Consumer Protection Act Article 1: When does it apply?

In this series, we shall consider the rights of the consumer according to the Consumer Protection Act 68 of 2008 (“the Act”).

In this article, we shall discuss when the Act applies to a transaction.

The Act applies to: -

1. every transaction occurring within the Republic unless it is a transaction:




(a) in terms of which goods or services are promoted or supplied to the State;

(b) in terms of which a consumer is a juristic person whose asset value or annual turnover, at the time of the transaction, equals or exceeds R 2 000 000.00;

(c) if the transaction is exempted by national legislation, treaty, international law, convention or protocol;

(d) that constitutes a credit agreement under the National Credit Act, but the goods or services that are the subject of the credit agreement are not excluded from the ambit of the Act;

(e) pertaining to services to be supplied under an employment contract;

(f) giving effect to a collective bargaining agreement;

(g) giving effect to a collective agreement as defined in section 213 of the Labour Relations Act.




2. the following arrangements must be regarded as a transaction between a supplier and consumer, within the meaning of the Act:




(a) The supply of any goods or services in the ordinary course of business to any of its members by a club, trade union, association, society or other collectivity, whether corporate or unincorporated, of persons voluntarily associated and organised for a common purpose or purposes, whether for fair value consideration or otherwise, irrespective of whether there is a charge or economic contribution demanded or expected in order to become or remain a member of that entity;

(b) a solicitation of offers to enter into a franchise agreement;

(c) an offer by a potential franchisor to enter into a franchise agreement with a potential franchisee;

(d) a franchise agreement or an agreement supplementary to a franchise agreement; and

(e) the supply of any goods or services to a franchisee in terms of a franchise agreement



3. the promotion of any goods or services, or of the supplier of any goods or services, within the Republic, unless-
   
   

(a) those goods or services could not reasonably be the subject of a transaction to which this Act applies in terms of the exemptions; or

(b) goods or services that are supplied or performed in terms of a transaction to which this Act applies, irrespective of whether any of those goods or services are offered or supplied in conjunction with any other goods or services, or separate from any other goods or services; and

(c) goods that are supplied in terms of a transaction that is exempt from the application of this Act, but only to the extent that those goods, and the importer or producer, distributor and retailer of those goods, respectively, are nevertheless subject to safety monitoring, recalling and liability for damage caused by goods.

In our next article, we consider the consumer’s rights in regards to marketing.