Business Law and Consumer Rights

The assignment delves into various aspects of business law. It examines consumer credit options like bank loans and credit cards, outlining the rights and obligations of both consumers and sellers in case of default. The report also discusses the roles, responsibilities, and legal standing of agents within business transactions. Further, it highlights issues related to monopolies and anti-competitive practices employed by individuals and firms. Finally, the assignment emphasizes intellectual property rights such as patents, copyrights, trademarks, and their impact on businesses.

BUSINESS LAW

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................4
TASK 1 : Sale and purchase of goods and services.........................................................................4
Ques. 1.1 Legal rules relating to sale of goods and supply of services......................................4
Ques. 1.2 Statutory provisions for transfer of property and possession....................................4
Ques. 1.3 Remedies for buyers and sellers in the sale of goods..................................................5
Ques. 1.4 Statutory provisions of product liability for faulty goods. ........................................6
TASK 2: Consumer credit agreements and agency.........................................................................6
Ques. 2.1 Types of credit agreements ........................................................................................6
Ques. 2.2 Legal rules on termination rights and default notices in case of default ...................7
Ques. 2.3 Different types of agents.............................................................................................8
Ques. 2.4 Agent's rights and duties............................................................................................8
TASK 3: Monopolies and Anti competitive practices.....................................................................9
Ques. 3.1 Monopolies and Anti competitive legislation in UK ................................................9
Ques. 3.2 Role of Competition and Market Authority in Monopolies and Anti competitive
practices.....................................................................................................................................10
Ques. 3.3 Abuse of dominant position .....................................................................................11
Ques. 3.4 Exemptions to anti competitive practices under EU law..........................................11
TASK 4: Intellectual property rights.............................................................................................12
Ques. 4.1 Types of intellectual property ...................................................................................12
Ques. 4.2 Principles relating to patent rules and infringements...............................................13
Ques. 4.3 Legal rules relating to copyright protection and infringement..................................13
Ques. 4.4 Protection of trademark and business names. ..........................................................14
CONCLUSION .............................................................................................................................14
REFRENCES.................................................................................................................................15

INTRODUCTION
The Sales of Goods Act 1979 is an act which regulates sale and purchase of goods in UK
and binds both the parties i.e. buyer and seller. The contract of sale requires consideration of
money to complete the transaction and requires that there is a level of quality of satisfaction in
the mind of consumers. This report mainly covers what Ben has faced after buying goods from a
car dealer and what are its statutory rights for returning of goods and how he can claim refund
from the organisation. This report will cover different aspects of business laws and acts with
reference to The Sale of Goods Act 1979 , Consumers Rights Act, consumer credit and agency,
monopolies, mergers, anti competitive practices and intellectual property rights.
TASK 1 : Sale and purchase of goods and services
Ques. 1.1 Legal rules relating to sale of goods and supply of services
The Sale of Goods Act 1979 requires description of goods, satisfactory level of goods
quality and their purpose is fit as per consumer's need. It always requires organisation to sale
only those goods which consumer has chosen for purchase (Cheffins, 2008). But sometimes
while purchasing goods and services we come to know that the good has some fault but still we
purchase them, then in future consumer cannot argue that the quality of good was not satisfactory
after purchasing.
In case goods purchased by you is of faulty nature and wants to return them as you were
not aware about its fault at the time of purchase then The Sale of Goods Act 1979 allows you to
return of goods and claim refund of your purchase within reasonable time of purchase.
Reasonable time can vary from product to product and its fault (Mahoney, 2013). The Sale of
Goods Act 1979 was replaced by The Consumers Rights Act 2015. As new law was introduced
to modify, simplify, modernise and strengthen as per the current scenario. The present
advertisement shows that Ben decide to purchase a second hand car. When Ben has decided to
go to the showroom and meet with the dealer. Dealer said that car was not existed in the store. In
addition to this, if Ben want to see the car, he has to pay 150 pounds as amount of consideration.
In order to this, Ben paid the amount to the dealer and went the car for a test drive. During the
test drive, he like the car and decide to purchase it immediately and Ben pay some amount in the
advance to dealer as a contract for purchasing a car.

Ques. 1.2 Statutory provisions for transfer of property and possession
The Sale of Goods Act 1979 in this act sections 16 to 26 are concerned with the transfer
of property and the seller's title. This act states that transfer of property or possession cannot be
done until and unless goods sold by the seller is determined by the buyer. It is necessary that the
seller has an intention of passing the goods to the buyer which he has selected. The act also
determines that the seller passing on title is good and no legal implication is attached to it.
When there is some condition in the contract, then it is required by the seller to perform
the condition and pass the property to the buyer. Subsequently, in case of measurement of goods
or the goods are shipped on sale basis or return or approval basis till the conditions are not
performed title of property cannot be passed to the buyer (Armour and Cumming, 2008). In case
the contract is unconditional then the property will pass on formation of contract.
But when the seller does not have title or has defective title he cannot pass the title to the
buyer but he can sue seller for breach of contract. Business law separated the goods into two
groups: One is specific goods and second is unspecified goods. As per the present case, through
the advertisement Ben will get full details of the car such as price engine capability In
advertisement, there will be full description and details are mentioned of car. In order to this,
here car is known as particular products as per prescribed by the business law. On the other hand,
unspecified goods are those in which the information is not clearly define about the product.
Ques. 1.3 Remedies for buyers and sellers in the sale of goods
While making a selling contract, both the parties like buyers and sellers have their legal
right as per government rules and regulations as well as responsibility while making a selling
transaction. If one of the party will not perform their role as per the law, it will create deflector
in the selling agreement. There are various kinds of remedies which are faced by the purchaser in
sales of goods. These are as follows:
Buyer and seller enters into the contract with the intention for purchase and sale of goods
and services and in case any of the party breaches the contract by not performing his part of
action.
Remedies for Ben ( buyer)
1. Repair, replacement or refund : Buyer can ask the seller to repair or replace goods at his
own expense within reasonable period of time. In case seller is not able to repair or

replace the goods then he requires to refund the money to the buyer if he rejects the
goods within the 30 days from the purchase of goods.
2. Price reduction of goods and services : Goods are not in satisfactory level as per the
quality prescribed by the seller and they are not able to repair or replace the part of the
goods or they are not able to repair them correctly then the seller is required to reduce the
price proportionately (Bovaird, 2009).
3. Specific performance by the seller : If the product is not as per specification or
description then the buyer has right to sue the seller for specific performance and requires
them to provide the same goods.
Remedies for seller
1. Lien of goods : Seller has a right of lien when the buyer has not paid for the goods or he
has become insolvent and he can pass possession when he received the money of goods.
2. Resale of goods : When buyer do not purchase goods within reasonable period of time
then seller can resell goods to another buyer. (Kurucz, Colbert and Wheeler, 2008)
3. Stoppage of goods in transit : Seller stops the consignment when they are in transit to
have possession back till full payment is not received by him.
Ques. 1.4 Statutory provisions of product liability for faulty goods.
Product liability for faulty goods in which producer is held liable for damages or injury
caused by the product as goods supplied by him is not of standard quality or might have some
shortcomings.
To claim that the product was of faulty nature the claimant has to prove that the
mentioned good was faulty and was not as per the standards mentioned by the seller,
subsequently they are also required to state that the product only caused the harm and seller is
under liability to pay for damages. Laws which provides rules for product liability is Consumer
Protection Act.
In respect to present case car dealer wanted to deny his obligation of defective goods on
the basis of terms and conditions mentioned by him in the contract. But according to Unfair
Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations Act 1999 all excluding terms are cancelled out and
only implied terms are considered and secondly Ben noticed the faults within reasonable of time

(Law, Qi and Buhalis, 2010). So its a obligatory part on the behalf of seller to make payments for
claims.
TASK 2: Consumer credit agreements and agency
Ques. 2.1 Types of credit agreements
Credit agreements refers to loan or credit taken by the the borrower from the lender. The
borrower has to repay the amount with interest on maturity. The Consumer Credit Act 1974
regulates the credit agreements in U.K.
Different types of credit agreements are available to Ben for buying a car.
1. Bank loans : Banks are financial institutions which provides loans to the borrower. Car
loan is a secured credit and usually loan is repaid in form of monthly payments.
2. Hire purchase and personal loans : In Hire purchase credit agreement ownership is
transferred when full amount with interest is paid to lender and in personal loan the
borrower borrows the amount and pays them with interest over a period of time
mentioned.
3. Credit cards : They are mainly used by the borrowers for purchase of goods and services.
Credit cards allows consumers to borrow or withdraw money from the issuing bank to
purchase goods and services (Wild, Wild and Han, 2014).
4. Overdraft facility : If borrower has pre agreement with the bank to withdraw money even
if balance in account is zero. They are handful at the temporary lack of cash flows and
borrower is required to pay the amount with interest.
5. Conditional sale : In this credit agreement buyer has a condition to buy goods after the
contract between them comes to an end (Bently and Sherman, 2014).
As mentioned above credit agreements Ben can choose which he feels appropriate as per his
requirements.
Ques. 2.2 Legal rules on termination rights and default notices in case of default
Ben is required to pay the amount of loan with interest to the lender but in case due to
some unforeseen circumstances he is not able to make payments and make default he can
terminate the contract.

Both parties i.e. borrower or lender can terminate the contract if debtor is not able to pay
the debt amount and creditor can go for settlement process. The buyer has to return the goods to
the seller in case of breach of contract.
A default notice is a clear indicator that you have defaulted in repayment of loan and
creditors wants you to make the payment of your loan. In case you don't pay the amount within
the reasonable time then other actions can be taken for repayment of loan by borrower
(Friedman, 2011). In case the borrower is not able to pay even after the default notice then
creditor can pass your debt to a collection agency or can take further court actions.
If you cannot repay the loan amount with interest then you can accept a affordable
payment plan provided by the creditor but in case you don't want to accept payment plans of
creditors and have other loans to pay then you can go for solutions such as debt management,
debt relief or insolvency. The court has the right of authority to order enforce payment of claims
Ques. 2.3 Different types of agents
Agency is the contractual relationship between two persons agent and principal. An agent
is a person who is appointed by the principal to work on his behalf. He has been authorised to
contract and negotiate on the behalf of principle. Principal grants implied or expressed duties to
the agent and he has has to perform accordingly for the benefit of principal (Sackman and et.al.,
2015). If an agent is working without any implied or expressed instructions, then the law protects
the interest of customers.
Types of agents :
1. General Agent : This kind of agent are appointed to carry out the business transaction on
the behalf of principal. He has been provided unlimited authority by the principal.
2. Agent of necessity : This type of agent comes into existence due to necessity which is
appointed to reduce down the damages or work load of principal.
3. Del Credere agent : In this agent takes responsibility with guarantee for extra
remuneration to indemnify the losses incurred by the principal.
4. Broker : In this agent doesn't have possession of goods at the sale of goods but acts on
behalf of principal to sale goods (Reinhardt and Stavins, 2010).
5. Factors : Agent has possession of goods before sale and he can sell or pledge goods to
arrange cash for the principal.

6. Special Agent : This kind of agent is appointed to do a specified task in which he has
experience and expertise to perform the task. On completion of the task the agency
between agent and principal comes to an end.
Ques. 2.4 Agent's rights and duties
Duties of Agent
1. To follow principal's instructions and requirements : First and foremost duty of an agent
is to follow directions of principal and work accordingly to it.
2. To carry out duties with adequate responsibility and skill : The agent should work with
reasonable skill and care, in case agent doesn't perform work properly then he has to bear
the consequences of his act but not responsible for small loss.
3. Duty to communicate : Agent before pursuing any task which requires any instruction
from the principal then he should communicate to principal.
Rights of Agent
1. Right to receive remuneration : Principal should pay remuneration in form of salary ,
wages or commission to agent on completion of work in period of time.
2. Right of retaining any sum of money out of principal's business for expenses incurred.
3. Right of compensation in case principal's cancels the agency before period of time.
4. Right of appointing sub agent or professionals for particular or specified task.
5. Right of stopping goods when the goods in transit like an seller when principal has
become insolvent or amount of goods is unpaid (Whitehead, 2011).
6. Right of lien : Agent can take possession of goods, paper or documents till the principal
doesn't pay the debt to the agent.
7. Right to indemnify towards lawful acts done by him on the behalf of principal's orders
and instructions respectively acts done by him in good faith.

TASK 3: Monopolies and Anti competitive practices
Ques. 3.1 Monopolies and Anti competitive legislation in UK
Monopoly refers to an individual or group of entity who controls the specified industry or
market which provides high cost to the goods or services and corruption. It comes into existence
due to economic barriers, advancement of technology and no close substitute is available.
The main legislation which regulates Monopolies and Anti competitive legislation in UK.
1. The Competition Act 1998 : This act mainly emphasis on prohibiting Anti competitive
agreements and abuse of dominant market position. This law prohibits such agreements
within the related organisations or agreements which are not in existence but still prevent,
distort or restrict competition in UK or within the EU and other practices relating to
limited production or supply of goods.
2. The Enterprise Act 2002 : this act mainly emphasised on mergers, cartels, uncompetitive
practices by the industries. It has made important changes in the merger so no political
interference can change the merger decision, to disqualification of director in case he is
involved in anti competitive practices (Chaffey and White, 2010).
3. The Fair Trading Act 1986 : this act protects consumers from unfair practices and
misleading done by the traders. It emphasis on claims of goods and services which are
not purchased by the consumer.
4. Enterprise and Regulatory Act 2013 : this act is a mixed combination of consumer
protection and to prohibit anti competitive practices in the market.
Ques. 3.2 Role of Competition and Market Authority in Monopolies and Anti competitive
practices
Competition and Market authority works to boost competition among the industry to
benefit the consumers, enterprises and economy of the country. They took over the
responsibilities and functions of Office of Fair Trading and Competition Commission. Their
main aim is to delegate a market which is free from anti competitive practices and works for
betterment of economy.

Fair trading practices restores rights of consumers in misleading conduct, false and
insubstantial representation, misleading practices in form of advertisement made by the dealers
(Park, 2012).
Competition Commission was responsible for mergers,abuse of dominant position, fixing
price or terms and creating cartels among the industries and to regulate healthy competition
among the industries.
Competition and Market Authority is required to examine mergers and its impact,
consequences to acknowledge that it doesn't restrict competition. It also examine anti
competitive practices agreements and regulates criminal proceedings towards the individuals and
industries who are involved in such practices. It motivates cooperation among the industries who
are into related business for competition among themselves and regulates them with continuous
references and appeals for coordination.
Main goals of Competition and Market Authority is to enhance efficiency, transparency,
accountability in the companies and empowers consumers to take a stand against the anti
competitive practices and to acknowledge them with understanding of law practices. It also
focuses on creating a team with people having different professional backgrounds so that it can
provide a trusted competition team as an advisor to the government.
Ques. 3.3 Abuse of dominant position
This circumstances occurs when an enterprise or industry holds the maximum market
share and uses this power to regulate conditions upon the other industries which in comparison
has lower market share. So use of power in particular is known as abuse of dominant position.
The dominant position uses its discretion power on customers, competitors and relevant
market. The elements constitute dominate positions are market share and size,barrier on entry of
new enterprise in the market, size of competitors, dependency of consumers on the goods and
services.
There are several factors which determines whether company is in a dominant position or
not. One of the basic factor is market share if company is holding maximum share of 40% or
50% in the market. Secondly factors should provide you are determining market forces and
competition including fixation of prices and forming cartels and finally if the practices of the
company can be considered in the abuse of dominant position (Llewellyn, 2012). But it is not

always necessary that company enjoying dominant position is violating the law it can be seen
that it is necessary for them to upgrade their technology so their products do not become
obsolescent.
Under UK Law section II of the Competition Act 1998 governs in case UK company is
included in practice of abuse of dominant position in the UK market whereas in case UK
company practices dominant position on the market which extends UK territory but on other
European Union members then the provisions of Article 82 of the European Union Treaty
governs the industry.
Ques. 3.4 Exemptions to anti competitive practices under EU law
Competition laws are enacted so that the customers, buyers and competitors interest are
protected. Competition provides a base to industries to provide good quality and efficient goods
at a lower prices with more options to the consumers.
Exemptions to anti competitive practices in European Union can be possible if it provides
benefits to the consumers and do not hamper competition. Example advancement of technology
it can be benefit to customers as well as motivates other competitors to enhance their technology
as per the current scenario and other competitors.
European Union can provides exemptions in case of small companies who in total holds
not more than 10% of the relevant markets. They are provided exemption on the basis that they
do not fix prices of products and do not have dominate position (Reinhardt and Stavins, 2010).
So to increase their growth and market share this industries are provided exemption.
The European Union has provided a collection of block exemptions for different types of
exemptions so that they can enhance the productivity, research and development in the
industries. This block exemptions are for specific contracts which relates to patents, copyrights,
know how licensing, technology collaboration (Orozco, 2010). It also grants exemption in the
research and development in the field of technology, medicines, science, arts and commerce. In
short exemptions are granted by the EU if they are beneficial in the public interest.

TASK 4: Intellectual property rights
Ques. 4.1 Types of intellectual property
Intellectual properties refers to property earned by the people on the basis of creativity,
invention or research and development. It includes different types such as patents, copyrights,
trademarks, registered designs ,industrial design rights, plant varieties, trade dress and secrets.
Patent : Inventor is assigned patent by the government giving rights to the investors to
stop other people to use, making or selling things in reference to patent without his permission.
Its on discretion of investors to whom he allow usage and right to stop for limited period of time.
Trademark : Trademark distinguishes product from the related products or services. It
helps product to distinguish on the basis of size, design, colours and shapes (Cheffins, 2008).
Once trademark of products are registered same identical goods with similar identity marks
cannot be registered but identical goods with different descriptions can be registered.
Copyright : It refers to register the work of author, musicians, photographers who has
created some content in their creative field on the basis of skill, experience, judgement and
expertise. Once the work been registered as copyright then without the permission of author you
cannot copy their work unless specified in the law.
Trade secrets : Trade secrets which includes the formula, designs, pattern formulated by
the inventor for formation of technology so to ascertain that the organisation achieved growth
over its competitors.
Ques. 4.2 Principles relating to patent rules and infringements
The Patents Act 1977 has made UK patent law close enough to other European countries.
This act has give discretionary power to the patent owner to make, use or sell of patents .
It provides them to sue other people who is using the goods without permission so that the owner
rights are not exploited. The period for patent of new invention is 20 years from the date of
filing application. The main motive behind patenting goods and services is that they remains
different and does not gets copied without his permission.
Section 60 of The Patents Act 1977 defines infringements of patent in UK. Infringement
refers to when the other person uses the patent goods without the permission, the patent owner

can take legal action and can make his work suspended and can claim damages (Sackman and
et.al., 2015).
Remedies available to the owner he can claim damages for financial harm suffered by
him and even can claim profits earned by the other person by using the owner work.
Ques. 4.3 Legal rules relating to copyright protection and infringement
Copyrights provides owner exclusive rights such as display their work on public
platforms, to allow people to copy their work, distribute their work The registered copyright
helps the owner to file a case for infringement of its work by another people without his
permission and to claim monetary benefits.
Copyright, Design and Patent Act 1988 governs copyright in UK and enables that the
copyright work last for 70 years. To create copyright work should be in relation to artistic,
musical, photographic and similar.
Copyright infringement refers to use of work without the permission which has been
copyrighted by the owner. Owner keeps a regular tab on legal and technological measures to
safeguard his work (Bently and Sherman, 2014).
Remedies available to the copyright is to file the suit or directly talk to other person for
monetary claims. But in case the dispute cannot be solved by communication as in the era of
technology advancement of piracy and theft in the copyright work and cannot be resolved by
monetary claims. Motives behind copyright infringement is price determined by the owner, not
to reveal real identity and usefulness of data.
Ques. 4.4 Protection of trademark and business names.
Many business registers the name of the company but forgets to register their goods for
trademark as accordingly to them it automatically registers them with the trademark law.
When you register your company name it does not mean that you are getting registered
with the trademark law. As they both are different and provides different aspects to the
organisation as business name provides a identity under which company operates its business
whereas trademark refers to a mark which distinguishes one product from other product which
are identical in nature (Armour and Cumming, 2008). Subsequently when you registered the
company name refers that the other company cannot use the same or identical name for the

business enterprises as same name creates confusion in the mind of consumers whereas
trademarks provides exclusive rights to the owner so it requires the company to register
trademark as soon as possible in the life of the company.
When a company registers its business name which are identical or similar and provides
same products and trademark is not registered then also owner of similar trademark can file a
case of infringement. In case you have registered your registered name but not trademark and
anybody else register such goods and services as trademark despite you are in the market before
them and have spent a lot on research, development and marketing strategy (Mahoney, 2013). As
you are not registered within the trademark act it will decrease the value of assets as well as
goodwill of the company and even they will be required to spent money to prove their existence.
CONCLUSION
In this report we have discussed sale of goods and services by the dealer which are in
faulty in nature and remedies available to the Ben for refund of money as well as remedies
available to both buyers and seller. It also emphasised on the liability of producer of goods
which has sold faulty goods or goods which are not as per the description and liable for claims .
Further we thoroughly discussed the credit agreements available to consumers in form of bank
loans and credit cards and in case what are sellers rights if buyer defaults in payment
subsequently we discussed about the agents and their rights and duties. The report also
emphasised on the monopoly and anti competitive practices practised by the individuals as well
as firms. Finally the intellectual property rights such as patents, copyrights, business name and
trademarks and their principals and impact on business.
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