Testing the balance of rights pertaining to enforcement clauses in consumer contracts

Abstract

The fundamental consumer rights granted to consumers by consumer legislation would be without meaning if no avenues of redress were available to enforce them. In this implementation process it happens that there tend to be an unbalanced effect when one can compare consumer rights with these of service providers and credit providers when dealing with enforcement clauses in consumer contracts. By comparing these rights one may conclude that there is a disproportionate shift of rights to the consumer to the detriment of service providers and credit providers in South Africa. This might have the effect that the South African economy is jeopardized and employment affected. This leads to the realisation that the South African cornerstone of law of contract namely pactum sunt servanda is facing difficulty in the new era of consumer legislation and consumer behavior, yet that it remains important to ensure a sense of security and safety between contracting parties.