Online Shopping: Consumers’ Awareness of Their Rights and Protection

摘要

The risk of purchasing goods through online might be higher than that buying offline. The possibility to be cheated or misled by non-virtual sellers could be fatal. In 2007, the Consumer Protection Act 1999 (“the CPA”) has been amended to enable online buyers to take actionsagainst irresponsible sellers. This shows that a Tribunal for Consumer Claim has a right to hear cases involving online shopping. The purpose of the CPA and the functions of the Tribunal are difficult to be achieved if the standard of awareness and knowledge about them among online buyersare not in line with the development of online shopping. Thus, the objective of this doctrinal study is to explore the awareness and knowledge among online consumers regarding their rights and protections. Apart from that, it is hope that this paper could educate the public on their rightsand protection as online consumer. A qualitative method was adopted and about 30 respondents were interviewed. The result showed that, there is a lack of awareness among online buyers about their rights and they even have no knowledge on the existence of such a Tribunal for Consumer Claim.This study also proposes suggestions to put forward such awareness to online buyers before the goods arrive at their doorstep.