Zeitschrift für Verbraucherpolitik

There is an increasing tendency for consumers to regard the manufacturer as being primarily responsible for the safety and quality of consumer goods, even though in many if not most legal systems the common assumption by the consumer that the manufacturer rather than the retailer bears the primary liability for defective goods is not in fact correct. The legal position of the consumer in Australia under the general law of contract and tort is outlined as a background to the reforms made in 1978 by an important amendment to the Federal Trade Practices Act. A manufacturer (or importer) of consumer goods now is bound by statutory obligations, enforceable by the consumer, in respect of the quality of his goods. He is also bound by any express warranty given by him, and is liable where the goods require to be repaired or where replacement parts are required, but repair facilities or spare parts are not reasonably available. Except in the case of the obligations relating to the provision of spare parts and repair facilities, the manufacturer's statutory obligations cannot be excluded or limited. The Act also contains provisions limiting the time during which a consumer can commence an action against a manufacturer. Although the author considers that there are some defects in the legislation, he concludes that it represents a significant advance in the legal protection of the consumer's economic interests. There is a need for the expansion of existing mechanisms for the informal resolution of consumer claims, but the author also believes that the existence of the new legislative code setting out reasonably clearly defined rights will often in practice greatly strengthen the position of government agencies and others in attempting to negotiate a settlement on behalf of a consumer. Damages recoverable by a consumer from a manufacturer extend to consequential losses, including death or personal injury. As a result, a measure of strict liability for personal injury caused by defective products has been imposed on manufacturers. The legislation does not, however, offer a comprehensive regime of strict liability for personal injury and many anomalous situations will arise. The author considers that there is therefore a need in Australia for a review of the whole question of strict liability for personal injury caused by defective products, although even were this to occur there would still exist a strong need for a scheme such as that discussed in the article to govern the claim of a consumer for economic losses caused by the supply of defective or inferior products.

The domain of behavioural law and economics is winning increasing attention also in the field of consumer policy. How the insights of behavioural law and economics can be used in policy remains, to a large extent, unclear. In this article, the following question is asked: “To what extent can the insights from the behavioural literature be applied in a way to formulate concrete suggestions to policy makers?” The authors show that many of the findings of the behavioural literature are very context-specific and hence apply only with respect to particular products or services and particular consumer groups. Formulating general policy conclusions is therefore difficult. However, as far as the specific domain of standard form contracts is concerned, the authors argue that the behavioural literature has shown that the traditional remedy (mostly resulting from information economics), being to focus on information disclosure will not be able to remedy market failures resulting from failing information and the "signing-without-reading-problem." Hence, more substantive forms of intervention in standard form contracts (e.g., resulting from collective bargaining) may be indicated as a remedy.

The report deals with three types of negotiation procedures: the product information system, the voluntary right of rescission in direct selling contracts, and the widespread phenomenon of standard form recommendations. In order to facilitate a comparison each analysis is structured in an identical way: (a) presentation of the contents in their relation to legal rules; (b) motives behind their establishment; (c) description of the procedure; (d) evaluation of the monitoring of the codes and of the sanctions for non-compliance. The product information system is an example of the common initiative of business interests, consumer organizations, and the German government in developing a scheme which enables the consumer to compare the quality of products. The system may be characterized by the absence of legal rules, self-administration of the negotiation procedure, and equal bargaining power of business and consumer organizations. The voluntary right of rescission represents the unilateral initiative of the direct selling organizations in the light of foreseeable regulation. Consumer organizations are integrated in the process of implementation to legitimate the voluntary code. Standard form recommendations represent a type of negotiation where the bargaining power of the consumer organization and of the administrative control authority may be regarded as a product of legal intervention. Negotiation between the parties involved takes place to implement the Standard Form Contracts Act. In its conclusion the report supports the position of those who are rather sceptical as to whether negotiation is an appropriate means to improve consumer protection. On the other hand the somewhat negative experiences can be used to delineate a set of conditions required for negotiations to be a useful tool in consumer protection.

There is concern that the increasing number of alternative financial services in communities across the USA is risking individuals’ financial health by increasing their use of these high-cost services. To address this concern, this study used restricted-access, zip code data from nationally representative samples of adult individuals and examined associations between the density or concentration of alternative financial services within communities and individuals’ use of these services. The associations between community density and individuals’ use varied by annual household income: Communities’ higher density of alternative financial services was associated with the increased probability that modest- and highest-income individuals ever used these services, while higher density was associated with more chronic use among lowest-income individuals. State regulation that prohibited payday lenders had a protective association for modest- and highest-income individuals but had no effect for lowest-income individuals. Policy implications are discussed.

Australia has a plethora of industry bodies applying a multiplicity of voluntary codes regulating advertising practices. Bodies exist within the advertising industry itself and within commercial media associations. Finally, the Media Council of Australia, an umbrella organization of each of the commercial media associations, has promulgated a general code of advertising ethics as well as a number of codes dealing with the advertising of specific goods and services. The Media Council's codes are enforced by the Advertising Standards Council, a private body comprising representatives of the media and the advertising industry and selected community representatives. The potentially anti-competitive consequences of advertising self-regulation in Australia have caused a number of self-regulatory schemes to fall under the scrutiny of the Australian Trade Practices Commission. This article surveys the evaluation by the commission of the extent to which the anticompetitive consequences of self-regulation in Australia are outweighed by benefits to the public resulting from the operation of the schemes falling within its purview. The accountability of advertising self-regulation to the public interest has recently been subjected to close scrutiny in Australia by the Trade Practices Commission which has the task of enforcing Australia's antitrust and fair trade laws. This article examines the structure and operation of advertising self-regulation in Australia together with its evaluation by the Trade Practices Commission.

The history of consumption is fast becoming a vital area of academic research. For the social sciences, in general, this new field promises new insight into the “great transformation” of Western society. For consumer research, in particular, it promises the opportunity to create new perspectives, sources of data, and theoretical concepts. The purpose of this paper is to review recent literature on the history of consumption, and to offer a consumer guide for those who wish to use it in the study of modern consumer behavior and policy.