ABSTRACT
It is not the purpose of this chapter to examine the whole body of civil and criminal law, the regulatory mechanisms and voluntary codes of practice which now exist to protect the consumer from unsafe products, qualitatively deficient goods and services, fraudulent trading practices and the other matters which constitute modern consumer protection law and practice. Our main aim is to concentrate on the legal response to unfair and oppressive terms in business contracts made with consumers and others, which has culminated in the passing of the Unfair Contract Terms Act 1977 and the coming into effect (from the end of 1994) of the European Community Directive on Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts.
