Consumer Remedies for Faulty Goods
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In November 2008 the Law Commission published jointly with the Scottish Law Commission a consultation paper on consumer remedies for faulty goods. Appendix C (the European Consumer Centre Questionnaire) and Appendix D (the Comparative Section) to the consultation paper are also available. We published an executive summary and a press release.
On 13 May 2009, we published a summary of the 53 responses we received to the consultation. An overview and press release are also available.
Currently, UK consumers have a legal "right to reject" faulty goods. This means a right to a refund if they act within a reasonable time. By contrast, under the European Consumer Sales Directive, consumers’ first recourse is to repair or replacement. The responses we received show that there is widespread support for keeping the right to reject. The majority of respondents also agree in principle with our proposal that there should be a normal period of 30 days in which to exercise the right to reject, with a limited amount of flexibility to extend or reduce this period.
The consultation paper identified significant and unnecessary complexities in the way the European remedies interact with the traditional UK remedies. Consultees strongly agree that there is a need to simplify and clarify the law in this area.
Background
The law on consumer remedies for faulty goods has been criticised for being unnecessarily complex. The Davidson Review, set up by the Chancellor of the Exchequer in 2005, concluded that this area of law consists of an unsatisfactory overlap of domestic and EU remedies. The Review recommended that the DTI should ask the English and Scottish Law Commissions to produce a joint report on the reform and simplification of remedies available to consumers relating to the sale or supply of goods. The Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (BERR) referred this issue to us in December 2007. In January 2008, we produced an introductory paper for our project.
The European Commission (EC) is carrying out a general review of consumer directives, including the Consumer Sales Directive. As part of this review, on 08/10/08 the EC published a proposal for a new directive on consumer rights. BERR has asked us to advise it on any issues that appear relevant to the EC's review.
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