Consumer Rights Act 2022
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Burden of proof under digital content contract or digital service contract | ||
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59. (1) The burden of proof as to whether digital content or a digital service was supplied in accordance with section 51 shall be on the trader. | ||
(2) Subject to subsection (4), where a digital content contract or digital service contract provides for a single act of supply, or a series of individual acts of supply, of digital content or a digital service, the burden of proof as to whether the digital content or digital service supplied by the trader was in conformity with the contract at the time of supply shall be on the trader for a lack of conformity with the digital content contract or digital service contract which becomes apparent during the period of 12 months beginning with the supply of the digital content or digital service. | ||
(3) Subject to subsection (4), where the digital content contract or digital service contract provides for the continuous supply of digital content or a digital service for a period specified in the contract, the burden of proof as to whether the digital content or digital service was in conformity with the contract during that period shall be on the trader for a lack of conformity with the contract which becomes apparent during that period. | ||
(4) Subsections (2) and (3) shall not apply where the trader— | ||
(a) shows that the digital environment of the consumer is not compatible with the technical requirements of the digital content or digital service, and | ||
(b) informed the consumer of such requirements in a clear and comprehensible manner before the conclusion of the contract. | ||
(5) Subject to subsection (6), the consumer shall co-operate with the trader, to the extent reasonably possible and necessary, to ascertain whether the cause of the lack of conformity with the digital content contract or digital service contract of the digital content or digital service at the times specified in section 58 (1) to (4) lay in the consumer’s digital environment. | ||
(6) The obligation on the consumer to co-operate under subsection (5) shall be limited to the technically available means which are least intrusive for the consumer. | ||
(7) Where— | ||
(a) the consumer fails to co-operate as required by subsection (5), and | ||
(b) the trader informed the consumer of the technical requirements of the digital content or digital service in a clear and comprehensible manner before the conclusion of the digital content contract or digital service contract, | ||
the burden of proof as to whether the lack of conformity with the contract existed at the times specified in section 58 (1) to (4) shall be on the consumer. | ||
(8) Nothing in this section shall prevent or restrict a consumer from exercising a remedy after the expiry of the period of 12 months beginning with the date of supply of the digital content or digital service. |