Doctorat en Sciences / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

Submitted in fulfillment of the requirements of the Master’s Degree in Marketing, Durban University of Technology, 2017. / As a result of weaker bargaining power, consumers are often exploited or treated unfairly in the business arena. Whilst consumer abuse is a global problem, South African consumers are more vulnerable due to various socio-economic conditions that affect their ability to negotiate equally in the marketplace. Factors such as poverty and illiteracy contribute to consumer abuse and is perpetuated by the discrimination which was inherent in the apartheid era. Accordingly, the Consumer Protection Act, 2008 (CPA) was promulgated to promote the respect for consumer rights, create awareness, enhance consumer protection and eliminate unfair and dishonest business practices which were prevalent at the time. This study aims to investigate the implications of consumer rights for service delivery within the retail sector. The main objective of this research was to explore the levels of awareness of consumer rights and to identify consumers’ expectations and perceptions of service delivery in relation to the CPA. The research design was quantitative in nature. A questionnaire was designed to assess the levels of awareness of rights and consumers’ expectations and perceptions of the service delivered by retailers, in relation to the service quality dimensions. Using convenience sampling, data was obtained from 337 respondents in the greater Durban area. Data was analysed using SPSS version 24.0 and interpreted using descriptive and inferential statistics. The findings of the gap analysis revealed that the respondents’ perceptions of service quality was consistently lower than their expectations, in respect of several dimensions of service quality. These negative gaps indicate that the level of the delivered service had fallen below the respondents’ expectations of service quality amongst retailers. This implies that respondents’ were dissatisfied with business compliance with provisions of the CPA. Businesses are hence encouraged to take steps to ensure legal compliance, thereby enhancing customer satisfaction and attaining higher levels of service excellence. / M

The aim of this thesis is to examine the highly topical subject of regulation surrounding commercial practices. This examination is divided into four chapters. The first chapter looks at the notion of commercial practices by considering both the linguistic and legal definition of the term, and the importance of the regulation is proved. The second chapter deals with the question of division of law into its public and private counterparts. The discussion of the consequences of this division are crucial for a better analysis of the actual implementation of the EU Directive 2005/29/CE on unfair commercial practices. In the third chapter, the scope of application of this Directive is analysed and the main principles of regulation are described. The final section focuses on the Czech law on unfair commercial practices. In this segment, the text of the provisions of the Czech Code of Consumer Protection is compared to the Directive, and the system of legal redress and sanctions in the Code of Consumer Protection is critically analysed. The legal regulation of "promotional events", during which the ban of unfair commercial practices is often breached, is placed under scrutiny. The Directive was also implemented into the Code of Regulation of Advertisement. One subchapter of the fourth chapter is therefore...

No abstract available. / Dissertation (LLM)--University of Pretoria, 2013. / gm2014 / Mercantile Law / unrestricted

LL.M. / Despite payment cards being of a fairly recent origin,1 these instruments of payment play an increasingly significant role in commerce. With reference to credit cards, Cornelius already in 2003 stated: “They fulfil various functions that are increasingly important at a time that ecommerce is taking off at a tremendous pace.”2 Similarly criminals continuously use more inventive and technologically advanced methods to commit fraud, including counterfeit card fraud. Is the South African criminal law, however, keeping up? The aim of this study is to investigate whether the various activities which form part of the criminal business value chain relating to counterfeit card fraud, with specific reference to bank payment cards, are sufficiently criminalised in South Africa or whether the inability of our criminal law to address the challenges posed by this crime type necessitates the introduction of further legislation. In the first part of the dissertation the South African common and statutory criminal law is investigated in some depth to establish the applicability thereof on the activities forming part of the criminal business value chain relevant to counterfeit card fraud. The appropriateness of certain statutory provisions is questioned and recommendations are made to amend current legislation. An argument is also advanced for further development of the common-law offence of theft to include identity theft and the unlawful copying and subsequent use of data. Brief reference is made to the international situation. Chapter 2 is an introduction to bank payment card fraud in South Africa focusing on the most prevalent forms thereof being card-not-present fraud and counterfeit card fraud. Reference is made to the manner in which offences related to counterfeit card fraud are currently approached in our criminal courts and the limited impact prosecutions has on the prevalence of this fraud type.

Financial intermediation due to misselling harms consumers. The work concerns to regulation of financial intermediaries and relation between financial intermediary and his or her client. The main objective is to analyze how the regulatory of commissions impact financial intermediation. The paper analyzes the current form of legal status of financial intermediation in the European Union and the Czech Republic and results in analyzing the impacts of regulatory proposals that was discussed in Chamber of Deputies Parliament of the Czech Republic. It concludes that if the proposals were accepted, it will not improve the quality of consumer protection, but even can cause damage to the client. The current legislative base moreover provides sufficient resources to prosecuting financial intermediation, which does not respect the client's interest. For analyzing the relation between financial intermediary and his or her client is developed theoretical model based on theory of games.

La presente investigación aborda el problema de las altísimas tasas de interés que se cobran en los contratos de crédito de consumo por parte de la banca múltiple, puesto que es una situación anormal que tiene que encararse y solucionarse dentro del marco legal existente y mediante mecanismos institucionales que garanticen el respeto al Estado de Derecho. / Trabajo de investigación

The subject of this diploma thesis is financial literacy in Czech Republic. The main interest is the government concept explaining National Strategy on financial education and Financial Education System for elementary schools and high schools. The thesis also deals with consumer protection as it is integral part of financial literacy. Activities of Supranational organizations like European Union and Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development are presented enhancing their impact on steps taken by Czech government. Eventually analysis of own measuring financial literacy is performed bringing evaluated and compared results. Based on those recommendation are proposed.

The thesis is focused on dynamically developing field of the air transportation. It is based on rights and duties of airlines and consumers. It is mapping the most important current law moves of Czech Republic which has been changed and agreed for a consumer protection. It describes consumer rights in the case of a flight delay and cancellation, refusal of entry on the plane and in the case of baggage problems. It also touches the issues of advertised price of plane tickets. It is followed by the analysis of current situation of the observance of consumer rights and their point of view on some controversial topics.

The theme of this thesis are forms of advertising on social networks and consumer protection. The main informational source is above all research of specialized literature, articles, online or other sources in connection with author's own observations and analysis of the respective legislation and ultimately the comparison with author's gained professional experience. The result of this work is a comprehensive overview and introduction to the law of social networks and advertising, demonstration of the importance and significance of this topic and finally evaluation of the effectiveness of legislation that protects consumers in the environment of social networks.