Consumer Rights Act 2022

Amendment of section 46 of Act of 2007

155. Section 46 of the Act of 2007 is amended—

(a) in subsection (3), by—

(i) the substitution of the following paragraph for paragraph (e):

“(e) the arrangements for payment, delivery and performance if such arrangements do not meet or accord with—

(i) the standard of skill and care that the trader may reasonably be expected to exercise in respect of consumers, or

(ii) the general principle of good faith in the trader’s field of activity;”,

and

(ii) the insertion of the following paragraph after paragraph (f):

“(g) for products offered on online marketplaces, whether the third party offering the products is a trader or not, on the basis of the declaration of that third party to the provider of the online marketplace.”,

(b) by the insertion of the following subsections after subsection (3):

“(3A) (a) Where consumers are provided with the option of searching for products offered by different traders or consumers on the basis of a query in the form of a keyword, phrase or other input (and irrespective of where transactions are ultimately concluded) general information relating to—

(i) the main parameters determining the ranking of products presented to a consumer as a result of the search query, and

(ii) the importance of those parameters relative to other parameters,

that is made available in a specific section of the online interface directly and easily accessible from the page where the query results are presented shall be treated as material information for the purposes of this section.

(b) Paragraph (a) does not apply to any person who provides or offers to provide an online search engine to consumers.

(3B) Where a trader provides access to reviews by consumers of products, information in relation to whether and how the trader ensures that the published reviews originate from consumers who have actually used or purchased the products shall be treated as material information for the purposes of this section.”,

and

(c) in subsection (4), by the substitution of “subsections (3) to (3B)” for “subsection (3)”.