Consumer Service Contract
Consumer Rights Act
Interpretation
2. (1) In this Act—
“Act of 1995” means the Consumer Credit Act 1995 ;
“Act of 2007” means the Consumer Protection Act 2007 ;
“commercial guarantee”, in relation to a sales contract, means any undertaking by a trader or producer to a consumer (in addition to the trader’s legal obligation to supply goods in conformity with the sales contract) to reimburse the price paid or to repair, replace or service goods in any way if they do not meet the specifications or any other requirements not related to conformity set out in the guarantee statement or in the relevant advertising available at the time of, or before, the conclusion of the sales contract;
“compatibility” means the ability of digital content, digital services or goods to function with hardware or software with which digital content, digital services or goods of the same type is or are normally used without the need to convert the digital content, digital service, goods, hardware or software;
“consumer” means an individual acting for purposes that are wholly or mainly outside that individual’s trade, business, craft or profession;
“delivery” means voluntary transfer of possession from one person to another;
“digital content” means data which are produced and supplied in digital form, including in particular computer programs, applications, video files, audio files, music files, digital games, e-books and other e-publications;
“digital content contract” means a contract under which—
(a) a trader supplies or undertakes to supply digital content to a consumer, and
(b) the consumer either or both:
(i) pays or undertakes to pay the price of the digital content;
(ii) provides or undertakes to provide personal data to the trader, other than where the personal data are processed by the trader only for the purpose of supplying the digital content in accordance with this Act or complying with any other legal requirement to which the trader is subject;
“digital service” means—
(a) a service that allows a consumer to create, process, store or access data in digital form, or
(b) a service that allows the sharing of or any other interaction with data in digital form uploaded or created by a consumer or other users of that service,
and includes in particular video and audio sharing and other file hosting, social media, and word processing and games offered in the cloud computing environment;
“digital service contract” means a contract under which—
(a) a trader supplies or undertakes to supply a digital service to a consumer, and
(b) the consumer either or both:
(i) pays or undertakes to pay the price of the digital service;
(ii) provides or undertakes to provide personal data to the trader, other than where the personal data are processed by the trader only for the purpose of supplying the digital service in accordance with this Act or complying with any other legal requirement to which the trader is subject;
“distance contract” means a contract concluded between a trader and a consumer under an organised distance sales or service-provision scheme without the simultaneous physical presence of the trader and the consumer, and with the exclusive use of one or more means of distance communication up to and including the time at which the contract is concluded;
“district heating” means the supply of heat (in the form of steam, hot water or otherwise) to multiple buildings from a central source of production through a transmission and distribution system for the purpose of heating;
“durable medium” means any instrument which enables a consumer or a trader to store information addressed personally to that person in a way that is accessible for future reference, for a period of time adequate for the purposes of the information, and which allows the unchanged reproduction of the information stored;
“electronic communications service” means a service normally provided for remuneration via electronic communications networks, which encompasses, with the exception of a service providing, or exercising editorial control over, content transmitted using electronic communications networks and services, the following types of service—
(a) a publicly available electronic communications service that provides an internet access service,
(b) an interpersonal communications service, and
(c) a service consisting wholly or mainly in the conveyance of signals such as a transmission service used for the provision of a machine-to-machine service and for broadcasting;
“enactment” has the same meaning as it has in the Interpretation Act 2005 ;
“financial service” means any service of a kind normally provided in the ordinary course of carrying on a banking business, an insurance business or a business of providing credit, personal pensions, an investment service or a payment service;
“functionality” means the ability of goods, digital content or digital services to perform their functions having regard to their purpose;
“goods” means any tangible movable items (other than money and any item sold by way of execution or otherwise by authority of law) and includes—
(a) any tangible movable items that incorporate, or are inter-connected with, digital content or a digital service in such a way that the absence of that digital content or digital service would prevent the goods from performing their functions, and
(b) water, gas and electricity where they are supplied in a limited volume or set quantity;
“goods with digital elements” means any tangible movable items that fall within paragraph (a) of the definition of “goods”;
“internet access service” means a publicly available electronic communications service that provides access to the internet, and thereby connectivity to virtually all end points of the internet, irrespective of the network technology and terminal equipment used;
“interoperability” means the ability of goods, digital content or a digital service to function with hardware or software different from those with which goods, digital content or digital services of the same type are normally used;
“interpersonal communications service” means a service normally provided for remuneration that enables direct interpersonal and interactive exchange of information via electronic communications networks between a finite number of persons, whereby the persons initiating or participating in the communication determine its recipients and does not include services which enable interpersonal and interactive communication merely as a minor ancillary feature that is intrinsically linked to another service;
“Minister” means the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment;
“number-based interpersonal communications service” means an interpersonal communications service which connects with publicly assigned numbering resources, namely, a number or numbers in national or international numbering plans, or which enables communication with a number or numbers in national or international numbering plans;
“off-premises contract” means any of the following contracts between a trader and a consumer:
(a) a contract concluded in the simultaneous physical presence of the trader and the consumer in a place which is not the business premises of the trader;
(b) a contract for which an offer was made by the consumer in the simultaneous physical presence of the trader and the consumer in a place which is not the business premises of the trader;
(c) a contract concluded on the business premises of the trader or through any means of distance communication immediately after the consumer was personally and individually addressed in a place which is not the business premises of the trader in the simultaneous physical presence of the trader and the consumer;
(d) a contract concluded during an excursion organised by the trader with the aim or effect of promoting and selling goods or services to the consumer;
“ownership” means the general property in goods and not merely a special or limited property;
“personal data” has the same meaning as it has in the Data Protection Act 2018 ;
“prescribed” means prescribed by regulations made by the Minister;
“producer” means a manufacturer of goods, an importer of goods into the European Union or any person purporting to be a producer by placing the person’s name, trade mark or other distinctive sign on the goods and includes any person acting in the name, or on behalf, of the producer;
“sales contract” (other than in Part 5 ) has the meaning assigned to it by section 11 (1);
“service” means any service or facility (other than digital content, a digital service and a service provided under a contract of employment or apprenticeship) and includes in particular—
(a) a service or facility for—
(i) financial or other professional services,
(ii) amusement, cultural activities, entertainment, instruction, recreation or refreshment,
(iii) accommodation,
(iv) communication, including electronic communication,
(v) transport, travel, parking or storage,
(vi) the care and maintenance of persons, animals or things, or
(vii) the construction, maintenance or repair of buildings,
(b) the supply of—
(i) water, gas or electricity where it is not supplied in a limited volume or set quantity, or
(ii) district heating,
and
(c) any rights, benefits, privileges, obligations or facilities that are, or are to be, provided, granted or conferred in the course of a service;
“service contract” (other than in Part 5 ) means a contract (other than a sales contract and a contract for the sale of land (within the meaning of the Land and Conveyancing Law Reform Act 2009 )) under which—
(a) a trader supplies or undertakes to supply a service to a consumer, and
(b) the consumer pays or undertakes to pay the price of the service;
“trader” means—
(a) a natural person, or
(b) a legal person, whether—
(i) privately owned,
(ii) publicly owned, or
(iii) partly privately owned and partly publicly owned,
who is acting for purposes relating to the person’s trade, business, craft or profession, and includes any person acting in the name, or on behalf, of the trader.
(2) In subsection (1), in the definitions of “digital content contract”, “digital service contract” and “service contract”, any reference to the consumer paying a price includes a reference to the consumer using by way of payment any facility by which payment is made.
(3) It is for a trader claiming that an individual was not acting for purposes wholly or mainly outside that individual’s trade, business, craft or profession to show that the individual was not so acting.
(4) A reference in this Act to the sale of goods includes a reference to the transfer of, or an undertaking to transfer, the ownership of those goods.
(5) A reference in this Act to the supply of a service or a digital service includes a reference to the performance, rendering or provision of the service or of the digital service, as the case may be.
(6) In Parts 2 to 4 , a reference to a reasonable expectation shall be interpreted having regard objectively to the nature and purpose of the contract concerned, the circumstances of the case and the usages and practices of the parties to the contract.
Service contracts
Chapter 1
Interpretation and application (Part 4)
Interpretation (Part 4)
74. (1) In this Part—
“consumer-hire agreement” has the same meaning as it has in the Act of 1995;
“free of charge” means free of any costs necessarily incurred in remedying the lack of conformity of a service with the service contract, including the cost of labour and materials;
“hire-purchase agreement” has the same meaning as it has in the Act of 1995.
(2) A reference in this Part to a service being in conformity with a service contract is to be construed in accordance with section 79 (2).
Application (Part 4)
75. (1) Subject to subsection (3) and sections 80 (1), 86 (1)(g), 88 and 92 to 94 , this Part applies to any contract specified in subsection (2) that is concluded between a trader and a consumer on or after the day on which this section comes into operation.
(2) The contracts referred to in subsection (1) are—
(a) a service contract, and
(b) where a single contract between a trader and a consumer relates to the supply of a service and—
(i) the sale of goods,
(ii) the supply of digital content, or
(iii) the supply of a digital service,
that contract but only in so far as it relates to the supply of the service.
(3) This Part does not apply to—
(a) a contract for rental of accommodation for residential purposes concluded between a trader and a consumer, or
(b) goods supplied under a consumer-hire agreement or a hire-purchase agreement.
(4) A reference in Chapter 2 or 3 of this Part to a service contract shall be construed as a reference to any contract to which this Part applies.
(5) Nothing in this Part shall affect the entitlement of a consumer to terminate a contract under section 29 (1) or 65 (2).
Power of Minister to restrict or extend application of Part 4
76. (1) Subject to section 75 and subsection (3), the Minister may by regulations provide that this Part or any provision of this Part specified in the regulations—
(a) shall not apply to a class or description of service so specified, or
(b) shall apply to a class or description of service so specified but only in the circumstances so specified.
(2) Subject to section 75 and subsection (3), the Minister may by regulations provide for the application of this Part to the following class of contract, namely a contract between a trader and a consumer for the supply of a service under which the consumer—
(a) does not pay or undertake to pay the price of the service, and
(b) provides or undertakes to provide personal data to the trader, other than where the personal data are processed by the trader in accordance with this Part or for the purpose only of complying with any other legal requirement to which the trader is subject.
(3) The Minister may make regulations under subsection (1) only where the Minister is satisfied, after consultation with such persons as the Minister considers appropriate, that such regulations would be in the interests of consumer protection and fair competition.
(4) The Minister may make regulations under subsection (2) only where the Minister is satisfied, after consultation with such persons as the Minister considers appropriate, that—
(a) contracts of the class proposed to be specified in regulations under subsection (2) are being concluded on a significant scale, and
(b) the regulation of that class of contract would be in the interests of consumer protection and fair competition.
(5) Regulations under subsection (1) or (2) may provide that the application of this Part to the class or description of service referred to in subsection (1) or, as the case may be, the class of contract referred to in subsection (2), and specified in the regulations, shall be subject to such modifications as may be so specified.
Effect of Part on other enactments etc.
77. (1) Nothing in this Part affects any enactment or rule of law that imposes additional or stricter obligations on a trader in relation to the supply of a service.
(2) This Part is subject to—
(a) any other enactment, and
(b) any international convention to which the State or the European Union is party,
that defines or limits the rights, obligations or liabilities arising in relation to a service.
Chapter 2
Consumer rights in service contracts
Supply of service
78. (1) Where a service contract is concluded between a trader and a consumer, the trader shall supply the service to the consumer in accordance with the contract.
(2) Subject to subsections (3) to (5), the trader shall supply the service—
(a) where the service contract is a distance contract or an off-premises contract—
(i) at such time, or within such period, as may be specified in the information provided to the consumer under section 103 , 104 or 106 , or
(ii) where no time or period is so specified, at such time, or within such period, as may be agreed between the trader and the consumer,
and
(b) where the service contract is not a distance contract or an off-premises contract, at such time, or within such period, as may be agreed between the trader and the consumer.
(3) Where no time or period is specified or agreed as mentioned in subsection (2), the trader shall supply the service within a reasonable time following the conclusion of the service contract.
(4) Where a service contract provides for the continuous supply of the service for a period specified in the contract, the trader shall supply the service to the consumer during that period.
(5) Where a service contract provides for the supply of the service on more than one occasion during the period for which the contract subsists, the trader shall supply the service to the consumer on each of those occasions.
(6) Subject to subsection (7), if the trader fails to supply the service to the consumer in accordance with this section, the consumer shall have the right to the remedies specified in sections 84 and 91 .
(7) If there is a short-term interruption of the supply of the service that is more than negligible or that recurs—
(a) section 84 shall not apply,
(b) the service shall be deemed not to be in conformity with the service contract, and
(c) the consumer shall have the right to the remedies specified in sections 85 , 86 and 91 .
(8) For the purposes of subsection (3), whether a service has been supplied within a reasonable time following the conclusion of a service contract is a question of fact.
Service to be in conformity with service contract
79. (1) Where a service contract is concluded, the trader shall supply a service to the consumer that is in conformity with the service contract.
(2) A service is in conformity with the service contract if it complies with the requirements specified in sections 80 and 81 .
(3) Where the service supplied by the trader is not in conformity with the service contract, the consumer shall have the right to the remedies specified in Chapter 3 of this Part.
Subjective requirements for conformity with service contract
80. (1) The service supplied under a service contract and any goods or digital content produced by or resulting from the service, shall—
(a) comply with the terms of the service contract agreed between the trader and the consumer,
(b) subject to subsection (2), comply with any oral or written statement to the consumer by or on behalf of the trader in relation to the service or the trader on which the consumer relied when—
(i) deciding to enter into the service contract, or
(ii) making any decision in relation to the service after entering into the service contract,
(c) be reasonably fit for any purpose—
(i) that the consumer made known to the trader at the time of, or before, the conclusion of the service contract, and
(ii) that the trader has accepted,
(d) be of a nature and quality that can reasonably be expected to achieve any result—
(i) that the consumer made known to the trader at the time of, or before, the conclusion of the service contract, and
(ii) that the trader has accepted,
and
(e) where the service contract is a distance contract or an off-premises contract, comply with any additional terms imposed by virtue of section 103 , 104 or 106 .
(2) The meaning and effect of any oral or written statement of the kind referred to in subsection (1)(b) is subject to—
(a) any oral or written statement made to the consumer by the trader on the same occasion which qualified that statement, and
(b) any change to that statement subsequently agreed between the consumer and the trader.
(3) Where a service contract provides for the continuous supply of a service for a period specified in the contract, the trader shall ensure that the service complies with the requirements of subsection (1) during that period.
(4) Where a service contract provides for the supply of a service on more than one occasion during the period for which the contract subsists, the trader shall ensure that the service complies with the requirements of subsection (1) on each of those occasions.
(5) In case of dispute, it shall be for the trader to show that—
(a) the trader did not accept a purpose relating to the service of the kind referred to in subsection (1)(c), and
(b) the trader did not accept a result relating to the service of the kind referred to in subsection (1)(d).
Objective requirements for conformity with service contract
81. (1) The following requirements shall apply in relation to a service contract—
(a) the trader shall have the necessary skill to supply the service,
(b) the trader shall supply the service with reasonable care and skill,
(c) the trader shall supply the service in accordance with any applicable laws,
(d) any materials used in the supply of the service shall be sound, reasonably fit for the purpose for which they are supplied, and correspond to any description provided by the trader, and
(e) the service shall comply with any public statement in relation to the service made by, or on behalf of, the trader or any other person constituting a previous link in the chain of transactions relating to the service contract, particularly in advertising, unless the trader shows that—
(i) the trader was not, and could not reasonably have been, aware of the public statement in question,
(ii) at the time of conclusion of the service contract, the public statement had been corrected in the same way as it had been made (or in a comparable way), or
(iii) the decision of the consumer to purchase the service could not have been influenced by the public statement.
(2) A trader who purports to supply a service to a higher standard of care and skill than that specified in subsection (1)(b) shall exercise that higher standard of care and skill in supplying the service.
(3) Where—
(a) standards of care and skill have been set by a body or a public authority in relation to the supply of a particular service by a trader, and
(b) a trader is, or purports to be, a member of the professional body,
the trader shall exercise those standards of care and skill in supplying the service under a service contract.
(4) A trader who is, or purports to be, bound by a code of practice relating to the supply of a service shall abide by that code in supplying the service under a service contract.
(5) Where a service contract provides for the continuous supply of a service for a period specified in the contract, the trader shall ensure that the service is in conformity with the contract during that period.
(6) Where a service contract provides for the supply of a service on more than one occasion during the period for which the contract subsists, the trader shall ensure that the service is in conformity with the contract on each of those occasions.
(7) In this section, “code of practice” means any rules or standards that are not imposed by or under an enactment which purport to govern or define the behaviour, practices or ethical standards of traders in relation to their transactions with consumers arising from the supply of a service (whether generally or in respect of a particular trade, business or profession).
Implied terms of service contract
82. Sections 78 (2)(b) to (6), 80 and 81 are implied into every service contract and shall have effect as if they were terms of such a contract.
Reasonable price to be paid for service
83. (1) Where, in respect of a service contract—
(a) the consumer has not paid the price or other consideration for the service,
(b) the contract does not fix the price or other consideration for the service or provide for how it is to be fixed, and
(c) the price or other consideration for the service is not fixed by—
(i) an oral or written statement by or on behalf of the trader of the kind referred to in section 80 (1)(b),
(ii) where the contract is an off-premises contract, the information provided to the consumer under section 103 or 104 , or
(iii) where the contract is a distance contract, the information provided to the consumer under section 106 ,
the price payable for the service shall be a reasonable price and no more.
(2) What is a reasonable price for a service is a question of fact.