Government to revamp consumer laws

The Government is planning to revamp and streamline 12 UK consumer statutory laws by creating a new Consumer Bill of Rights.

By consolidating the many current confusing and overlapping pieces of legislation and regulations, the Government can update irrelevant clauses.

It is hoped the move will make it easier for people to understand their rights, and provide stronger protection.

It will also be a way of transposing the new European Union Consumer Rights Directive into UK law and give consumers protection for digital content; which is currently weak.

Consumer minister Edward Davey said: "Consumer law in the UK comes from a variety of acts and regulation, making it complex and confusing. This is bad for consumers and bad for business as people don't know their rights and the cost of compliance for business is higher than necessary."

Although at the early discussion stages, the new Consumer Bill of Rights will require the Government to repeal or substantially amend current laws.

A representative for the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) said laws likely to be completely scrapped include the Consumer Protection (Distance Selling) Regulations 2000 and the 2005 amendment to this legislation. Most of the protection under these regulations is already included in the new EU Consumer Rights Directive.

Also due to be repealed are the Sale and Supply of Goods to Consumers Regulations 2002, Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations 1999 and the 2001 amendment.

In addition, the BIS said the consumer law elements of other legislation will either be repealed or substantially amended. These include the Supply of Goods (Implied Terms) Act 1973, Sale of Goods Act 1979, Supply of Goods and Services Act 1982, Sale and Supply of Goods and Services Act 1994, Unfair Contract Terms Act 1977 and Misrepresentation Act 1967 .

"The Consumer Bill of Rights will consolidate, clarify and strengthen the consumer laws already in place, which will make it easier for everyone to understand and consumer rights in the UK will be stronger than ever. This Bill will give everyone a single place to find all their consumer rights," said Mr Davey.