By Josh Makin
In October 2015, The Consumer Rights Act 2015 came into force and produced a monumental change to consumer law.
This new Act replaced and consolidated three other pieces of legislation with a view to giving consumers greater rights and remedies with businesses.
One of the most noticeable changes in the law was the actual definition of a consumer. A consumer is now defined as “an individual acting for purposes which are wholly or mainly outside that individual’s trade”. This definition has been purposely widened to offer more protection to individuals. Although the rules governing how any goods or services provided must be of satisfactory quality, be fit for purpose and be as described still apply, greater remedies have now been given to consumers if goods don’t comply with these conditions. This includes a new three-tiered system whereby a consumer is entitled to a thirty day period to reject any goods, normally without having to pay to return the goods, or can alternatively ask for the goods to be repaired, replaced or rejected if the goods are beyond repair.
The media frequently report on the popular trend of customers returning goods they have bought online, such as clothes, and how this costs a business the additional expense of having the goods returned to them and the additional costs to ensure that the goods can be resold. As you can see, these greater rights and remedies will often come at a price to businesses who have no option but to try and compete the best that they can, or risk losing out on business.
Digital content is also covered for the first time in the Act, meaning consumer law now covers apps on your smartphone and your favourite music streaming service. If this digital content isn’t of satisfactory quality, fit for purpose or as described, you are now entitled as a consumer to either a repair, your money back or even compensation for any damage suffered by you. Consumers should note that if the digital content is free, you will not be entitled to a repair or a refund.
Similar rights to the ones listed above also apply to services, such as dry cleaning, building work and entertainment for example. These rights have now been extended to travel services from 1 October 2016, meaning you can now claim for compensation if you suffer a poor service whilst on a train, ferry or coach. The Act makes it clear that services need to be provided with reasonable care and skill. This means that if your journey is delayed, as was my journey to work on Monday, you can claim for compensation as well as any losses you suffered as a result of the delay. It is common practice after such a poor service that a business will inform consumers, normally through social media, of their rights and potential to claim a partial refund. This is a perfect example of the added protection given to consumers today and how businesses need to be careful to ensure that they are treating consumers fairly.
Businesses need to be careful when entering into contracts with individuals to ensure that their terms and conditions are compliant with the Act so that consumers are well informed of their consumer rights. Not only this, many of the rights owed to consumers are not required to be given to businesses, meaning separate terms will be needed to ensure that a business is not offering additional protection to a business when they do not need to.
Further help and advice on consumer rights can be given by our commercial team, as can details of our fixed fee services available to businesses for drafting their terms and conditions.