Kenyan consumers will have the right to reject goods and obtain refunds, or compel manufacturers to repair or replace faulty and poor-quality products if Parliament approves changes to the law aimed at protecting buyers from substandard products.
The Consumer Protection (Amendment) Bill, 2023 seeks to add a new section to the Consumer Protection Act, 2012 that grants consumers the right to reject goods as well as get refunds.
The proposed law seeks to empower consumers to return goods within a week of delivery if they are defective, unsafe, not of merchantable quality, or were not examined by the suppliers before delivery.
The Bill further seeks to shift the burden of proof to a supplier of goods.
The current law states that a supplier is deemed to warrant that the goods or services provided under a consumer agreement are of reasonable merchantable quality.
“The proposed amendment seeks to insert the words: ‘therefore the burden of proof is on the supplier’ after the word ‘quality’,” the Bill reads.
The Parliamentary Budget Office (PBO), which advises MPs on fiscal matters, estimates that the enactment of the Bill will result in a tax loss of approximately Sh211.1 million in the first year of implementation.
“Businesses are required to charge and collect value-added tax (VAT) on their sales. When goods are returned, the business may be required to issue a refund to the consumer for the amount of tax that was paid on the original sale,” the PBO brief to MPs states.
“Based on the underlying assumption, the tax loss implication of the proposed legislation is approximately Sh211.1 million in year one, Sh229.2 million in year two and Sh242.3 million in year three.”
The Bill sponsored by Vihiga Woman Representative Beatrice Adagala comes at a time when there is a rise in complaints about e-commerce firms supplying defective products sold by third-party merchants on their sites.
