The Consumer Protection (Distance Selling) Regulations 2000 (totally repealed in June 2014 by The Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013 which in many respects are however similar regulations),

Statutory Instrument In many countries, a statutory instrument is a form of delegated legislation. United Kingdom Statutory instruments are the principal form of delegated or secondary legislation in the United Kingdom. National government Statutory instrument ...

2000/2334, implementsEnacted pursuant to European Communities Act 1972

European Directive A directive is a legal act of the European Union that requires member states to achieve a particular result without dictating the means of achieving that result. Directives first have to be enacted into national law by member states before the ...

br>97/7/EC
as UK law.By Regulation 3(2) it is implied they apply in Scotland, and by 1(2) they are expressly extended to Northern Ireland. They apply to

contract A contract is a legally enforceable agreement between two or more parties that creates, defines, and governs mutual rights and obligations between them. A contract typically involves the transfer of goods, services, money, or a promise to t ...

s "concluded between a supplier and a consumer under an organised distance sales or services provision scheme run by the supplier who, for the purposes of the contract, makes use of one or more means of distance communication" up to and including the moment the contract is agreed.Reg 3(1) The legislation provides rights to the consumer and obligations which the seller must fulfill. Typical cases where the Regulations apply include

goods In economics, goods are items that satisfy human wants and provide utility, for example, to a consumer making a purchase of a satisfying product. A common distinction is made between goods which are transferable, and services, which are not tra ...

or services ordered by

telephone A telephone is a telecommunications device that permits two or more users to conduct a conversation when they are too far apart to be easily heard directly. A telephone converts sound, typically and most efficiently the human voice, into el ...

or over the

Internet The Internet (or internet) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a ''internetworking, network of networks'' that consists ...

Definition of a consumer

A consumer is a "

natural person In jurisprudence, a natural person (also physical person in some Commonwealth countries, or natural entity) is a person (in legal meaning, i.e., one who has its own legal personality) that is an individual human being, distinguished from the br ...

who is acting for the purposes other than those of his trade, business or profession". The definition is slightly broader than that in the

Unfair Contract Terms Act 1977 The Unfair Contract Terms Act 1977c 50 is an Act of Parliament of the United Kingdom which regulates contracts by restricting the operation and legality of some contract terms. It extends to nearly all forms of contract and one of its most impo ...

, where the subjective requirement of ''the person not regarding himself as acting in the course of a business'' is not present. So, under the Regulations, someone who uses a company account or business details for tax obligations is still considered a consumer if the transaction is not one done for or on behalf of the business. A customer is a person who actually buys the product but this does not mean they have to use the product. The person who uses the product is called a consumer.

Obligations imposed upon the supplier

The supplier's obligations are mostly covered by Regulation 7, although other obligations are made by other regulations.

Information to be communicated before contract formation

* Who the supplier is, and their address (if payment is made up front) * A description of the goods or service * The cost, inclusive of any tax * Any delivery charge * How payment should be made and how the goods or services will be delivered * Notification of the right of cancellation (Regulations 10, 11 12 and 13) * Communication costs for forming the contract (for example, the cost of a premium-rate telephone number) * How long the contract offer is valid for *How long the contract will last, if it is not a one-off performance This information must be clear and comprehensible. Under Regulation 8 all this information must also be given to the consumer in a durable or storable medium along with all

terms and conditions A contractual term is "any provision forming part of a contract". Each term gives rise to a contractual obligation, the breach of which may give rise to litigation. Not all terms are stated expressly and some terms carry less legal gravity as th ...

, a geographical address and, if the contract could last over a year, the conditions for taking contractual action.

Performance of the contract

The seller must perform the contract within thirty days of its being made. If a supplier cannot meet the contract, he must within another thirty days pay back any money and return any other property that the consumer used to secure the contract, and tell the consumer that he has done so.

Rights of the consumer

Cancellation

If the supplier has provided all the information to be communicated before contract formation, the consumer has an automatic right to cancel and rescind a contract at any time from its formation until seven working days after the goods are delivered; or for service contracts, seven working days after the contract is formed (which might be before the service was to have been performed). From 13 June 2014 The Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013 replaced the 2000 Regulations and in particular incorporate now a 14-day cancellation period, not seven days. Where the supplier has not provided the consumer with all the required information, the ''consumer'' has an automatic right to rescind the contract within three months and seven days of delivery of the goods, or of formation of the contract (service contracts). The Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013 replacing the 2000 regulations changed such 3-month period to 12 months

Effects of cancellation

Regulation 14 obliges the supplier to reimburse the consumer within thirty days of the consumer giving notice of cancellation (and to reimburse any delivery costs). Regulation 17 obliges the consumer to take reasonable care of goods and deliver them when the supplier comes to collect them. Where there is an agreement that the consumer will return the goods by post, it is at the consumer's cost except if the goods are faulty or not as described as per the

Sale of Goods Act 1979 The Sale of Goods Act 1979c 54 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom which regulated English contract law and UK commercial law in respect of goods that are sold and bought. The Act consolidated the original Sale of Goods Act 1893 ...

in which case the supplier reimburses both the delivery and return costs

Fraudulent use of a payment card

Regulation 21 defines "Fraudulent use of a payment card". If a consumer's payment card is charged fraudulently, the money must be paid back to the consumer by the card issuer. The Consumer Credit Act 1974 makes a joint and several obligation on both the seller and the card issuer to refund money

Unsolicited goods

If goods are sent to a consumer without a contract asking for them, the "recipient may ..use, deal with, or dispose of the goods as if they were an unconditional gift to him" and " e rights of the sender to the goods are extinguished". This is intended to prevent companies purporting to demand payment for goods a consumer receives unexpectedly. This provision amends the Unsolicited Goods Act 1971, which defines goods only as unsolicited goods if they have been deliberately sent to the recipient with the intention of them being used.

Extinction of consumer rights

No contractual term can limit or exclude the

legal liability In law, liable means "responsible or answerable in law; legally obligated". Legal liability concerns both civil law and criminal law and can arise from various areas of law, such as contracts, torts, taxes, or fines given by government agen ...

of a supplier for the provisions of the Act if the contractual term is inconsistent with

consumer protection Consumer protection is the practice of safeguarding buyers of goods and services, and the public, against unfair practices in the marketplace. Consumer protection measures are often established by law. Such laws are intended to prevent busines ...

legislation.

Excepted contracts

Regulation 5Reg 5 explicitly excludes some kinds of contract from being governed by the Regulations. These are contracts that are: * (a) Made for the sale or other disposition of an interest in land except for a

rental agreement A rental agreement is a contract of rental, usually written, between the owner of a property and a renter who desires to have temporary possession of the property; it is distinguished from a lease, which is more typically for a fixed term. As a ...

* (b) Made for the construction of a building where the contract also provides for a sale or other disposition of an interest in land on which the building is constructed, except for a rental agreement * (c) Relating to financial services, a non-exhaustive list of which is contained in Schedule 2 * (d) Concluded by means of an automated vending machine or automated commercial premises * (e) Concluded with a telecommunications operator through the use of a public

payphone A payphone (alternative spelling: pay phone) is typically a coin-operated public telephone, often located in a telephone booth or in high-traffic outdoor areas, with prepayment by inserting money (usually coins) or by billing a credit or debit ...

* (f) Concluded at an

auction An auction is usually a process of buying and selling goods or services by offering them up for bids, taking bids, and then selling the item to the highest bidder or buying the item from the lowest bidder. Some exceptions to this definition e ...

. The legal definition of what constitutes a rental agreement differs between England and Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland and places outside of the United Kingdom, but the Regulations encompass the differences to bring a common sense definition to what is, and what is not, a rental agreement

Enforcement

The Regulations are enforced by the Director-General of Fair Trade and the

Office of Fair Trading The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) was a non-ministerial government department of the United Kingdom, established by the Fair Trading Act 1973, which enforced both consumer protection and competition law, acting as the United Kingdom's economic re ...

(OFT). Complaints are made directly to the Director-General and the OFT then investigates infringements, issues injunctions and litigates on behalf of the consumer.

Notes

References

{{reflist, 25em English contract law 2000 in British law Consumer protection in the United Kingdom Statutory Instruments of the United Kingdom