2018
American Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences Research (AJHSSR)
American Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences Research (AJHSSR)
e-ISSN : 2378-703X Volume-02, Issue-06, pp-44-52 www.ajhssr.com Research Paper
Open Access
Consumer Protection for Sale of Goods under the Malaysian Sale of Goods Act 1957 and the Consumer Protection Act 1999: With Special Reference to Quality and Fitness of Goods Ahmad Masum1, Muhammad Hassan Ahmad2, S.M.M. Nafees,3 & Yusramizza Md Isa@Yusuff4 1
Faculty of Shariah and Law, Sultan Sharif Ali Islamic University, Jalan Pasar Baharu, Gadong BE1310 Bandar Seri Begawan, Negara Brunei Darussalam 2 Civil Law Department, Ahmad Ibrahim Kulliyyah of Laws, International Islamic University Malaysia, Jalan Gombak, P.O. Box 10, 50728 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia 3 Department of Islamic Studies, Faculty of Islamic Studies and Arabic Language, South Eastern University of Sri Lanka 4 School of Law, College of Law, Government and International Studies, Universiti Utara Malaysia, 06010 UUM Sintok, Kedah Darul Aman, Malaysia Corresponding author: Ahmad Masum
ABSTRACT: Consumers enter into various types of contracts for supply of goods or services in their everyday lives. The consumer market is very lop-sided. Therefore, the call for consumer protection is unavoidable. Todayâ€&#x;s consumers need to be equipped with high consumerism knowledge and skills to be wellinformed of market developments, necessary to empower them to be better able to act, make effective decisions and to ensure that they become more empowered, savvy and resilient. However, empowered consumers will not be created without the government intervening to protect consumers with adequate legislations. This paper aims to examine the existing Malaysian laws specifically the Sale of Goods Act 1957 and the Consumer Protection Act 1999 in protecting consumers in a sale of goods transaction and determine their adequacy. The paper focuses on two important protections namely; quality and fitness of goods. The paper adopts a legal library based research methodology focusing mainly on primary and secondary legal sources. Although the aforementioned Malaysian laws continue to protect consumers of goods, the paper concludes that there is a need to completely revamp these laws in order to reflect a more uniform and modernised approach. Keywords: Consumers, consumer protection, Consumer Protection Act 1999, goods, Sale of Goods Act 1957
I.
INTRODUCTION
Consumer protection is designed to promote and protect interests of consumers. As consumers always have a weak bargaining power, there is every need to protect them through adequate and effective laws [1]. In todayâ€&#x;s challenging environment, consumers have to deal with current technology, mass-marketing tactics, highpressure salesmanship and sharp advertising [2]. Malaysian market is not free from these challenges. Government intervention is necessary to provide the best protection to consumers. Consumer protection is aimed at upholding justice and fairness in all commercial transactions between purchaser-consumers and sellers or manufacturers. Consumer protection seems to alleviate the sufferings of consumers who are at a disadvantage in the market place. In the era of globalisation and trade liberalisation, consumer protection is important in creating a good economic structure. In view of the importance of protecting the basic rights of a consumer, the United Nations Assembly adopted the United Nations Guidelines for Consumer Protection on 9 April 1985 [3]. Since then, United Nations member countries have used these guidelines as their reference and have passed consumer protection or related legislations. In Malaysia, the main legislations governing the supply of goods are the Sale of Goods Act 1957 (SOGA) and the Consumer Protection Act 1999 (CPA). Despite the availability of such protection, nevertheless in the area of supply of goods, freedom of contract and caveat emptor still remain predominantly the underlying concepts in consumer contracts in Malaysia.
AJHSSR Journal
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