The Consumer Rights Act - Will you be ready?
The Consumer Rights Act has now received Royal Assent and will come into force on 1 October. The Act consolidates existing consumer rights as well as bringing in some changes. Retailers should be reviewing their existing practices and documentation to ensure they will be compliant.
What should you be reviewing?
- Terms and conditions. New requirements as to fairness, transparency and prominence mean that you should review the layout and presentation of your terms. Terms that may previously have been acceptable may now be considered unfair so content should also be reviewed;
- Returns policies. Consumers will have an “early” right to reject defective goods limited to 30 days (shorter for perishable goods). Retailers will have one opportunity to repair or replace defective goods failing which the consumer will have the right to a full or partial refund;
- Reverse logistics arrangements. The new rules may lead to an increase in the number of returns and your reverse logistics arrangements will need to cope with any increase;
- Advertising, marketing and labelling policies. There will be new rules regarding pre-contractual representations. Any public statement made in advertising or labelling of goods will become a factor in determining whether they are of satisfactory quality and anything spoken or written to the consumer by or on behalf of the retailer about services offered will generally form part of the contract;
- Contracts with sub-contractors. New rules regarding remedies for defective service may give the consumer the right to a repeat of the service at no extra cost or a price reduction. Your contracts with sub-contractors performing services on your behalf should take this into consideration;
- Policies and procedures regarding digital content. The Act brings in new rules specifically relating to digital content regarding matters such as satisfactory quality, fitness for purpose etc. The consumer will not have a right to rejection unless the digital content comes with physical goods (such as on a disk);
We can help you to review any of your documents, policies and procedures. We can also provide training for you and your staff.
Posted on 04/02/2015 by Ortolan
