Consumer Rights Act 2022

Consumer contract terms that are always unfair

132. (1) Subject to subsections (2) and (3), a term of a consumer contract shall always be unfair if its object or effect is—

(a) to exclude or limit the liability of a trader for the death of or personal injury to a consumer arising from an act or omission of the trader,

(b) to require a consumer to pay for goods that have not been delivered or digital content, a digital service or a service that has not been supplied,

(c) to impose on a consumer a burden of proof that, according to the applicable law, would otherwise be on a trader,

(d) to exclude or hinder a consumer’s right to take legal action or exercise a legal remedy, including by requiring the consumer to take a dispute to an arbitration procedure that is not governed by law,

(e) to require a consumer to bear his or her own costs in respect of any arbitration,

(f) to give a trader the exclusive right to determine whether goods are, or digital content, a digital service or a service is, in conformity with the contract,

(g) to give a trader the exclusive right to interpret any term of the contract,

(h) to grant the trader a shorter notice period to terminate the contract than the notice period required of the consumer, or

(i) to confer exclusive jurisdiction for disputes arising under the contract on a court in the place where a trader is domiciled unless the consumer is also domiciled in that place.

(2) Subsection (1)(a) does not apply—

(a) to a consumer contract in so far as it is a contract of insurance, including a contract to pay an annuity on human life, or

(b) to a consumer contract so far as it relates to the creation or transfer of an interest in land.

(3) Subsection (1)(a) does not apply to the liability of an occupier of premises to a person who obtains access to the premises for recreational purposes if—

(a) the person suffers loss or damage because of the dangerous state of the premises, and

(b) allowing the person access for recreational purposes does not relate to the occupier’s trade, business, craft or profession.

(4) Subsection (1)(a) does not affect the validity of any discharge or indemnity given by a person in consideration of the receipt by that person of compensation in settlement of any claim that the person has.

(5) For the purposes of subsection (1)(a), a consumer shall not be deemed to have voluntarily accepted any risk merely because he or she agreed to or knew about a term of a consumer contract that purported to exclude the trader’s liability for death or personal injury.

(6) In this section, “personal injury” has the same meaning as it has in the Civil Liability Act 1961 .