Consumer rights in digital/online purchases

Kesego Modongo | Tuesday March 8, 2022 06:00

To access goods and services, the consumer no longer needs to visit physical places, offices, dwellings, stores or outlets. The markets in the current era are no longer physical but are increasingly becoming digital. Thus, the buying and selling happen across digital networks, online platforms and cyber space. Suppliers offer their services and goods in the digital realm; associated with the suppliers’ verve to entice consumers to transact are the racy and on-your-face- advertisements and touting messages that would normally be sent into the consumers’ electronic devices i.e. mobile phones and computers.

For the digital economy to flourish, consumers need to have trust in the integrity and fairness of digital markets. Admittedly, providers of goods and services often have greater knowledge, power and resources than consumers. The loop sided relationship may be leveraged to dictate terms of use of products and services to their advantage and to the consumers disadvantage. This is even worse in digital commerce where consumers have less knowledge about providers and the quality of goods and services they offer online.

To engender the trust, the Act imposes obligations of fairness, accountability, transparency and disclosure on providers. This is done by requiring suppliers to provide clear disclosures about the products and services offered, pricing, purchase conditions, warranties and refunds or other redress policies in order to reduce the information asymmetries inherent in online transactions. A consumer purchasing a clothing online will not be able to verify the quality, the fit or whether the branding is authentic.

A consumer accessing an online company facebook company advertisement for the sale of gamazine paint proceeded to order paint of a colour he desired; supplied details of where delivery should be made; and thereafter made online payments as was guided by the landing page of the supplier’s facebook page which was linked to WhatsApp chat line.

To their dismay what was delivered by the courier company did not meet the description of the paint that he ordered. Consumer wanted a grey paint instead a yellow texture-less paint found its way to their door step. What do theydo? They know very well that they have never dealt with a physical person on the transaction? The transaction was through a company’s online platform. A dreadful day, any consumer would be entitled to think so. They could even be thinking that their hard earned money had been pillaged. What redress do they have? It is true, the consumer’s inability to physically inspect the goods prior to purchase further limits the consumer’s ability to mitigate this risk.

To engender trust, the Act has provided remedies for situations such as the one quoted above. First of all, the quality of the product is not the one that was agreed to; a clear breach and unfair business conduct on the part of the supplier entitling the consumer to replacement of goods or refund. In addition, in terms of section 27 of the Act, the consumer is entitled to cancel the contract upon issuance of a 14 days’ written notice; and obviously seek the return of the purchase price.

Further, as the gamazine supplier and the attendant transaction with consumer happened online in a non-store environment, it qualifies to be assessed as a direct sale transaction. In terms of the Act; certain pre contractual obligations ought to have been made. These are; existence of a written contract; signed by both supplier and consumer and insurance that the consumer received a copy. More interestingly, a profound shield for a consumer’s welfare is that he/she can cancel the contract without any penalty within 10 days from receipt of the delivered goods or conclusion of contract. This is what is called cooling off period. It is meant to protect the consumer as the transaction is entered into in non-retail environment; the specifications and quality of goods may not be discernable to the consumer therefore heightening information asymmetry.

Consumer is therefore entitled to cancel contract upon realising that wrong goods were supplied.

Law is a social science and its intentions and objectives are influenced by the environment. The market place has gone digital and non-store based. Transactions can be completed online. Therefore, to respond to this outlook the Act has introduced some measures of protection to ensure that certain thresholds are upheld to ensure that consumers are not exploited; that adequate remedies are also provided in the event of breaches such as the aforesaid gamazine consumer matter.

It does not matter how ironclad the Act is in terms of protecting the consumer in respect of entering into online transactions let alone protection in any other transactions. Consumers must be diligent and alert when concluding transactions on the online platforms. What does the company sell or offer to sell; and more so, exercise caution before entering into such transactions. It is always helpful to do thorough research, consult and educate oneself before pressing “enter” to complete that online transaction.