In the first news snippet in this series I looked at why the Consumer Protection Act has been introduced, and what the first chapter focuses on.
Chapter 2: Fundamental Consumer Rights
There is a lot of relevant stuff in Chapter 2, so I’m going to break it down into bite size chunks. This week I’ll focus [...]

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Let’s face it, despite the fact that we’re all excited to be amongst the most protected consumers in the world, no-one really wants to read a hundred-and-something page Act to find out all the details. With this in mind, we’ve put together a series of short news snippets which will help you to get [...]

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The Consumer Protection Bill was finally signed into law on 24 April 2009 by President Motlanthe. This is definitely worth getting excited about because it means that all South African consumers will be better protected and empowered to realise their rights.
For example you will legally be able to cancel contracts if you are not [...]

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On 21 October 2008 the National Assembly stamped its approval on the Competition Amendment Bill.  This follows its adoption by the National Council of Provinces on 25 September 2008, with proposed amendments to personal liability and cartel activity clauses.
The Bill was implemented to strengthen the existing provisions of the Competition Act and covers the [...]

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According to a recent Business Report article , the Consumer Protection Bill has hit a delay due to the fact that thorough consultation around a clause about genetically modified organisms (GMO) was not carried out.
As a section 76 bill, the legislation is required by the constitution to have received the appropriate mandates from [...]

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Will the Consumer Protection Bill help to alleviate poverty in SA?
The Department of Trade and Industry has assured us that the Consumer Protection Bill will be passed as law in December 2008.  Once this happens South Africans will be amongst the best protected consumers in the world, on paper at least.  The core [...]

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Guest post by Janusz Luterek, a Partner of Hahn and Hahn Attorneys.
Recently Parliament adopted a revised version of the Consumer Protection Bill.  Although many of the amendments made by the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee were aesthetic and grammatical in nature, there are several notable exceptions:

The Act will apply to all [...]

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The National Assembly adopted the Bill on 26 September 2008.  It will now go back to the National Council of Provinces (NCOP) to consider and adopt the changes effected by the National Assembly. According to a dti spokesperson, they do not foresee any significant delays to the Bill being passed as a result [...]

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Best practice requires that organisations do have a procedure for dealing appropriately with consumer complaints. According to the British Standards Institution, one of the leading suppliers of management systems, codes of conduct should form part of an effective approach to complaints management. And the International Standards Organisation has recently published ISO 10001, a [...]

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At the public hearings of the Consumer Protection Bill in Cape Town last week, the deputy director-general of consumer and corporate regulation, Zodwa Ntuli, unpacked the definitions of “consumer” and “supplier” as they have been used in the Bill.
The definition of a “supplier” used in the Consumer Protection Bill encompasses more than just a [...]

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