Consumer Rights Act – Digital content

What are the rules on selling to UK consumers? As part of a series of articles on UK consumer protection law, we look at the Consumer Rights Act 2015  provisions on selling digital content to consumers.

Statutory rights and remedies related to consumer contracts for the supply of digital content are dealt with in Part 1 of the Consumer Rights Act 2015 (CRA).

What is digital content?

"Digital content" means data which are produced and supplied in digital form.

What is a digital content contract?

A digital content contract is a contract for a trader to supply digital content to a consumer if the digital content is supplied or to be supplied for a price paid by the consumer. Contracts where a trader supplies digital content to a consumer free with paid for goods, services or digital content, where that content is not generally available to consumers unless they have paid a price either for it or for the goods, services or digital content with which it is supplied, are also covered.

Free digital content which is not supplied in conjunction with something which is paid for (eg a free app) is not a digital content contract for the purposes of the CRA except when the content supplied causes damage to a device or to other digital content.

What are the statutory rights and remedies?

The consumer has a number of rights which will be implied into the contract if not dealt with expressly.

Different rights attract different remedies. Remedies under the CRA are in addition to other remedies such as damages which may be available but a consumer cannot recover more than once for the same loss.

How do the remedies work?

There is no right to reject digital content due to the difficulty of returning it. Instead, the available remedies are:

• The right to repair or replacement at the trader’s cost, within a reasonable time and without significant inconvenience to the consumer unless repair or replacement is impossible or one is disproportionate compared to the other.
• If repair or replacement are impossible, or have not been provided within a reasonable time and without significant inconvenience to the consumer, the right to a price reduction (up to a full refund).
• Where a right to a refund is available in connection with a particular right, it only applies to that part of the digital content which is in breach of contract. A refund must be made without undue delay and in any event within 14 days from the day the trader agrees it is due.
• In addition, the consumer has a right to compensation or repair regarding any damage caused by the faulty content to the device or to other digital content.

The trader is not limited to one attempt at repair or replacement in recognition of the fact that software is routinely patched and updated.