The fundamental consumer rights granted to consumers by the Consumer Protection Act 68 of 2008 (hereinafter referred to as the CPA) would be without meaning if no avenues of redress were available to enforce them. The National Consumer Commission as well as the National Consumer Tribunal and the consumer courts will enforce the Act. One of the more central and important aims of the CPA (section 69) is to ensure that an aggrieved consumer has access to redress, this also being one of the European Union’s consumer protection rights. The CPA therefore empowers the consumer by setting out redress options where a consumer believes that his or her right has been infringed. There is a wide range of options available to consumers if they have a complaint in terms of the CPA. Sections 68 to 76, which are found in Chapter 3 Part A to C, are the provisions that deal with the protection of Consumer Rights. In terms of the CPA, consumers are not obliged to approach the supplier against whom they have a complaint before first going somewhere else. In terms of section 69 of the Act, the category of persons listed in section 4(1) can enforce a right in terms of the Act or in terms of a transaction or agreement, or resolve a dispute with a supplier by: Referring the matter directly to the National Consumer Tribunal; referring the matter to the applicable recognised ombud with jurisdiction over the supplier and if the matter does not concern the supplier contemplated in s 69(b), referring the matter to the applicable accredited industry ombud with jurisdiction. The consumer may also apply to the relevant consumer court of the province with jurisdiction (subject to the provincial legislation governing it). A dispute may also be referred to an alternative dispute agent, filing a complaint with the National Consumer Commission or approaching a court with jurisdiction over the matter (only when all the other remedies available to that person in terms of national legislation have been exhausted). The main focus of the research will be the role of consumer courts in particular and their possible enforcement and execution shortcomings. The consumer courts are regulated on a national level in terms of the CPA and on provincial level in terms of provincial legislation of the various provinces. I will illustrate these shortcomings in a discussion of two relevant cases. A short discussion of the other options available to the consumers for redress in terms of the CPA will also be included. Other avenues of redress that will briefly be discussed are complaints lodged to the National Consumer Tribunal, the National Consumer Commission and alternative dispute resolution. Since the CPA became fully effective on the 31 of March 2011 and is more in line with international trends in consumer protection law, a short comparative study is necessary. I will be looking at the consumer law in Scotland, which is affected, by the UK consumer law in the United Kingdom. / Dissertation (LLM)--University of Pretoria, 2012. / Mercantile Law / unrestricted

MPM / Oliver Tambo Institute of Governance and Policy Studies

Call number: LD2668 .T4 1965 W117 / Master of Science

published_or_final_version / Business Administration / Master / Master of Business Administration

Over the past two decades, South Africa has introduced several laws regulating business and providing protection to consumers. These include the Competition Act (89 of 1998), the Electronic Communications and Transactions Act (25 of 2002), the National Credit Act (34 of 2005), and the Consumer Protection Act (68 of 2008) (CPA). The CPA was implemented to conform to international best practice regarding consumer law, to replace the existing but outdated laws, and most importantly, to provide protection to vulnerable consumers (Department of Trade and Industry, 2004:14; Rampersad & Reddy, 2012:7407). The importance of protecting vulnerable consumers can be attributed to South Africa’s history of discrimination and excluding the majority of the population from quality education and equal opportunities in the marketplace (Rampersad & Reddy, 2012:7407). However, the CPA is of small value to consumers if it is not generally known and applied; thus, consumers will continue to be at the mercy of retailers who very often do not have their best interests at heart. Therefore, this study was undertaken to measure the awareness and knowledge of the CPA among retailers. The research was done among small independent retailers located in shopping malls in the Vaal Triangle, South Africa. The study followed a quantitative approach, using a self-administered questionnaire to obtain a single cross-sectional sample. From the data gathered, it is clear that most of the participants considered themselves well informed regarding consumer rights; 88 present of the participants indicated that they are familiar with the nine consumer rights contained in the CPA. However, this stands in stark contrast to the results obtained in the section measuring the actual knowledge of the CPA; only 49 present of the participants managed to answer more than half of the questions correctly, and none answered more than 70 present correctly. In addition, the participants seemed to score higher on those rights that existed before the CPA came into effect, and lower on the new rights introduced by the Act. This seems to indicate that retailers are not yet familiar with the Act; it is, therefore, unlikely that they do business in a manner that complies with the CPA, which robs consumers of the benefit and protection of the Act. Of the retailers who participated in this study, 72 present said they believe the CPA is necessary to protect consumers. This would seem to indicate that it is the lack of knowledge rather that real resistance to the Act which is standing in the way of wider compliance. Therefore, steps should be taken with utmost urgency to educate and increase awareness of the Act, both among retailers and consumers. / MCom (Marketing Management), North-West University, Vaal Triangle Campus, 2014

Nacionalinė valstybių narių teisė yra įtakojama Europos Sąjungos leidžiamų reglamentų ir valstybės narės dėl teisiškai privalomų tam tikros srities teisės aktų priėmimo ir ta kompetencija direkyvų, kurių turi šalys narės laikytis, tačiau yra sričių, kuriose savo kompetencija dalijasi Europos Sąjunga valstybės narės naudojasi tik tiek, kiek ES nepasinaudojo ar nusprendė nepasinaudoti. 2013m. LR Aukščiausiasis teismas kilus klausimui dėl ES teisės autonominio aiškinimo kreipėsi į Europos Sąjungos Teisingumo Teismą dėl prejudicinio sprendimo priėmimo. Šiame darbe keliama problema yra ta, ar advokatas gali būti pripažintas verslininku, kuris teikia atlygintines teisines paslaugas fiziniui asmeniui, vartotojų teisių apsaugos atžvilgiu. Šiame darbe siekiama: 1) atskleisti advokato profesijos veiklos principus; 2) išanalizuoti advokatų teikiamų teisinių paslaugų turinį; 3) išnagrinėti verslo ir verslininko sąvokas, veiklos ypatumus; 4) palyginti verslininko ir advokato veiklas, išskirti panašumus ir skirtumus; 5) vartotojų teisių apsaugos sutarčių analizavimas ir ES reglamentų bei direktyvų aptarimas šiuo klausimu. Vartojimo sutartis turi atitikti esminius požymius, kad silpnesniajai šaliai būtų suteikiamos vartotojų teisių apsaugos garantijos: 1) paslaugas turi įsigyti fizinis asmuo; 2) paslaugas įsigyjantis fizinis asmuo, jas turi įsigyti savo asmeniniams, šeimos, namų ūkio poreikiams tenkinti; 3) paslaugas teikia fizinis ar juridinis asmuo, kuris yra laikomas verslininku ir... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / The title of this work: Does a lawyer providing legal services to private persons under recoverable concluded contracts for legal services must be recognized as an entrepreneur in consumer protection in law terms? The national law of Member States of the European Union is subject to the regulations and directives that must followed by the Member States, but there are areas where the competence is shared between the European Union and its Member States as concerns the legally binding law-making in a certain area, and the competence is exercised by the Member States to the extent that the EU did exercise or decided not to exercise. The Supreme Court of the Republic of Lithuanian has applied to the European Court of Justice for a preliminary ruling regarding the issue of autonomous interpretation of the EU law in 2013. The problem raised in this work is whether a lawyer can be recognized as an entrepreneur who provides chargeable legal services to natural persons in respect of protection of the consumer rights. This work aims to: 1) identify principles of the professional practice of lawyers; 2) analyze contents of the legal services provided by lawyers; 3) examine the concepts of business and entrepreneur, and business peculiarities; 4) compare activities of entrepreneurs and lawyers, to highlighting the similarities and differences; 5) analysis of treaties on consumer rights and discussion of EU regulations and directives on this issue. Consumer contracts must comply with the... [to full text]

Liability for Defects in Civil Law The goal of my thesis is to analyze the legal institute of liability for defects in the Czech Civil Law. The main focus is on the Civil Code, complemented by other relevant regulations in the area of liability for defective goods. Due to a major new private law codex that will replace the current Civil Code starting year 2014, thesis also includes new legislation overview and its comparison to the old one. The goal of this paper is to both describe and analyze the issues regarding the liability for defect, its impact and practical aspects related to it. My work draws from current literature and for a better overview of the matter also presents some judicial cases dealing with liability for defects. Thesis is divided into several parts, each dealing with different aspect of liability for defects. First part introduces a reader into civil liability in general and describes its systematics. Next part deals with a current legislation that regulates a civil liability. Third part already goes through the liability for defects and its different dimensions. Fourth part focuses on liability for defects in relation to consumers. In the next section thesis describes different aspects of liability for defects. How the liability for defects is established is a content of the fifth...

Charles University in Prague Faculty of Law Department of Civil Law Private law aspects of consumer protection Diploma Thesis Abstract Roman Matějka Supervisor: prof. JUDr. Jiří Švestka, DrSc. Prague, September 2011 Abstract Private law aspects of consumer protection The aim of this thesis is to analyze the issue of consumer protection in private law. The author focused mainly on the latest changes in the applicable legislation dealing with the consumer protection. The thesis also contains critical evaluation of current legislation and a comparison with the draft of the new Civil Code. The thesis should contribute to the discussion of the ongoing recodification of private law. The thesis is divided into ten chapters. The first chapter deals with the definition of the term consumer protection and consumer protection law. It also includes a brief excursion on the topic of consumer protection in public law. The second chapter consists of a list of acts that regulate consumer protection. First, it brings a list of national sources of consumer protection in the Czech legislation. It also contains an overview of the legislation protecting consumers in Community law, both in the primary, and the secondary legislation. The third chapter discusses the key terms of consumer protection - consumer and supplier. There...

of the Thesis: "Consumer loans - elements, selected clauses in consumer loan contracts, the protection of a consumer" The aim of this thesis is to describe in which ways laws regulating consumer credit effect praxis and contract provisions and how the praxis uses the limits given by the law. Author focuses on customer protection, law provisions, which should protect him and equalize his weaker position and state institutions, which control following this law provisions and administrative procedure in case of infringement of this law provisions. The thesis consists of four chapters. In the first chapter the author concentrates on economic factors of consumer credits and basic definitions of consumer credits. Second chapter is on the subject of law regulation. It is about general law regulation in civil code and new civil code and about specific law regulation in the statute of consumer credit. The law regulation in the statute of consumer credit is divided into 13 part- development of specific statutes on the subject of consumer credit, chronological succession, force, amendment, and discretion about consumer's ability to repay the loan, withdraw, notice, credit for buying goods, prepaying, agents, control and administrative offence, change of trade statute. Law provisions are commented and bound to...

Chapter one of this thesis examines how tying social insurance to marriage influences matching and marital decisions in the context of Sweden, and draws implications for when it is optimal to separate social insurance from marriage in modern societies. Chapter two analyzes firms' communication strategies in a market where consumers face attention constraints, and discusses regulation that can protect consumers from exploitation. Chapter three studies communication and coercion in the presence of an altruistic relationship, and offers a benevolent rationale for constraining liberty to protect individuals from self-harm, for example through safety mandates.