Protection of Consumers’ Rights in Consumer Contracts: A Case Study of “Misconceived Consumer Cases”

Abstract

In Thailand, mechanisms and measures for consumers’ rights protection have consistently been put in place and developed towards enhanced efficiency, as reflected in the promulgation of new legislation aimed at consumer protection as well as legislation assiduously enacted for amending existing consumer protection laws. The most recent attempt can indeed be envisioned in the amendment made to the Consumer Protection Act, B.E. 2522 (1979) in May 2019. That having been said, there have been, in practice, frequent incidences of disputes between consumers and traders. In particular, a constantly rising

number of consumer cases brought before the Court has been well witnessed. Despite such growth, meticulous consideration of a plethora of litigious consumer cases leads to a “question” or “doubt” as to whether those cases are, in their real nature, genuinely consumer cases or are, in reality, misconceived consumer cases, in which case application of consumer protection legislation to cases erroneously found to be consumer cases simply results in inappropriateness and adverse impacts in various dimensions. Such predicament has, on the one hand, been engendered by the interpretation of the consumer protection law by organs concerned in the administration of justice, in particular, the interpretation embodied in decisions of the President of the Court of Appeal on the question as to whether cases referred to for determination are consumer cases. On the other hand, this problematical difficulty is caused by lack of conceptual clarity in statutory provisions themselves, which indeed entail appropriate amendment.