.61(1))
Key definitions in section2 in the act:
(2) “Trader” means a person acting for purposes relating to that person’s trade, business, craft or
profession, whether acting personally or through another person acting in the trader’s name or on the
trader’s behalf.
(3) “Consumer” means an individual acting for purposes that are wholly or mainly outside that individual’s
trade, business, craft or profession.
- Broader scope (includes insurance contracts that UCTA excludes)
- Narrower scope – section 2 CRA 2015 – only applies to business (trader)
to consumer contracts (NOT business to business) (trader to consumer)
- ‘Consumer’ limited to individuals (‘natural persons’ excludes companies),
traders can be corporations or individuals
Small businesses/universities/charities cannot be charities
2) Clauses covered
- No restriction to exclusion/limitation clauses (unlike UCTA)
- Any contractual provision can be challenged
- An unfair term towards a consumer is not binding – clause is subject to
regulation unless it is excluded by the statute
- DOES NOT COVER ‘core issues’, but these can be challenged if the term
is not ‘transparent (understandable) or prominent (seen clearly in the
contract)’
- Consumer Rights much broader than UCTA
Core Issues
- S. 64(1): SEE HANDOUT
- Can you challenge selling the wrong thing, eg: a blue car instead of a red
car
- Can you challenge whether it is good value for money?
Both = no, parliament have not allowed the courts to do this
Designed to protect market from over-regulation: E Brandner and P
Ulmer, (1991) 28 Common Market Law Review 647, 656. –
capitalism should be as unregulated as possible – it is not for the
courts to intervene in
Not a UK domestic law concept, but familiar in some civil law jurisdictions
(Germany).
