Consumer Redress and Product Defects (LAWS90015)

This subject critically examines the law, policy and practice relating to defective consumer goods, as well as consumer redress more broadly, in comparative and international perspective. After an overview of consumer law-policy making processes and regulatory enforcement, it focuses especially on product liability and safety regulation regimes under the 2010 Australian Consumer Law (covered otherwise in LAWS70380), class actions or other forms of collective redress, and dispute resolution through tribunals and ombudsman. The subject considers theoretical foundations, parallels abroad (especially in the US, EU and Asia), and impact in practice (including case studies of common consumer disputes, and class actions in Australia involving goods imported from or also sold abroad). The lead lecturer is an eminent Australia-based scholar and commentator in consumer product safety law, who has consulted in the field for law firms in several countries as well as for the EC, OECD, UNCTAD, UNDP, ASEAN and the Japanese government. The co-lecturers have extensive experience in resolving disputes on behalf of consumers or suppliers, and engaging with regulators and policy-makers.

Principal topics include:

• Introduction to policy-making processes and regulators, the Australian Consumer Law (where to find key consumer product safety provisions and how they have evolved) and key redress mechanisms (including the 2008 Productivity Commission Report on Consumer Policy)
• Product liability: policy rationales, traditional negligence-based approaches, strict liability regimes in the US, EU, Asia and Australia, and impact in practice
• Product safety regulation: ‘vertical’ (sector-specific) and ‘horizontal’, interaction with private law and market mechanisms, influences from and to abroad (including in the context of Free Trade Agreements), enforcement and other impacts in practice
• Individual and collective consumer redress mechanisms, such as opt-in representative actions (including by regulators, or accredited consumer organisations) and opt-out class action regimes (especially in Australia, Canada and the US, comparing reforms and discussions further abroad)
• Future prospects in these fields of law and practice including via international bodies like the OECD and ASEAN.