The New Consumer Protection Act: What Rights Do Consumers Have?

Have you ever wondered what rights you have as a consumer? Consumers are defined as private individuals, members of a consumer interest group, people acting in the public interest and people acting on behalf of others who are incapacitated. The definition does not include the government, though it may cover certain types of businesses. If you are a consumer, it is important that you know your rights.

Any consumer needs to look carefully at marketing strategies to make sure they comply with the new provisions of the Consumer Protection Act. According to the Act, marketing must be fair and responsible. It may not be false, misleading, fraudulent or deceptive in any way. Some of the important rules of the Consumer Protection Act to keep in mind are:

• Consumers are protected from discriminatory marketing – marketing where one group is given a different or better offer than another, based on unfair discrimination. All consumers must be marketed to equally unless there are fair and reasonable grounds for different treatment.
• Consumers have a right to privacy in respect to direct marketing. They can refuse, discontinue or pre-emptively block any direct marketing messages. The Consumer Protection Commission will create a registry of people who have pre-emptively opted out; you will need to cross-reference all marketing contact lists with this registry before any direct marketing is sent out.
• Consumers may not be rewarded directly for referring other customers to you.

Basically, you just need to make sure that you are not employing any kind of dodgy tactics in your marketing strategy, as a marketer you also fall into the realm of consumer, so just imagine what you would and wouldn’t enjoy being on the receiving end of.