THE recently published draft Consumer Rights Bill ("Bill") introduces a major overhaul and consolidation of consumer law in the UK.

Once in force, the proposed legislation should facilitate a better understanding for business owners of consumer laws, boost consumer confidence and hopefully, economic growth.

The main amendments are: (1) Consumer contracts for goods, services and digital – the Bill proposes new rights by giving contractual force to any pre-contractual information about the goods and services, which are taken into account in deciding whether to buy. The Bill also introduces a new category relating to digital content, which includes any data produced and supplied in digital form, which would cover digital content supplied online and on a physical medium. This new category will clarify the rights of consumers for repair or replacement of faulty digital content and what remedies are available to them, when digital downloads go wrong.

(2) Control of unfair contract terms in consumer contracts – consumer rights relating to unfair terms are strengthened by the Bill. Whilst the test applied to determine an “unfair term” will remain the same, its scope is extended to apply to consumer notices (e.g. in shops) which refer to rights or obligations between traders and consumers or purport to exclude or restrict a trader's liability to a consumer. It will be assumed that the notice is intended to be read by a customer. The fairness test will further extend to terms other than those relating to price and subject matter of the contract, whilst those terms that do relate to price and subject matter of the contract will only be exempt from the fairness test where they are presented in a plain and unambiguous manner. Current laws requiring terms to be intelligible will be reinforced by an obligation on traders to bring particularly onerous clauses to the attention of consumers.

(3) Clarification and strengthening of enforcement powers – current investigatory powers will be strengthened, together with improved rights for applying for injunctions and court orders. Further, enforcers will have the power to attach a variety of “enhanced consumer measures” to enforcement orders or undertakings to include compensation, termination rights, compliance measures and measures, such as requiring a supplier to sign up to an established customer review site.

All businesses should be familiar with the proposed changes and begin to review their standard terms and other consumer policies now, to ensure compliance with the new regime once it comes into effect. We would be pleased to assist in this, so please feel free to contact us.

*For more advice, contact Hermione Coutts, Solicitor, Commercial Department at Clarke Willmott, LLP, Blackbrook Park Avenue, Taunton, TA1 2PG. Phone 0845-2091334.