Consumer Rights Act 2015 Implementation In October 2015 - Do Your Consumer Contracts Have Potentially Unfair Terms?

In this article, written for Compliance Monitor, Nicholas Ralph of Dentons looks at how the unfair terms provisions of the CRA may impact financial services firms.

The Consumer Rights Act 2015 (CRA), which received Royal Assent on 26 March 2015, delivers a wholesale overhaul of the UK's consumer rights regime. The CRA consolidates and update various pieces of UK legislation, so that, for the first time, the majority of consumer rights in respect of contracts to provide goods or services are now set out in one place.

Of particular interest to financial services firms are the CRA reforms relating to unfair terms in contracts, replacing provisions currently set out in the Unfair Contract Terms Act 1997 (UCTA) and the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations 1999 (UTCCRs).