About the Book

Consumer Sales Law

Consumer sales law involves the law relating to the supply of goods to consumers, in the last 50 years becoming a very significant part of the UK economy. Legally, it has become unnecessarily complicated because of the many strands of the law applicable. Much of this can be traced to the attraction consumer protection exerts over politicians, the last five years seeing an upheaval in consumer credit law, embodied in numerous heavyweight statutory instruments and a major new Consumer Credit Act in 2006. This book includes an attempt to equip the reader with an idea of how this fast-changing subject is likely to develop through the inclusion of those reform proposals which as at publication seem likely to take hold.

Additionally, it has recently embarked on a technical revolution. Whereas in the twentieth century the subject was firmly grounded in the common law of contract and tort, as amended by strict liability crimes fashioned in numerous traditional Westminster Statutes, in this century it is fast being taken over by the European Union. Already, important parts have been recast by the UK Parliament in obedience to EU Directives, much of the principle now being found in Statutory Instruments; but this is not always obvious because the outward form remains the traditional Westminster pattern. This development seems destined to continue at an accelerating rate. The Unfair Commercial Practices Directive 2005 is already being implemented here; and a major Consumer Credit Directive is presently being drafted in Brussels. It is not inconceivable that in another generation even the common law base of the subject will have been replaced.

At the same time, the subject shows signs of being prised from the grasp of the English legal profession as traditionally constituted. Even if much of the work continues to be done by those with legal training, this century has already seen an enormous escalation of the intervention of consumer advisers and debt advisers; official protection of consumers undertaken by public officials armed with the power to seek injunctions to protect consumers generally; and repair the courts for the adjudication of particular disputes replaced by ombudsmen.