Consumer Law and Consumer Rights
Consumer law protects buyers when they purchase goods or services, setting minimum legal standards a business must meet regardless of what it advertises.
Method
- Identify which of the three main standards, satisfactory quality, fit for purpose, or as described, is relevant to the fault described in the case.
- Identify how long ago the consumer bought the good, since this affects their remedy: within 30 days, the short-term right to reject for a full refund normally applies; after 30 days, the consumer is normally entitled to a repair or replacement first.
- Identify the specific remedy available: refund, repair, replacement, or, if repair or replacement is not possible or fails, a price reduction or final refund.
- For explain questions on the impact of consumer law on a business, identify the specific cost created, e.g. staff time or postage handling a return, or lost stock from a faulty item, and link it to a consequence for the business's costs or profit.
- For explain questions on the benefit of complying, link accurate product descriptions and good quality control to fewer returns and complaints and to stronger customer trust and repeat purchases.
- For evaluate questions on how a business should respond to a rise in returns or complaints, weigh the cost of improving quality control or product descriptions against the ongoing cost of handling returns and the reputational risk of not acting, using detail from the case.
- Remember consumer law applies to the seller, the business the consumer bought from, not the manufacturer, so a retailer selling a faulty item made by someone else is still legally responsible to the consumer.
Worked example
Orla bought a blender from Kitchenway, an online retailer, 12 days ago. The blender stopped working the first time she used it. Explain, using the Consumer Rights Act 2015, what Kitchenway is legally required to offer Orla.
- Identify the standard breached: the blender is not of satisfactory quality, since it stopped working on first use.
- Identify the timeframe: Orla is within 30 days of the purchase.
- Apply the rule for this timeframe: under the Consumer Rights Act 2015, a consumer within the first 30 days has the short-term right to reject faulty goods for a full refund.
- Identify what Kitchenway must offer: Kitchenway must offer Orla a full refund if she chooses to reject the blender, rather than only a repair or replacement.
- Write the explained answer: because the blender is faulty, not of satisfactory quality, and Orla is still within 30 days of buying it, the Consumer Rights Act 2015 requires Kitchenway to offer her a full refund if she rejects it, rather than being able to insist on only a repair or replacement.
Practice questions
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Q1Name the main UK law protecting consumers when buying goods.Show answer
Answer: The Consumer Rights Act 2015.
Q2State the three main standards goods must meet under the Consumer Rights Act 2015.Show answer
Answer: Satisfactory quality, fit for purpose, and as described.
Q3State the length of the short-term right to reject faulty goods for a full refund.Show answer
Answer: 30 days from the date of purchase.
Q4Give one remedy available to a consumer after the 30-day period has passed.Show answer
Answer: A repair or a replacement.
Q5Explain what fit for purpose means under consumer law.Show answer
Answer: The good must be able to do what it is reasonably expected to do, and what the seller specifically said it could do.
Q6State one cost to a business of dealing with a faulty product return.Show answer
Answer: For example, the cost of a replacement item, postage, or staff time processing the return or refund.
Q7Explain why accurate product descriptions benefit a business, as well as being a legal requirement.Show answer
Answer: Accurate descriptions reduce the number of as-described complaints and returns, saving the business money and protecting its reputation and customer trust.
Exam-style questions
Written in the style of a GCSE Business exam paper, with a full mark scheme.
Explain two reasons why a business should keep accurate, honest descriptions of its products online.
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Fenwick Electricals sells kettles online. Over the past year, 18% of kettles sold have been returned as faulty within a month, well above the 3% return rate the owner expects is normal for the industry. Investing 30,000 pounds in a new quality-control testing line before dispatch is expected to cut the fault rate to around 4%. Evaluate whether Fenwick Electricals should make this investment.
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See real GCSE Business past-paper questions, with official mark schemes →
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