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Spiller, Peter; Tokeley, Kate --- "Individual Consumer Redress" [2010] ELECD 181; in Howells, Geraint; Ramsay, Iain; Wihelmsson, Thomas; Kraft, David (eds), "Handbook of Research on International Consumer Law" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2010)

Book Title: Handbook of Research on International Consumer Law

Editor(s): Howells, Geraint; Ramsay, Iain; Wihelmsson, Thomas; Kraft, David

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781847201287

Section: Chapter 16

Section Title: Individual Consumer Redress

Author(s): Spiller, Peter; Tokeley, Kate

Number of pages: 33

Extract:

16. Individual consumer redress
Peter Spiller and Kate Tokeley



1. Introduction
Laws alone do not guarantee that all consumers who are misled or who
purchase defective products will obtain redress. In addition to the existence of
substantive consumer protection laws, consumers need the ability to access the
rights that these laws enshrine. This chapter examines the barriers that prevent
consumers from obtaining redress and considers a range of strategies for
improving consumers' access to justice.
For various reasons, obtaining redress is a particular concern in the area of
consumer disputes. Addressing the problems of consumer redress is therefore
an important part of developing an effective legal framework for the protec-
tion of consumers. There is little point in offering consumers legal protections
in principle that are inaccessible in practice.
The ability of consumers to gain redress is not only of importance to the
individual consumers concerned but can also be for the greater public good.
Protecting consumers' rights makes suppliers and manufacturers accountable
for misleading conduct or for selling defective products. Such protection may
also have a deterrent effect against future breaches of consumers' rights.

2. Barriers to consumers obtaining redress
Consumers face several barriers to obtaining redress in a traditional court-
based legal system.1 In the first instance, the consumer may feel intimidated


1 See The Right Honourable Lord Woolf (1996), Access to Justice: Final
Report, London: HMSO. Lord Woolf's report on access to justice identified cost, delay
and complexity as the three main problems facing the ...