From
September, consumers will have more rights and protection if they find
themselves with a defective product.
A defective product can be returned to the
retailer within six months and consumers will also have the right to demand a
refund, replacement or seek redress in court.
This is one of the proposed amendments to the
Consumer Protection (Fair Trading) Act and the Hire Purchase Act (HPA), which
was raised in Parliament today.
This paves the way for the 'lemon law', which
are laws protecting consumers against defective goods that fail to conform to
contract, or meet satisfactory quality or performance standards at the time of
purchase - colloquially known as 'lemons'.
The proposed amendments are expected to come
into force in September and will shift the burden of proof to the seller, which
is a fundamental change in the law and will apply to all durable goods.
Besides returning a defective product,
consumers will also have the right to a partial or full refund if the good is
not repaired or replaced within a reasonable time, or without significant
inconvenience to the consumer.
If the retailer rejects this view, the
consumer could take the matter to court.
The judge would then look to the retailer to
refute the presumption of unsatisfactory quality with reasonable evidence.
The retailer might attempt this by, for
example, analysing the good to show it was damaged by the consumer. For
example, where leather shoes had not been cleaned, causing the leather to
crack.
Used goods are also covered under the new law,
but the law will take into account the age and price paid for the goods to
ascertain whether or not a claim of defect is reasonable.
The amendment proposed today is based on a
public consultation exercise conducted by the Ministry of Trade and Industry
(MTI) between Dec 20, 2011 and Jan 31.
About 50 responses were received in total,
from members of the public, small retailers, MNCs, CASE and the Hire Purchase,
Finance and Leasing Association of Singapore.
In addition, MTI also conducted focus group
sessions in the later part of last year with industry representatives such as
retailers and motor traders.
AsiaOne
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