What is a consumer it's been noted by some that I use various terms on this channel that I don't
often explain although I do try to explain what some of these terms mean and some people have
asked what is a consumer in fact some clients have recently asked what is a consumer because
in any kind of contract it is either a business to business contract or it is a business to
consumer contract or indeed it might be a personal person-to-person contract in which case there is
no business involved at all but in that scenario is that person considered to be a consumer
or is it just a private contract that's what I'm talking about today but first of all if you're new
to me on my channel and a barrister who really enjoys helping you to understand law so please
must that subscribe button on the bell icon they get notifications of new videos because it tells
YouTube that you like to learn about the law for free from me and I am going to make a concerted
effort to do daily videos on blackbelt secrets my sister channel answering all questions that
I often find in the comments of an outlet get down to business and in fact that's a key term business
because you will usually think of a business dealing with a consumer and that is exactly what
the law says see in the United Kingdom we have the consumer rights act of 2015 which came into force
on 1 October 2015 that means any consumer contract entered on or after that date
will be governed by the consumer rights act 2015 and any other legislation to which it refers
contract before that date will rely on the old legislation but for the purposes of this video
explaining what is a consumer I'm going to focus on the 2015 act and how that applies today as with
most pieces of legislation this act contains definitions as to what it refers and therefore
it also deals with when this act applies and in other words to which contracts this act will apply
going to do with those in reverse order because section 2 deals with the definitions of what is
a trader and what is a consumer and is a distinct difference which will help you to understand when
this act applies what rights it gives you which I will come back to a little bit later and in doing
so helping to understand what a consumer is in the eyes of the law so in section 2 it provides you
those definitions as follows a consumer means an individual acting for purposes that are wholly or
mainly outside that individual trade business craft or profession so there it is a very succinct
and precise definition of what the law says the consumer is it is a person that is acting outside
of their trade outside of their business outside of their craft are outside of their profession
either wholly all mainly and is this word mainly that creates a little bit of an overlap and I'll
explain what I mean for example as a barrister which is a profession if I were to buy something
was mainly or wholly as the act suggests outside of my profession so I'm using it mainly for my
own personal uses rather than the profession of being a barrister then acting in the capacity
as a consumer whereas if you are to contrast that and I were to buy something that is 100%
to be used for that profession then I am not any longer acting in the capacity of the consumer
rather acting in a business or professional capacity so it overlap will be if you can
use something for your professional capacity but you also use it in your personal capacity
in that context whatever it is that you're entering a contract for you are dealing
mainly in your capacity outside of your profession then you will be considered to be a consumer a
trader on the other hand referring to any business is also defined in section 2 of the consumer
rights act and is defined as a person acting for purposes relating to that person's trade business
craft or profession whether acting personally or through another person acting in the trading name
or on the trainer's behalf and so that's quite clear someone acting as a trader is someone that
is acting in a business craft or profession so in other words they are not acting in their own
individual capacity so this applies to most businesses that are dealing with someone who
is buying something for themselves so if it is a person or a business that is selling something
to an individual that is using it for themselves then obviously there is a
trade and consumer relationship there but how about the scenario where the trader is trying
to say that the consumer was not acting in the capacity of a consumer in fact that person was
acting in the capacity of the business trade craft or profession that is where subsection 4
of section 2 of the act kicks in which states as follows trainer claimed that an individual was not
acting for the purposes wholly or mainly outside that individual trade business craft or profession
must prove it so quite clearly the burden is upon the trader to prove that the individual was
not acting in the capacity of a consumer this is something that comes up fairly frequently
why because if a person is acting indeed in the capacity of a consumer they have the protection
and it is protection which I'll explain in a moment the consumer rights act
and that protection comes from the fact that it is a rights-based piece of legislation which is quite
important so in some situations the trader might seek to saying that the consumer was acting in the
capacity of a business and therefore different rules apply business to business law which is
very different to that dealing with the consumer that will bring me onto precisely what rights are
afforded to a consumer acting in this capacity under the consumer rights but before I do that
that just jump back a moment and look at section 1 to see which contract this applies to which is
indeed quite broad section 1 reads as follows this part applies where there is an agreement between a
trader and the consumer for the trainer to supply goods digital content or services if the agreement
is a contract and importantly it applies whether the contract is written or oral or implied from
the party's conduct or more than one of these combines are essentially where there is a contract
in place for goods digital content or services between the trader and consumer this act and the
rights therein kicks in this act does go into a bit more detail as to which contractor covered
but I will cover that perhaps in another video and to that end there are a couple of primary sections
of this act section 9 of the consumer rights act employs a term into any contract and what that
means is even if this term wasn't written down in the contract it will be a term of the contract
because it is implied by law by the consumer rights act and the trader cannot do anything about
it the trainer cannot say that the consumer rights act doesn't apply to the contract that is simply
an unenforceable town section 9 states that goods are to be of satisfactory quality and specifically
every contract to supply goods is to be treated as including a term that the quality of goods
is satisfactory and this will include any description of the goods the price
or consideration of the goods paid if that is relevant and all the other relevant circumstances
subsection 3 also provides that the quality will cover the fitness for all the purposes for which
goods of that kind are usually supplied the appearance of finished freedom for minor defects
safety and durability and there is a lot more to section 9 which again go into a lot more detail
this is an overview of what rights afforded to a consumer under the definition of a consumer
section 10 is another key part of the consumer rights act which implies the term that goods
are to be fit for a particular purpose this is very important because if the consumer tells the
trader that the product needs to do a certain thing there is a term implying to that effect
under subsection 3 the contract is to be treated as including a term that the goods are reasonably
fit for that purpose whether or not that is a purpose for which goods of that kind are usually
supplied in other words it matters not if these particular type of goods are usually supplied for
that particular purpose if the consumers made it known to the trainer that this is what is to be
used for the trader agrees that it's good for that there is a term implying that it should be fit for
that particular purpose and if not it is a breach of contract which of the come back to in a moment
other sections such a section 11 provide that goods are to be as described this might be by
way of a description or by way of a sample and it must match that sample it is no good
as subsection 2 provides that most of it matches the sample but doesn't match the description
subsection 2 provides if this applies by sample as well as by description it is not sufficient
that the bulk of the goods matches the sample if the goods do not also match the descriptions of
these sections and various other sections of the consumer rights act provide terms are implied into
a contract with a trader on behalf of the consumer the reason for this is with respect to lay
consumers they may not know which terms ought to be implied in order to protect them in the
capacity of a consumer when their purchase really ought to be protected in law what this ultimately
means is if any of these terms are broken such as the goods are not of satisfactory quality then not
fit for the particular purpose that the consumer made known to the trader at the time
or the goods don't match the sample they don't match the description and so on if any of these
things apply to whatever it is that the consumer has purchased whether that is goods or services
services be covered later on in the act then this would likely amount to a breach of contract
and the consumer would be entitled to damages as a result damages arising out of the breach
of contract and because I seem to have lost part of the file where actually talked about
the rights in the consumer rights act I'm going to do that again now although no you get my
dobro with a slightly different surrounding soap section 19 of the consumer rights act provides a
right for consumers to enforce the terms about the goods into which they've entered a contract for so
section 19 provides that it is right for consumers to enforce the terms such as
implied by sections 910 and even 1113 and 14 and so on as you can see in section 19 and if that
contract does not conform to those sections in other words satisfactory quality and fit
for purpose and so that it provides the consumer additional such as a short-term right to reject
and this is provided under section 20 and section 20 a consumer has a short-term right to reject
goods under a contract if they do not conform to the contract and the terms set out in the consumer
rights act this is exercised under subsection 5 of section 20 that this right is exercised if the
consumer indicates to the trader that consumers rejecting the goods and treating the contract at
an end and this goes on to say that the indication may be something that the consumer says or does
but it must be clear enough to be understood by the trader so in other words if the consumer say
to the trader this is rubbish I want my money back that would be sufficient under section 20
to exercise the short-term right to reject that important to remember that there is a time limit
for the short-term right to reject under section 22 now this is when ownership has been transferred
and when the goods have been delivered and so on as set out under subsection 3 of section 22
but the question that comes up a lot is what if there is a defect to the product and the consumer
agrees to a repair or replacement but there is a waiting period until such repairs have been
carried out then most traders will think wrongly that if 30 days passes and even if the repair
hasn't been carried out that the consumer has lost this short-term right to reject the goods under
the contract because 30 days has passed but that's not true because if we look to subsection 6 of
section 22 it states that if the consumer requests are agreed to the repair or replacement of goods
the period mentioned in subsection 3 or four stops running for the length of the waiting period now
this might often come about if you bought a car and then you realise that there is actually
something wrong with the car you take it back to the dealer or the garage and they say don't
worry we will put it right and will do the repairs but the repairs actually take three or four weeks
and by which point you having had the vehicle for a week or two you then ask the dealer whether
the repairs are being carried out the dealer says well know they haven't yet but we're still working
on it by which .30 days has already elapsed the dealer may then be under the incorrect assumption
that you can no longer reject the vehicle under the consumer rights act because that
short-term right to reject has elapsed but that's wrong for two reasons first of all subsection
6 provides that the waiting period puts this short-term right to reject on hold therefore if
the repairs still have not been carried out you still retain that short-term right to reject the
second reason it's wrong is because if a defect is found within the first six months either from
the purchase or from the 30 days it matters not up to 6 months the defect is taken to be there
at the time of purchase and it is the trader they would have to prove that this defect was not there
at the point of purchase this burden shifts after six months so after six months it is the consumer
that has to prove that it was there at the point of purchase but this is just how those time limits
work and there is also if you look further at section 23 under the consumer rights act there is
a right to repair or replacement and these various rights are enshrined in the consumer rights act
traders cannot exclude them from a contract that would be unlawful so now that I've done
this additional clip that I seem to have lost some health back to the video so a number of occasions
I have seen the arguments that two individuals selling something to each other one believes that
they are acting in the capacity of a consumer whereas that might not be the case if it is a
wholly private sale on the other hand if one of the parties selling the goods or the services
has entered into some kind of business trade craft or profession they will meet most likely
the definition of a trader under this act and the other party will benefit from the protection
as a consumer under the consumer rights act similarly I've seen businesses trying to say
that the individual was not acting as a consumer and in fact they were acting in the capacity of
the business perhaps due to conversations that have been had between the parties at the point
of sale now it matters not necessarily what those conversations were what really matters is the
actual final execution of the contract reduced to writing this is going to evidence what the parties
agreed between which parties it was agreed and any other terms that the contract seeks to incorporate
but remembering all the time that if the trader seeks to exclude the consumer rights act from the
contract it will matter not if it is deemed that the individual was acting in the capacity of a
consumer and remember if the trader says that they were not acting in the capacity of the consumer
it is the business or the trader that must prove it as to a bit more detail about consumer rights
I've covered this in other videos before which I will link in the description below and you can
go watch that video next so in the meantime I hope that has helped to understand what a
consumer is give this video thumbs up if it's been helpful and remember stay humble and subscribe