Consumer protection has become an important issue in many spheres of trade. This fact is borne out by the many consumer protection laws introduced in many countries globally. However, despite these developments Swaziland is lagging behind. Obviously, this state of affairs has left consumers in Swaziland in a totally vulnerable position. Consumers are often exploited in two material respects. They are either subjected to unfair contract terms in the provision of services, or supplied with defective products having the potential of causing serious bodily harm. In protecting consumers the common law has been judicially developed over many centuries to curb these unfair trading practices. The doctrine of freedom of contract has been the driving force in regulating the relations between consumers and suppliers. The import of this doctrine is the unyielding recognition of an individual’s autonomy in the conclusion of consumer transactions. The underlying percepts of this doctrine are privity of contract, which only recognises obligations between contracting parties, and pacta sunt servanda which requires contractual undertakings to be recognised. The operation of contractual freedom in concluding agreements often leads to unfair results against consumers because suppliers usually impose unfair terms as a result of their stronger bargaining power over consumers. In short, problems faced by consumers were twofold; first, they have to battle the issue of potentially harmful goods, and secondly, their economically weak bargaining position is exploited by suppliers through the use of unfair contract terms. Many countries, including the United Kingdom and South Africa, addressed these two consumer issues decisively through statutory reform aimed at protecting consumers against potentially harmful products and unfair contract terms. Swaziland requires statutory reformative measures that will ensure a shift from the current consumer framework regulated by outmoded common law principles towards a modern framework that will comply with international standards. / Thesis (LL.M)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2012.

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This dissertation is a collection of three essays that study the market for consumer information. The first chapter studies the role of information intermediaries and their impact on consumer privacy. The second chapter presents an analysis of signaling in credit and insurance markets through default and repayment decisions. The third chapter studies some special topics such the manipulation of credit histories by fake borrowing or deletion of records. It also identifies a learning mechanism through which uninformed consumers can endogenously learn the link between credit market behavior and insurance market outcomes. / text

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For some time now, Article 2061 of the French Civil Code had laid down the general principle that arbitration clauses were invalid. In 2001, an amendment to Article 2061 reversed the concept, so that the former principle became the exception and the law was made to favour arbitration. While the reform was a progressive step, it did leave some ambiguity especially concerning the consumer disputes. Arbitration is indeed a very convenient alternative dispute resolution method in this arena. The purpose of this thesis is to address some of the issues related to consumer disputes. It seeks to demonstrate that by adopting the concept of "inefficiency" of the arbitration clause, whose sanction depends on the will of the consumer, French law will not only reconcile its domestic provisions but also be in accordance with the other judicial systems.

The thesis covers the field of the contract law known as the consumer credit law. It deals with the legal protection afforded to the consumer under current South African law with emphasis on the legal position in specific credit agreements contained in standard-form contracts. The thesis focuses on those credit contracts in which the legal relationship between the consumer and the dominant party is contained in the standard-form contracts, specifically credit agreements relating to money lending transactions in which the credit grantor’s rights are secured either by means of mortgage agreement, a suretyship contract, or a deed of cession. In South Africa the right to equality and human dignity, as opposed to the classical theories of contract: pacta sunt servanda and the principle of freedom of contract, are supported by the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa Act 108 of 1996 which entrenched democratic values permeating all areas of the law including contract law. In this thesis the harmonisation of these classical theories of contract law and the constitutional values of human dignity and equality have been considered. As has been shown in a number of cases, notably those relating to the contracts of suretyship, cession in securitatem debiti, and mortgage, the current law regulating the relationship between the credit grantors and the credit receivers is in need of law reform to fall in line with the constitutional values of equality and human dignity. The greatest difficulty inherent in this area of the law is the reluctance of the courts to intervene at the instance of consumers. The courts would only intervene in the clearest of the cases, and would only do so in the public interest. In this thesis the current South African Law is considered in the light of the developments elsewhere. The tendency of credit providers to alter the terms of the contracts unilaterally and the growing number of conflicting decisions of the Provincial Divisions of High Court has also been considered. The writer also considers the role of the newly created Consumer Affairs Court.

The researcher attempts to assess in which respect the privacy of former President Kgalema Motlanthe may have been invaded during his presidency, in view of journalistic ethics and press codes currently in effect. The study will explore media practices based on media freedom at the time of publication, and assess whether this freedom is understood to suggest the infringement of the right to privacy in the coverage of the private lives of politicians in the media. This study will therefore examine a sample of articles from the Sunday Times, City Press and Mail and Guardian, covering former President Kgalema Motlanthe’s public behaviour that related to his private life, assess which aspects of his demeanour became the subject of media coverage, and correlate such reporting trends with fluctuations in his political career. The researcher will focus on the period when Kgalema Motlanthe was at the helm as the Head of State – from October 2008 to April 2009, and consider particularly the trends in the sampled press reports regarding his private life. The study furthermore examines some of the legislative and normative changes that affected the media in South Africa after democratisation, to correlate the trends observed in the press coverage with legislation. This further serves to identify possible gray areas that arise from reporting on the freedom of the press and may lead to the invasion of privacy.

This research focuses on online payment methods which are premised on electronic funds transfer. It is a general discourse that the use of online payment methods is risky. It is held that the fear of fraud and abuse of a payment system is at the focal point of such risk. Banks which provide these payment systems are usually not prepared to negotiate with their prospective customers. Resultantly, banks contract out of the risk associated with online payments, specifically the liability for unauthorized electronic funds transfers. This culminates in bank’s customers bearing the majority of that risk as a result of the bank-customer contract. Some of the laws applicable to this relationship also ascribe to the notion above. They burden bank’s customers solely with the liability of the use of their cards until notification to the bank of its theft or misuse. This shows a completed disregard of the nature of how online payment methods operate. Such imposition of liability is excessively one-sided in favour of the banks and detrimental to the bank’s customers. Ultimately, the scope of application of the current applicable consumer protection laws is limited by factors such as non-applicability to juristic persons or limitation based on asset value for those that do. This thus denotes a large segment of online payment methods users who cannot avail themselves to measures of protection provided for by the current applicable consumer protection laws. The research aims to avert the issues as demonstrated above, provide clarity in pursuit of equity and compliance, plus a comprehensive consumer protection approach for online payment methods users. / Mini Dissertation (LLM)--University of Pretoria, 2019. / Mercantile Law / LLM / Unrestricted

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published_or_final_version / Public Administration / Master / Master of Public Administration