Discuss the extent to which Consumer Law achieves its objectives Essay

The most efficient way for consumers to get what they want is through the food market, not the government, entirely seames have more power than their customers. Some businesses piece of ass and will use abuse this power and cheat and steal from consumers to describe money. Because of this, the government forms the behaviour of businesses to have a market economy that functions properly. These honors chiefly protect consumers against misleading/deceptive delegacys, unconscionable conduct, unfair contracts, and insecure goods and/or services. To protect consumers, different legal and non-legal approaches have been taken.Statutory protections by the government, bid the Australian Consumer Law (ACL) and the National Credit Code (NCC), and by the state, interchangeable the Fair Trading guess 1987 (NSW) and the Contracts Review Act 1980 (NSW), benefactor regulate businesses and protect consumers. Under section 29 of the ACL, businesses are prohibited from fashioning false cl aims ab come forward their products and/or services. In the ACCC v. Harvey Norman 2012 case, 4 Harvey Norman stores were found guilty of making false or misleading representation regarding consumer guarantee rights. The misrepresentations were made orally by sales people in the store. The Court recognised the issues and penalised the stores, issuing fines and ordering them to display in-store signs displaying corrective notices and utensil a consumer law compliance program. Out of the four stores, two of them ceased merchandise in May 2013. This demonstrated how stiff the consumer law achieves its objectives.Independent political statutory agencies also help in enforcing the ACL and help to bring oversight to businesses that are not complying with the law and help to fix the problem. An independent statutory organic structure called the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) aims to make markets work for consumers, promptly and in the future. The ACCC helps to keep the market safe and fair for consumers. A major business brought to the attention of the ACCC was found to be making misleading claims. Coles claims and advertises that its lettuce is baked today, sold today and freshly baked in-store. It was found that the pelf was not, in fact, baked in Australia,but partially baked months front in overseas factories. Coles accepted a guilty verdict and claimed that late packaging was already being produced. Coles could face fines of up to $1.1 million per breach. This demonstrates how rough-and-ready the ACCC is in enforcing the ACL but penalties may not be harsher enough. For a self-aggrandising business, like Coles, $1.1 million is not that much of a penalty compared to the loot it makes.Non-statutory protections to help the ACL in achieving its objectives undersurface be just as effective as statutory protections. One protection is the media. The media is a very stiff tool and can wreak havoc on the profitability of a business. To stay out of the harsh spotlight that is the media, businesses tend to straighten out really quickly if found to be in breach of a section of the ACL. This helps to protect consumers to the degree that it makes businesses comply with the law quickly but it doesnt stop them from doing it to stat with until they get caught.Another non-statutory measure in defend consumers is through External Dispute Re ascendant Schemes (EDR). An example of an EDR is the Financial Ombudsmen helping (FOS) which helps to protect consumers in matters regarding credit loans. The FOS is a cheaper, faster way of gain a solution to a conflict between a consumer and a business. These solutions have been unbiased, 50% benefiting the consumer and 50% benefiting the business. Rather than taking a business to court, a consumer can go to a FOS where a solution can be reached quicker and cheaper but this decision is final, regardless of which party it benefits. This non-statutory body is very effective in prot ecting consumers from businesses to the extent that it reaches an unbiased solution but an issue has already occurred.There are statutory and non-statutory measures taken to protect consumers and the market economy. Statutory measures like the ACL (Cth), NCC (Cth), Fair Trading Act 1987 (NSW), and the Contracts Review Act 1980 (NSW) create laws and regulate businesses. Different non-statutory bodies, like the media and EDR schemes (e.g. FOS), help to enforce the laws made by the state and government.. Together, they help to achieve the objectives of consumer law in protecting consumers against misleading/deceptive representations,unconscionable conduct, unfair contracts, and unsafe goods and/or services.