Essay Sample on Consumers Need Protection from Unfair Competition: Regulatory Bodies to the Rescue

Introduction

In most modern markets, consumers are often faced with a deficiency of adequate information that relates to the goods and services they purchase. Due to the asymmetry in communication and lower bargaining power, the consumer is always susceptible to unfair means that competition in the companies in the marketplace sometimes adopt to outdo their competition. These consumers thereby require regulations and regulatory agencies and organization to protect their legitimate interests in such competitive markets which are prone to compromise in quality of goods and services. Consumers are, in this case, defined as the individuals who purchase the products for their use or the use of their households. The consumers are not expected to use the purchased goods for a profit-making course. The consumer protection agencies and regulations in all the ASEAN countries agree in unison (in line with the United Nations' Guidelines for Consumer Protection (UNGCP) that consumers must purchase goods for personal and non-commercial use (The ASEAN Secretariat, 2018).

Is your time best spent reading someone else’s essay? Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER!

Save 25%

Consumer rights to return refer to instances when the consumer is entitled to a refund based on the return of goods. In various countries in the ASEAN region, multiple regulations exist regarding the circumstances under which a consumer may request for a refund. Most cases involve faulty items or items that are not as were described. In Cambodia, however, comprehensive consumer protection regulations do not exist yet, for the various forms of unethical supplier practices. This analysis thereby focuses on the interpretation of similar consumer returns' rights from similar contexts to the Cambodian case.

Interpretation Approaches

Under the consumer protection regulations of the ASEAN countries, it is essential to note that there is no general rule of return of goods. However, the regulatory organizations in the various countries provide various laws that may serve to guard the consumers against malpractices during goods purchase and may allow for the return of goods when the business does not satisfy the consumer fair practices. Presently, general consumer protection laws in all the countries demand fair practices by the companies, rights to cancel contracts within the cancellation periods by consumers, and the rights to legal redress for non-conforming goods (Makarim & Taira, 2012).

As there are no specific regulations on product return, specific interpretive methods are required by consumer protection organizations and agencies. In all the countries, the critical considerations in consumer rights are the various rights and responsibilities of the consumers. All the states allow for fundamental consumer rights, including the rights to proper information, right to safety, choice, redress, and quality goods. When interpreting the consumer rights to return; thereby, the authorities must determine whether the consumers' rights were violated and whether the consumers may seek legal redress for such violations (Ramsay, 1981). In countries like Singapore and Indonesia, furthermore, consumer rights directly express the consumer rights to cancel contracts during the cancelation period when the products do not satisfy the safety and quality requirements. All the countries furthermore have regulations specifically requiring the safety of goods. As such, the interpretation of returns may be based on unsafe or faulty goods. The authorities may thereby determine the poor quality of the products and base the cancellation and redress on such a lack of quality and safety concerns (Makarim & Taira, 2012).

Thereby, the rights of returns of goods may be interpreted by the different authorities based on the other foundational consumer rights. Consumers must realize that their rights to return goods are only based on the faultiness of products and misrepresentation of quality demands and false advertisement. The Consumer Protection (Fair Trading) Act (CPFTA) of Singapore, for instance, provides express protection to consumers faced with cases of unfair practices and non-conforming products as regards product quality and faultiness. The interpretative methods for consumer rights are thereby different in the various countries and authorities, with some states only providing general implications for the right to return goods. Countries like the Philippines, Indonesia, and Singapore, on the other hand, have more comprehensive consumer rights provisions that may be replicated in Cambodia in interpreting the rights of return. During litigation and redress, these provisions and interpretations are based on the common law tortious claims similar to the requirements in the United Kingdom (The ASEAN Secretariat, 2018).

The Functionality of Consumer Rights to Return

The right to return of goods and cancellation of a purchase contract depends on unfair practices by the business (The ASEAN Secretariat, 2018). In all countries in the ASEAN region, provisions in the consumer rights documentations aim to protect consumers from misleading conditions towards the purchase and faulty (non-conforming) goods. The consumers are thereby able to return the non-standard and unsafe goods within a specified period, referred to as the cancellation period. The cancellation of such contracts and purchases are only possible when the goods were faulty or were purchased as a result of the misrepresentation of advertisements on the products. Vietnam Competition and Consumer Authority (VCCA), for instance, provides comprehensive regulatory items on the intervention for unfair contracts and business practices.

As a common rule, however, the consumers cannot return goods based on a change of preferences or other personal reasons. Whereas some stores and businesses may offer to issue refunds within a specified time window if the consumers change their minds on the sales items, no regulatory requirements obligate the stores and companies to make such refunds. Customers must thereby recognize the range of conditions under which goods can be accepted back by the stores. All the countries in the ASEAN economic block make provisions for unsafe products and practices and unfair contracts and misrepresented contracts as the grounds through which consumers may seek to claim refunds on purchase. In most cases, consumer returns are handled relatively and discreetly by the businesses and selling stores. In some cases, however, the consumers always require a legal redress to compel the organizations and companies to effect the refund. Cambodia, just like all the other countries in the ASEAN region, provides for the litigation power to the consumers with such legal purchase disputes (The ASEAN Secretariat, 2018).

Application Methods Complaint Channels

As already implied above, the consumer rights to refund goods can be effected through either litigious or diplomatic means. In the diplomatic mechanism, the consumer and company agree on the conditions leading to the return of the goods. For this first case scenario, the company or store agrees to refund the consumer while accepting liability. The company agrees with the faulty goods or misleading contract and opts to agree on a payment plan with the consumer. During such a diplomatic return mechanism, the organization concedes to the violation (intentionally or unintentionally) of consumer's safety and information rights and accepts to recall the defective goods. While scoping the general consumer laws for the ASEAN countries, The ASEAN Secretariat (2018) recognizes that suppliers of consumer goods must always endeavor to observe the fundamental rights of consumers and to prohibit financial practices that may offer undue disadvantage to the consumer.

When the organization is not willing to adopt the diplomatic means to refunds and return of goods, the consumer has the right to legal redress. While seeking legal redress, the consumer must be able to prove that the goods were faulty during purchase and that the terms of the contract that led to the said purchase were unfair or unclear (Ramsay, 1981). The countries in the ASEAN block agree that a consumer is free to redress through the various consumer rights agencies if their purchase rights were violated either by the standards of goods or misleading facts. In Brunei, for instance, unfair contract terms are resolved via the Brunei Unfair Contract Terms Act, 1999. Purchase contracts that appear one-sided and repressive may, furthermore, lead to an injunction under the Consumer Protection (Fair Trading) Order, 2011 (CPFTO) of the consumer protection rights in Brunei. Cambodia has a variety of general legislation that seeks to follow in the common law of torts in business dealings. The rules are, however, not as targeted as the rest of the countries in Southeast Asia. As such, targeted consumer returns protections laws for unfair purchase terms and faulty goods are necessary to provide mechanisms that prohibit companies from getting away with negligence and unfair business terms (The ASEAN Secretariat, 2018).

Method of Interpreting Consumer Rights to Return

As already stated above, the consumer's right of return can be interpreted in terms of either the contractual clauses or the non-conformity of the goods to set standards. The Handbook on ASEAN Consumer Protection Laws and Regulations notes a comprehensive list of general consumer rights and responsibilities that may necessitate our interpretation of consumer rights to return. While we already indicated that there are no general regulations on returns and refund, the various rights stated in the handbook allows a framework for interpreting consumer rights of return. The rights to return can rise from either faulty goods, misrepresentation of contractual facts, or misdirected advertisements.

In Cambodia, the law on the Management of Quality and Safety of Products, 2000 (LMQSP), is the closest regulatory provision for interpreting the safety of goods and products supplied to consumers. While this legislation does not provide a framework for directly interpreting consumer rights, it provides a methodology for laying out the requirements for the goods themselves and the quality thereof. As such, the return of products due to faultiness and low quality may be considered under such laws. In the other countries in the southeast, more comprehensive legislation and methods are available for interpreting consumer rights. In Singapore, the consumer products may be considered ideal for return and contract cancellation if the Consumer Protection (Fair Trading) Act (CPFTA) considers the goods to violate fair practice and contract conformity. The Standards, Productivity, and Innovation Board (SPRING Singapore) provide the framework and methodologies for investigating and interpreting the various offenses that lead to the returns (The ASEAN Secretariat, 2018).