Consumer Law

Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations 1999

Introduction

Consumer law is a legal framework that is aimed at providing consumers with protection when they buy a service or product. Consumer law is a part of UK's legal system that is designed to ensure consumer protection against issues such as mis-selling and fraud while buying a service or product. Via legal bodies such as the Office of fair trading, the Government ensures the reinforcement of consumer law as well as an equitable and fair functionality of consumer markets within the boundaries of United Kingdom. Whenever a consumer in UK makes a purchase, his/her rights are protected in several ways by consumer law. Consumer law applies to the general purchase of services and products down to the specialist areas. For instance, a website that is selling products online with no physical premises is obliged to act in a way prescribed and described in the law to ensure the purchase on the part of consumer is fair and that his/her rights are protected. In a similar way, if a financial institution is selling a financial product such as credit agreement or a loan, consumer law requires the financial institution to give you a “cooling off period” for deliberation before you buy the financial product in case you change your mind (Beale, 2004, Pp. 289).

Consumer law in United Kingdom is altogether managed and enforced by the Office of Fair Trading however, if consumers are having problems or their issues need to be resolved instantaneously, their issues can be handled at a local level.

The unfair terms stated in the consumer contracts regulations 1999 tend to protect the consumers against any kind of unfair standard terms that are used in the contracts at the time when they make dealing in the business. However, these terms become useless when the contract terms in the business are negotiated on an individual basis. There are several bodies and authorities present in the country that have a control on the use of such unfair terms. They can also recommend the use of such terms. One of those bodies is the OFT (OFT, 2010).

Statement of Unfair Contract Terms

The unfair terms in the consumer contract regulations of 1999 states that the consumer is not bound by the contract that is standard termed with a supplier or the seller in the condition when the term is unfair. The scope of the statements present in the unfair terms of the consumer regulations is a broad one that focuses on the legal and lawful explanations of the rules and regulations in the consumer industry. It does not provide a lengthy and detailed list of the possible unfair terms that could be termed as unfair by the contract or considered to be unclear within the context of a contract. Rather, the consumer regulations statements of unfair contact and terms defines and set the parameters of the contract and the unfair terms which are commonly used in the consumer industry and the businesses (The Stationary Office, ...