Act to fuel consumer activism

Johannesburg - The new Consumer Protection Act (CPA) was likely to lead to an increase in consumer activism, attorney John Oxenham said on Friday.

He said the CPA would protect consumers from unconscionable, unfair, unreasonable, unjust or otherwise improper trade practices.

It would also protect them from deceptive, misleading, unfair or fraudulent conduct.

"The purpose of the act is to provide for an accessible, consistent, harmonised, effective and efficient system for redress," he told a presentation.

Under the new act, every consumer had a right to receive goods that were reasonably suitable for the purposes for which they were generally intended.

The goods had to be of good quality, in good working order and free of any defects.

Goods also had to be useable and durable for a reasonable period of time, having regard to the use to which they would normally be put, Oxenham noted.

He said the producer, manufacturer, importer, distributor or retailer of any goods would be liable for any harm caused as a consequence of supply of any unsafe goods.

They would also be liable for harm caused by a product failure, defect or hazard, or inadequate instructions or warnings provided to the consumer about a hazard arising from the use of the goods.

"Liability arises irrespective of whether the harm resulted from any negligence on the part of the producer, importer, distributor or retailer as the case may be - in other words, strict liability has been introduced," he said.

The CPA would expose businesses engaging in prohibited conduct and it provided for fines of up to a million rand or 10% of turnover, he said.

The Consumer Protection Act 68 of 2008 was signed into law by President Kgalema Motlanthe on April 29, 2009.

The act only becomes operational, however, on October 29, 2010.

- Sapa