Consumer Rights Act 2015 Explanatory Notes

Section 53: Relation to other law on contract terms

259.The provision in this section corresponds to section 16 of the SGSA. It recognises that certain types of contract to provide services are regulated by sector specific legislation (e.g. financial services). In most of those cases, this provision means that the sector specific legislation applies alongside or instead of this Chapter.

260.Subsection (1) preserves any enactments or rules of law which impose stricter duties than those imposed by sections 49-52. “Rules of law” means a rule of the common law.

261.Subsection (2) means that where Parliament has turned its mind to a particular type of service, and has decided that that service should be subject to particular rules, those rules take precedence over those in the Act. “Enactment” is defined in section 59 to cover primary legislation and also “subordinate legislation”, which is defined in the Interpretation Act 1978 as “Orders in Council, orders, rules, regulations, schemes, warrants, byelaws and other instruments made or to be made under any Act”.

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