Implied Terms in Contracts for Supply of Goods, Services and Digital Content

Abstract

Certain terms implied under the Sale of Goods Acts 1893 and 1979 replicated by the United Kingdom Consumer Rights Act 2015 foster consumer rights. The paper explores the extent to which the Nigeria Sale of Goods Act 1893 and UK Sale of Goods Act 1979 are fit to address the implied terms for digital content. Since the term “goods” does not cover digital content, buyers of digital content are not protected by the implied terms contained in the Sale of Goods Acts. This paper comparatively considers consumer protection regimes in the United Kingdom and Nigeria in relation to implied terms in supply of goods, services and digital content under the new Consumer Rights Act 2015 and Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Act 2019 respectively. The paper finds that consumers of goods, services and digital content are much more protected under the implied terms of the Consumer Rights Act. Whilst the improvement in the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Act in enlisting consumer rights is commendable, a major deficit is exclusion of digital content implied terms. It is recommended that the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Act should be amended to reflect and accommodate the provisions on implied terms relating to digital content.