Consumer Rights Act and Product Safety Obligations

Consumer Rights in Brief

Consumer Rights Act 2015 sets the baseline for goods, services and digital content. General Product Safety Regulations 2005 and the Office for Product Safety and Standards add product-specific obligations.

The Consumer Rights Act 2015

The Consumer Rights Act 2015 came into force on 1 October 2015 and is the principal UK consumer protection statute. It consolidates and modernises the framework that was previously spread across the Sale of Goods Act 1979, the Supply of Goods and Services Act 1982, the Sale and Supply of Goods to Consumers Regulations 2002, and the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations 1999.

The Act applies to all UK business-to-consumer (B2C) contracts. It does not apply to business-to-business (B2B) contracts, which remain governed by the older legislation. A consumer is defined in section 2(3) as an individual acting for purposes wholly or mainly outside their trade, business, craft or profession. The Act covers three categories of supply:

Goods - tangible items sold to consumers (Chapter 2)
Digital content - data produced and supplied in digital form, including software, apps, music downloads and streaming services (Chapter 3)
Services - work performed for the consumer (Chapter 4)

The Act applies regardless of where the contract is formed - a UK consumer buying online from a UK trader gets the same statutory rights as one buying in a high street shop. Businesses cannot contract out of these rights; any contract term that purports to exclude or restrict the statutory rights is unenforceable against the consumer.

Statutory Rights for Goods

Sections 9 to 17 of the Consumer Rights Act 2015 set out the implied terms that apply to every consumer contract for the supply of goods. The three core rights are:

Satisfactory quality (s.9) - the goods must meet the standard a reasonable person would consider satisfactory, taking into account the description, price and other relevant circumstances. This includes appearance and finish, freedom from minor defects, safety, durability and fitness for the purposes for which goods of that kind are usually supplied
Fit for particular purpose (s.10) - where the consumer makes known a particular purpose for the goods, they must be fit for that purpose, even if it is not the purpose for which goods of that kind are normally supplied
As described (s.11) - the goods must match any description given by the trader, including any sample shown or model demonstrated

The Act gives consumers a tiered set of remedies if these rights are breached:

Short-term right to reject (s.22) - within 30 days of delivery (or earlier if the goods are perishable), the consumer can reject the goods and get a full refund
Right to repair or replacement (s.23) - the consumer can require the trader to repair or replace the goods, at the trader's cost, within a reasonable time and without significant inconvenience
Final right to reject or price reduction (s.24) - if a single attempt at repair or replacement fails, the consumer can reject the goods for a refund (which can be reduced to reflect any use after the first six months) or claim a price reduction

Section 19(14) creates a six-month presumption: if a fault arises within six months of delivery, it is presumed to have been present at delivery unless the trader can show otherwise. This effectively reverses the burden of proof in most early-life fault situations.

Statutory Rights for Services

Chapter 4 of the Consumer Rights Act 2015 applies to services supplied to consumers. The implied terms are:

Reasonable care and skill (s.49) - the trader must perform the service with reasonable care and skill
Information about the trader or service (s.50) - any information about the trader or service that the consumer takes into account in deciding to enter the contract becomes a term of the contract
Reasonable price (s.51) - where the price is not fixed in advance, the consumer must pay a reasonable price
Reasonable time (s.52) - where the time for performance is not fixed, the service must be performed within a reasonable time

If the service does not meet these terms, the consumer is entitled to repeat performance (where possible) or a price reduction (s.55 and s.56). Unlike goods, there is no automatic right to a full refund for a defective service - the remedy is repeat performance first, with price reduction as a backup.

Digital Content

Chapter 3 covers digital content - software, apps, downloads, streamed media and similar. The same three core rights apply (satisfactory quality, fit for purpose, as described) and the trader has a tiered remedies obligation similar to goods. Two specific points apply to digital content:

Damage to other devices or content - if defective digital content damages the consumer's device or other digital content, the trader is liable to repair the damage or pay compensation (s.46)
No short-term right to reject - the 30-day right to reject does not apply to digital content. The remedy is repair, replacement or refund

Unfair Contract Terms

Part 2 of the Consumer Rights Act 2015 (sections 61 to 76) regulates unfair terms in consumer contracts. A contract term is unfair if, contrary to the requirement of good faith, it causes a significant imbalance in the parties' rights and obligations to the detriment of the consumer (s.62). Unfair terms are not binding on the consumer.

Schedule 2 contains an indicative list of terms likely to be regarded as unfair, including terms that:

Exclude or limit the trader's liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence (always void under s.65, regardless of fairness)
Exclude or limit liability for failure to perform the contract
Allow the trader unilaterally to alter the goods or services
Impose disproportionate financial penalties on the consumer
Require the consumer to use a court in a different jurisdiction

The transparency requirement in section 68 means terms must be expressed in plain and intelligible language and (if written) be legible. The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) and Trading Standards have enforcement powers in relation to unfair terms.

What trips up small businesses most often is the gap between the website terms and the law. The terms say no refunds after 14 days. The law says 30 days for a faulty item, plus tiered remedies after that, plus the six-month presumption shifting the burden of proof onto the business. The terms say the customer pays return postage. The law says the trader pays for returns of faulty goods. None of this is hostile to small businesses - it just means the customer-facing terms have to match the law, and the people answering the phone have to know the basics. A business that handles complaints in line with the Consumer Rights Act 2015 looks better in front of trading standards, in front of a small claims judge, and in front of the customer.

For most SMEs, the practical impact of the Consumer Rights Act 2015 is felt in three places. First, the terms and conditions on the website or in the customer contract need to be checked against Part 2 - any limitation of liability, automatic renewal clause, or right to vary the contract needs careful drafting to avoid being unenforceable. Second, the customer-facing complaints process needs to recognise the 30-day right to reject and the tiered remedies on goods - blanket no-refund policies are not lawful for consumer transactions. Third, staff dealing with customer issues need to understand the six-month presumption: if a fault appears within six months, the burden is on the business to prove the goods were of satisfactory quality at delivery, not on the consumer to prove they were not.

Product Safety - General Framework

Separate from the consumer rights framework, UK businesses placing products on the market have product safety obligations. The general framework is set by the General Product Safety Regulations 2005, which require that all products placed on the UK market are safe for their intended or reasonably foreseeable use.

The core duty under regulation 5 of the GPSR is on producers - including manufacturers, importers, own-brand retailers and anyone modifying a product. Producers must:

Place only safe products on the market
Provide consumers with information enabling them to assess and avoid risks
Adopt measures appropriate to the product to enable hazard monitoring, including investigating complaints, sample testing and product recalls if necessary

Distributors (under regulation 8) have a parallel duty to act with due care. They must not supply products they know or should know are unsafe, must cooperate with producers and authorities on safety actions, and must keep records that enable products to be traced.

Where a producer or distributor knows that a product they have placed on the market is unsafe, they must notify the relevant enforcing authority. Failure to comply with the GPSR is a criminal offence under regulation 20, with penalties of up to 12 months' imprisonment and an unlimited fine on indictment.

Sector-Specific Product Safety Regulations

Many product categories have specific safety regulations on top of the general framework. Common ones include:

Toys (Safety) Regulations 2011 - safety requirements for toys placed on the UK market
Electrical Equipment (Safety) Regulations 2016 - safety requirements for electrical products
Cosmetic Products Enforcement Regulations 2013 - cosmetic product safety
Furniture and Furnishings (Fire Safety) Regulations 1988 - flammability requirements for upholstered furniture
Personal Protective Equipment (Enforcement) Regulations 2018 - PPE safety requirements
Construction Products Regulations 2013 - construction product safety and performance

Sector-specific regulations typically include conformity assessment requirements, marking obligations (CE or UKCA - covered in a separate article), technical documentation requirements, and specific records that need to be retained for set periods. Where both the GPSR and a sector-specific regime apply, the sector-specific regime usually takes precedence, with GPSR filling gaps.

Enforcement and the OPSS

UK product safety is enforced primarily by:

Trading Standards - local authority enforcement, dealing with most consumer-facing product safety issues, mis-description, unfair trading practices and CRA breaches
Office for Product Safety and Standards (OPSS) - the national regulator within the Department for Business and Trade. Handles serious incidents, product recalls, national-scale enforcement and policy
Sector regulators - for example MHRA (medicines and medical devices), HSE (chemicals under REACH), Ofcom (radio equipment)

The Product Regulation and Metrology Act 2025 received Royal Assent in 2025 and provides a new framework for the Secretary of State to make secondary regulations on product safety, conformity assessment and metrology. It updates the legal basis for product safety regulation post-Brexit and is being commenced in stages with detailed regulations expected over the coming years.

What I look for on consumer rights and product safety in audits is whether the customer-facing terms reflect the law and whether the operational processes connect to them. Are returns and refunds handled in line with the Consumer Rights Act 2015 tiered remedies, or is there a blanket policy that ignores the 30-day right to reject? Are customer complaints logged in a way that surfaces patterns that could indicate a product safety issue? If a complaint suggests that a product may be unsafe, is there a process that escalates it to the OPSS or trading standards as required?

For organisations with their own products, the technical file is what audit looks for first. Has the conformity assessment been done? Is the technical documentation complete and current? Does the labelling match what is in the file? An organisation that placed a product on the market five years ago and has not reviewed the file since is exposed - both to enforcement action and to civil liability if the product turns out to be defective.

Practical Advice

For most SMEs selling to consumers, the practical answer is consumer-facing terms that reflect the Consumer Rights Act 2015, a returns and complaints process that delivers the tiered statutory remedies, and a customer feedback log that surfaces patterns suggesting product safety issues.

For SMEs that manufacture, import or own-brand products, additional steps are needed: a technical file for each product line, conformity assessment under the relevant sector regime, traceability records, and a notification process for unsafe products discovered in the field. The toolkit and registers below provide the documented basis.

alphaZ document	How to use it
ISO 9001 Management System Toolkit	The quality management system toolkit. Includes the customer requirements, design and development, and product/service provision documents that operationalise consumer rights and product safety obligations.
IMS Toolkit (ISO 9001/14001/45001)	The integrated management system toolkit. Includes the wider quality and operational framework where consumer rights and product safety controls sit.
F-Q12 Customer Questionnaire	Customer feedback template. Used to collect structured consumer satisfaction data and surface issues that may indicate quality, safety or contractual problems.
ER5 Feedback and Analysis Register	The customer feedback analysis register. Logs customer feedback and complaints, supports trend analysis, and provides the audit trail that underpins consumer rights and product safety responses.
ER9 Legal Register	The legal register entry for the Consumer Rights Act 2015, the General Product Safety Regulations 2005 and any sector-specific safety regulations sits here.

Note: subscribers to alphaZ documents can download all of the documents above as part of the subscription.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does the Consumer Rights Act apply to small businesses selling to consumers?

Yes. The Consumer Rights Act 2015 applies to all UK business-to-consumer transactions regardless of trader size. A sole trader selling online is subject to the same statutory rights framework as a multinational retailer. The practical scale of the compliance arrangements can be proportionate to the business, but the underlying rights cannot be reduced or excluded by contract terms. Any clause that purports to do so is unenforceable against the consumer.

Can I have a no-refund policy?

Not in the way it is usually intended. A blanket "no refunds" policy in a consumer contract is unenforceable to the extent it conflicts with the statutory rights under the Consumer Rights Act 2015. If goods are faulty, not as described, or unfit for purpose, the consumer has a 30-day right to reject for a full refund. After 30 days, the tiered remedies under sections 23 and 24 apply. A trader can lawfully decline to refund goods that are returned simply because the consumer changed their mind (outside any voluntary returns policy or distance-selling cancellation rights), but cannot lawfully refuse refunds for genuine faults within the statutory framework.

What is the six-month presumption?

Under section 19(14) of the Consumer Rights Act 2015, if a fault arises within six months of delivery of goods, it is presumed to have been present at delivery. This means the burden is on the trader to prove, on the balance of probabilities, that the goods were of satisfactory quality at delivery and the fault arose from something that happened afterwards (for example, misuse or accidental damage). After the first six months, the burden shifts back to the consumer to prove the fault was inherent. This presumption applies to faults under sections 9 to 11 and is one of the most consumer-friendly provisions of the Act.

What product safety obligations apply to small importers?

An importer is treated as a producer under the General Product Safety Regulations 2005 and has the full range of producer obligations - placing only safe products on the market, providing risk information, monitoring hazards, retaining records that allow products to be traced, and notifying authorities of unsafe products. Sector-specific regulations may add further obligations, including conformity assessment, technical documentation, and CE/UKCA marking. There is no SME exemption from these duties. Importers should retain technical files, declarations of conformity, traceability records and supplier compliance documentation for the period set by the relevant sector regime - typically 10 years for many product categories.

Who enforces consumer rights and product safety?

Enforcement is split between several bodies. Trading Standards services within local authorities deal with most day-to-day consumer issues, mis-description, unfair commercial practices and routine product safety enforcement. The Office for Product Safety and Standards (OPSS) handles serious incidents, national product recalls and policy work. The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) deals with unfair contract terms and broader consumer enforcement. Sector regulators such as the MHRA, HSE and Ofcom have roles in their respective areas. Individual consumers can also bring civil claims through the courts or use the small claims track for lower-value disputes.

UK Legislation

Further Resources