Consumer Protection Law And Policy (LAWS50085)

Consumer law regulates the relationship between consumers, suppliers and manufacturers with the goal of promoting fair and efficient markets for the benefit of consumers. The various aims of consumer protection law include the following: to ensure consumers are provided with accurate information about the goods and services they choose to purchase, to mandate minimum standards of quality applying to the supply of goods and services, to preclude unfair/misleading market practices, and to prevent the exploitation of vulnerable members of the community.

Consumer protection law is primarily a legislative regime, drawing on both public and private law enforcement strategies. The regime builds upon common law principles, in particular those of contract, equity and torts, and modifies those principles to achieve overtly instrumental ends of addressing market failure and protecting consumer interests. In implementing and evaluating various forms of market intervention, consumer protection law draws on insights into products, markets and consumer behaviour from disciplines such as science, engineering, sociology and economics. Consumer law impacts on a wide range of areas of legal practice including commercial law, credit law, regulatory work and consumer/public interest advocacy.

This subject will provide students with specialised expertise in consumer protection objectives and strategies. Students will study in detail the consumer protection regime in Australia and compare that regime with consumer law developments in the European Union. Students will also study specialised theoretical and empirical work evaluating consumer protection law. Students will apply this body of knowledge and their own insights and expertise to assess the both regulatory regimes studied and the social and economic goals informing those regimes.

The following topics will be studied

• The policy objectives of consumer protection law;
• Consumer protection law and policy in the European Union and in Australia; and
• Regulatory strategies:

• • Self regulation;
  • The provision of information (for example, food labelling and price information); and
  • The regulation of contracting, including issues of:
  • • Procedural fairness;
    • Substantive fairness;
    • Quality standards;
    • The regulation of trade practices (for example door to door selling);
    • Product safety; and
    • Remedies.