Justifications for consumer protection

  

Date Posted: 9/13/2012 11:41:09 PM

Posted By: warira  Membership Level: Gold  Total Points: 1095

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A consumer in simple terms is anyone who buys goods or services for his personal use, therefore, it excludes corporations and other entities. Consumers have greatly increased due to the rising incomes, higher educational levels and increased leisure time. For instance the middle income earners in Kenya are the majority of earners compared to a few decades ago. Consequently competition for goods and services has increased causing some adverse effect on the consumers. In light of this the consumer needs to be protected from bad business practices.

I will enumerate the reasons as to why consumers need protection:

Firstly a consumer needs protection because of the prevailing unfair business practices. This is because the consumer as an individual has a weaker bargaining power in relation to the traders. The businesses take advantage of this and overprice consumer goods and services. In comparison to business customers they are not able to cushion themselves against losses. The business customers are able to do this through price adjustments or insurance unlike the consumer.

Consumers lack the relevant information about the goods or services and they find themselves buying poor quality goods as well as services, hence not getting value for their money. Most of the consumers are not aware of their right to information. That is information as to the ingredients of the product, the manufacturer of the product, health and safety implications. Therefore the law comes in to make sure that this information is given to consumers to enable them to make informed decisions.

Thirdly, consumers need protection so that they can have remedies. Most of the times consumers keep their grievances to themselves as they don’t know where to seek help. The law will help them access remedies such as restitution, damages, the right to reject to name but a few. For instance when

one buys a defective good or the service is below their expectation one can be entitled to repair, replacement or price reduction.

Additionally consumer protection law will enable consumer to have a wide range of products. With access to the right to information they are able to know the kinds of products that are available in the market. Also they will be able to get fair prices due to the high level of competition between businesses. Business will continually come up with new products to be ahead of others. closer at home we have seen detergent companies coming up with new products so as to be ahead of others, for instance there is a company which has introduced a liquid washing detergent for clothes compared to the common powder detergent for washing clothes.

Consumer protection is essential to ensure that goods are of good quality. Through the law goods that are not safe and may prove to be hazardous to human health are not allowed into the market. Consumers are enlightened on how to check whether good are defective or whether the services may be harmful. Through consumer protection laws manufacturers who produce substandard goods risk paying heavy fines as well as being forced out of business.

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