In Short
- The Consumer Rights Act 2015 sets out statutory rights for consumers purchasing goods, services and digital content, requiring that goods be of satisfactory quality, fit for purpose and as described.
- Businesses must provide remedies when consumer rights are breached, including repair, replacement, price reduction or refund, with specific timeframes applying to each remedy.
- The Act also regulates unfair contract terms in consumer contracts, rendering certain terms unenforceable if they create significant imbalance to the consumer’s detriment.
Tips for Businesses
Review your standard terms and conditions to ensure compliance with the Consumer Rights Act. Train customer-facing staff on consumer rights and remedy procedures. Establish clear processes for handling complaints, returns and refunds within the statutory timeframes. Ensure product descriptions and marketing materials accurately reflect what you’re selling. Keep records of all customer transactions and complaints. Consider how the Act applies to your specific business model, particularly if you sell digital content or services.
Summary
This article explains the Consumer Rights Act 2015 for businesses selling to consumers in the United Kingdom. LegalVision’s business lawyers, specialising in advising clients on consumer law and commercial contracts, outline the key provisions and compliance requirements.
If your business sells goods, digital content or services to consumers in the UK, you should be aware that you will be subject to the rules of a highly regulated consumer protection legal framework.
The Consumer Rights Act 2015 (CRA) is a key law in this area. It sets out rules that affect your responsibilities and risks when you make a contract with a consumer. It is essential to understand the Act’s business implications for compliance and risk prevention, as it directly affects how your business handles customers and issues.
This article explores the Consumer Rights Act from a business supplier’s perspective, offering an introduction to some of its key rules, and considers risk areas and preventative measures to safeguard your business when dealing with consumer customers.
This factsheet summarises the key changes under the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024, including new consumer protection laws, CMA powers, rules on fake reviews, and simplified subscription contracts.
Understanding Key Consumer Law Rights
The CRA sets out strict statutory standards your business must meet when you supply goods, services or digital content to consumers. These rules apply automatically, and you cannot contract out of them.
The rules include:
- consumers’ statutory rights and remedies for goods, services and digital content,
- unfair and transparent terms (including grey-listed terms likely to be unfair),
- provisions around general and enforcement provisions,
- investigatory powers,
- enhanced consumer measures,
- and additional obligations.
The Act further sets out key definitions that determine when its rules apply.
Complying With Consumer Law
Complying with consumer law is essential across a wide range of business models, and the CRA provides a legal framework for consumer protection. Under its rules, you must ensure your goods are:
- of satisfactory quality;
- fit for purpose; and
- as described.
Consumers have the right to reject goods within 30 days for a full refund where they are faulty, and may also be entitled to repair, replacement, or (where issues persist) they may be entitled to a price reduction or final right to reject.
For digital content and services, you must ensure your services or digital content:
- meet the agreed terms;
- are of satisfactory quality; and
- are fit for purpose.
When you supply goods, they must match samples or models, be correctly installed if installation is part of the contract, and must come without any undisclosed restrictions or charges. You must also meet your delivery obligations.
Digital content should meet the standards of satisfactory quality, fitness for purpose and description. Where faulty digital content causes damage to a consumer’s device or to other digital content, the Act entitles the consumer to repair the damage or provide appropriate financial compensation in certain circumstances.
For services, you must:
- carry them out with reasonable care and skill;
- provide the service within a reasonable time if no timeframe was agreed; and
- deliver what the consumer relied on when deciding to go ahead.
If the service is not up to standard, the consumer can ask you to fix it by doing the work again. If that is not possible, or cannot be done in a reasonable time without causing inconvenience, they may be entitled to a price reduction.
Continue reading this article below the formPractical Steps to Reduce Risk
While consumer law rules are strict, there are practical steps your business can take to help reduce risk when trading with consumers.
Managing Consumer Issues in Practice
When a consumer raises a concern, your response will play a vital role in ensuring legal compliance with your obligations and preventing further escalation and potential disputes.
You should:
- respond promptly;
- clearly explain what will happen next; and
- thoroughly assess the issue.
You should record delivery dates, reported faults, actions taken and any repair or replacement attempts. When dealing with goods-related issues, make sure you follow the correct steps for remedies. If you are unsure, get legal advice to avoid denying a customer’s rights or choosing the wrong solution.
Supporting Compliance Through Staff Training
Training your team on core principles of the Consumer Rights Act can also significantly help to reduce risk. Customer-facing staff should understand consumer rights and remedies, and know how to escalate complex cases.
Strengthening Your Position with Clear Consumer Terms
Clear, accurate and legally compliant terms and conditions are essential for reducing risk. Without comprehensive terms, your business can face disputes over common pain points such as payment, delivery or termination.
Your terms must explain how:
- consumers can raise problems
- your business will check for faults, and
- legal remedy options.
They should clearly describe the relevant delivery processes, payment rules, cancellation policies and refund procedures in straightforward language. Remember, UK consumer law offers extra protections, and you cannot exclude or limit the legal rights under the Act. Tailored, professionally drafted terms that reflect your actual business processes can provide a strong contractual foundation and help reduce the risk.
Wider Consumer Laws and Risks
Although the CRA forms a central framework for the sale of goods, services and digital content, it sits alongside wider consumer laws.
For example, the Consumer Contracts Regulations require you to give important information to consumers before a sale and give them a 14-day period to cancel many online or distance purchases.
The Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 introduced ground-breaking reforms around matters such as pricing transparency, subscription rules and cancellation processes and heavily strengthened enforcement powers for non-compliance, including the power to impose significant financial penalties.
Key Takeaways
The CRA places important legal obligations on a business. Consumers have specific rights and remedies under this law, which you need to understand and follow.
To help reduce risk, you should:
- seek legal advice to ensure you recognise your responsibilities;
- train your staff on the rules; and
- put in place clear, compliant terms and conditions to set expectations and protect your business.
LegalVision provides ongoing legal support for small businesses through our fixed-fee legal membership. Our experienced lawyers help businesses manage contracts, employment law, disputes, intellectual property and more, with unlimited access to specialist lawyers for a fixed monthly fee. To learn more about LegalVision’s legal membership, call 0808 258 4780 or visit our membership page.
Frequently Asked Questions
Clear terms and conditions will help set expectations from the outset with your consumer customers. For instance, your terms can explain how customers can raise issues, rules around delivery and refunds and other key terms which allow you to reduce potential for misunderstandings and avoid disputes.
Consumer law is complex and applies differently depending on what you sell and how you sell it as a trader – the rules are not one-size-fits-all. Legal advice can help you understand the rules and how they work, avoid mistakes, ensure your consumer terms comply with legal requirements and reduce the risk of complaints or regulatory action. Given the breadth and complexity of consumer laws, legal advice is important in order to ensure you are fully comfortable with your compliance obligations.
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