Enhancing Sri Lankan consumer protection through consumer guarantees and strict liability for defective goods — Lessons from the Australian model of Consumer Law

Abstract

The introduction of the Consumer Affairs Authority Act No 09 of 2003 (Sri Lanka) marked a major advance in the protection of consumers in Sri Lanka. However, there are certain aspects of this legislation that can be further developed to enhance consumer protection. The focus of this article is on inadequacies of the existing statutory liability regime for (a) implied warranties and the need for, and desirability of introducing new provisions and/or replacing the existing provisions with a set of mandatory quality standards such as consumer guarantees; (b) the manufacture's liability for physical injury or damage to property caused by goods that have safety defects and the need for an improved statutory provisions for the manufacturer's liability for defective goods. Drawing upon the equivalent provisions of the Australian Consumer Law (Cth) which is based on the Consumer Guarantees Act 1993 (NZ) this article proposes the manner in which these two areas of the Sri Lankan consumer law can be developed.