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CONSUMER PROTECTION ACT (NORTHERN IRELAND) 1965

CONSUMER PROTECTION ACT (NORTHERN IRELAND) 1965 - LONG TITLE

An Act to make provision for the protection of consumers.{1}
[8th July 1965]

CONSUMER PROTECTION ACT (NORTHERN IRELAND) 1965 - SECT 1

1.(1) The Ministry of Home Affairs may by regulations impose as
respects any prescribed class of goods

(a)any such requirements, whether as to the composition or contents,
design, construction, finish or packing of, or otherwise relating to,
goods of that class or any component part thereof, as are in the
opinion of the Ministry necessary to prevent or reduce risk of
death or personal injury;

(b)any such requirements for securing that goods of that class or
any component part thereof are in the prescribed manner marked with
or accompanied by any prescribed warning or instructions, or any
prescribed form of warning or instructions, which in the opinion of
the Ministry is or are necessary as aforesaid.

(2) Regulations under this section may provide that the Schedule to
this Act shall have effect in relation to goods of any class
prescribed under this section, or to such goods and to goods of
which such goods are a component part.

(3) A class or description of goods may be prescribed under this
section notwithstanding that the goods are for use only as component
parts of other goods (whether or not those other goods are goods
of a prescribed class or description).

(4) It shall be the duty of the Ministry of Home Affairs, before
making any regulations under this section, to consult with such
other persons or bodies of persons as appear to it requisite.

(5) Regulations under this section shall be subject to affirmative
resolution.

CONSUMER PROTECTION ACT (NORTHERN IRELAND) 1965 - SECT 2
Prohibition on sale etc., of goods not complying with regulations
under section 1.

2.(1) Subject to the provisions of this section, no person shall
sell, or have in his possession for the purpose of selling, any
goods as respects which or a component part of which any
requirements of regulations under section 1 are in force unless all
the requirements of the regulations relating to the goods or
component part are duly observed.

(2) Subject to the provisions of this section, no person shall
sell, or have in his possession for the purpose of selling, a
component part made or supplied for the purpose of being embodied
in, but not embodied in, any goods as respects which any
requirements of regulations under section 1 are in force, being a
component part such that if it were embodied in the goods any
requirement of the regulations applicable to the goods would be
contravened.

(3) The foregoing provisions of this section shall not apply to a
person

(a)where he is selling, or as the case may be is in possession of
the goods or component parts, otherwise than in the course of a
business, or is acting as agent, or as servant of the agent, of a
person who was not acting in the course of a business in
entrusting the goods or component parts to an agent; or

(b)where he reasonably believes that the goods or component parts
will not be used in Northern Ireland; or

(c)in the case of a sale under a credit sale agreement, if he has
at no time had possession of the goods or component parts and only
became the owner thereof at the time of entering into the
agreement; or

(d)where he is selling, or as the case may be, is in possession
for the purpose of selling, the goods or component parts as scrap,
that is to say for the value of the materials of which the goods
or parts are composed and not for use as finished articles; or

(e)in the case of goods or component parts which have been damaged
by, or in consequence of, fire or flooding, where he is selling,
or as the case may be, is in possession for the purpose of
selling, the goods or component parts to a person who carries on a
business of buying damaged goods and repairing or reconditioning them
for resale, or to a person by whom the goods or parts were
insured against damage.

(4) As respects any requirement relating to the manufacture of goods
or a component of goods, unless regulations under section 1
otherwise provide, subsections (1) and (2) of this section shall not
apply in relation to goods or component parts manufactured before
the imposition of the requirement, or if it is so provided by such
regulations shall not apply in relation to such goods or component
parts until a prescribed date.

[(5) If as respects goods of any class or description regulations
under section 1 so provide, subsections (1) to (3) of this section
(other than paragraphs (d) and (e) of subsection (3)) shall apply,
subject to subsection (6), in relation to goods of that class or
description as if references to selling or to a sale included
references to letting under a hire-purchase agreement or on hire,
and the reference to a sale under a credit-sale agreement were a
reference to letting under a hire-purchase agreement.]

[(5) If as respects goods of any class or description regulations
under section 1 so provide, subsections (1) to (3) (other than
subsections (3)(d) and (e)) shall apply subject to subsection (6) in
relation to goods of that class or description as if

(a)references to selling or to a sale included references to

<(i)bailing under a hire-purchase agreement, or

(ii)bailing under a hire agreement, or

(iii)an agreement to sell under a conditional sale agreement; and

(b)the reference to a sale under a credit-sale agreement were a
reference

<(i)to a bailment under a hire-purchase agreement, or

(ii)to an agreement to sell under a conditional sale agreement.

[(6) Subsections (1) and (2) of this section shall not apply

(a)in the case of letting on hire, where the letting is incidental
to the letting of premises;

(b)in the case of possession for the purpose of letting on hire,
where possession is for the purpose of a letting which is to be
incidental to the letting of premises;

(c)in any case of letting, where the letting was lawful at the
time when it began.]

[(6) Subsections (1) and (2) shall not apply

(a)in a case of bailment under a hire agreement, where the bailment
is incidental to an agreement under which payments are to be made
in the form of rent issuing out of land;

(b)in a case of possession for the purpose of bailment under a
hire agreement, where possession is for the purpose of a bailment
which is incidental to an agreement under which payments are to be
made in the form of rent issuing out of land;

(c)in any case of bailment under a hire agreement, where the
bailment was lawful at the time when it began.]

CONSUMER PROTECTION ACT (NORTHERN IRELAND) 1965 - SECT 3
Enforcement of section 2.

3.(1) Any obligation imposed by or by virtue of section 2 on any
person not to sell, let or have possession of any goods or
component part is a duty which is owed by him to any other person
who may be affected by the contravention of the requirement in
question, and a breach of that duty is actionable (subject to any
defences and other incidents applying to actions for breach of
statutory duty).

[(1A) Any term of an agreement which purports to exclude or
restrict, or has the effect of excluding or restricting, any
obligation imposed by or by virtue of that section, or any
liability for breach of such an obligation, shall be void.]

(2) ... any person who contravenes section 2 shall be guilty of an
offence and liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding
[one thousand pounds] or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding
three months or to both.

[(3) Where the commission by any person of an offence under this
section is due to the act or default of some other person that
other person shall be guilty of the offence and a person may be
charged with and convicted of the offence by virtue of this
subsection whether or not proceedings are taken against the
first-mentioned person.

(4) Where an offence under this section is alleged to have been
committed by reason of a contravention of any requirement imposed
under section 1 in relation to any goods or component part it
shall be a defence for any person charged with the offence (whether
by virtue of subsection (2) or (3)) to prove that he took all
reasonable precautions and exercised all due diligence to avoid the
commission of such an offence.]

CONSUMER PROTECTION ACT (NORTHERN IRELAND) 1965 - SECT 4
Expenses.

4. There shall be defrayed out of moneys provided by Parliament any
increase attributable to the provisions of this Act in any sums
which by or under any other enactment are to be so defrayed.

CONSUMER PROTECTION ACT (NORTHERN IRELAND) 1965 - SECT 5
Interpretation.

5. In this Act the following expressions have the following
meanings:

"component part" includes an accessory;

["conditional sale agreement" means an agreement for the sale of
goods under which the purchase price or part of it is payable by
instalments, and the property in the goods is to remain in the
seller (notwithstanding that the buyer is to be in possession of
the goods) until such conditions as to the payment of instalments
or otherwise as may be specified in the agreement are fulfilled;]

["credit-sale agreement" means an agreement for the sale of goods
under which the whole or part of the purchase price is payable by
instalments;]

["credit sale agreement" means an agreement for the sale of goods,
under which the purchase price or part of it is payable by
instalments, but which is not a conditional sale agreement;]

["hire agreement" means an agreement for the bailment of goods which
is not a hire-purchase agreement;]

["hire-purchase agreement" has the same meaning as in the [Hire
Purchase Act (Northern Ireland) 1966];]

["hire-purchase agreement" means an agreement, other than a
conditional sale agreement, under which

(a)goods are bailed in return for periodical payments by the person
to whom they are bailed, and

(b)the property in the goods will pass to that person if the terms
of the agreement are complied with and one or more of the
following occurs

(i)the exercise of an option to purchase by that person,

(ii)the doing of any other specified act by any party to the
agreement,

(iii)the happening of any other specified event:]

"personal injury" includes disease or disability;

"prescribed" means prescribed by regulations under section 1.

CONSUMER PROTECTION ACT (NORTHERN IRELAND) 1965 - SECT 6
Repeals and transitional provisions.

6.Subs.(1) repeals 1953 c.4 (NI)

(2) In relation to goods of the following classes, that is to say
gas fires, electric fires and oil heaters, this Act shall apply as
if

(a)any regulations under the said Act of 1953 and in force at the
commencement of this Act had been made under section 1 of this
Act; and

(b)references in any such regulations to that Act or any provision
of that Act were references to this Act and any corresponding
provision thereof,

(3) Unless, and except so far as, regulations under section 1 of
this Act otherwise provide

(a)subsections (1) to (3) of section 2 of this Act shall apply in
relation to goods of the said classes subject to the extensions
specified in subsection (5) of that section, but without prejudice
to subsection (6) of that section;

(b)the Schedule to this Act shall have effect in relation to goods
of those classes.

CONSUMER PROTECTION ACT (NORTHERN IRELAND) 1965 - SECT 7
Short title.

7.(1) This Act may be cited as the Consumer Protection Act
(Northern Ireland) 1965.

Subs.(2) rep. by SLR 1973

1.(1) Subject to the provisions of this Schedule, an officer of a
[district council] authorised by them in writing in that behalf may,
on producing if so required his authority, inspect any goods in
relation to which this Schedule has effect for the purpose of
determining

(a)whether the goods or any component part thereof are goods to
which any prescribed requirements apply; and

(b)if so, whether those requirements are complied with.

(2) Subject to the provisions of this Schedule, an officer of a
[district council] authorised by them in writing in that behalf may,
on producing if so required his authority, inspect a component part
made or supplied for the purpose of being embodied in, but not
embodied in, any goods in relation to which this Schedule has
effect, for the purpose of determining

(a)whether it is one to which any prescribed requirements apply and
if so whether those requirements are complied with; or

(b)whether it is one which it is requisite to inspect in order to
determine whether any prescribed requirements applying to goods
comprising it would be complied with when it was embodied in the
goods, and if so whether those requirements would then be complied
with.

2. A [district council] may, subject to the provisions of this
Schedule, purchase any goods for the purpose of carrying out a test
to determine whether any prescribed requirements applicable to the
goods or a component part thereof are complied with, or in the
case of goods being a component part whether any prescribed
requirements applicable to goods comprising it would be complied with
when the part was embodied in the goods.

3. Regulations under section 1 may provide that in such cases as
may be prescribed any test such as is referred to in paragraph 2
shall be carried out, at the expense of the [district council], by
such person or body as may be authorised by or under the
regulations to carry out the test, and may prescribe the manner in
which any such test as is referred to in paragraph 2 is to be
carried out.

4. An officer of a [district council] shall not by virtue of
paragraph 1 inspect any goods or component part, and a [district
council] shall not by virtue of paragraph 2 purchase any goods or
component part, unless the goods or component part are kept in the
area of the [council] for the purpose of being sold or let in the
course of a business.

5. Any person who wilfully obstructs any person in the exercise of
his powers under paragraph 1 shall be guilty of an offence and
liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding [two hundred
pounds].

6. A [district council] may institute proceedings for an offence
under this Act committed in the area of the [council].

Para.7 rep. by SRO (NI) 1973/341