WHY SHOULD YOU BE CONCERNED ABOUT THE CPA & THE IMPACT ON YOUR BUSINESS?

The CPA came into effect April 01 2011. It will have a huge impact on your business practices and documentation. For example( & be honest) is all your documentation (i.e. all advertising material, contracts & terms & conditions) written in 'plain language & have you trained all your staff?

You MUST understand the exact implications such as having to revise ALL your terms and conditions and related documentation to ensure that it is compliant & train your staff. If you are not you may end spending more time with the Consumer Commissioner than in your office! Now is the time to act, change documentation & train your staff so that they know what to say, what NOT to say & what to do!

PRESENTATIONS

If you require a presentation on the Consumer Protection Act ('CPA') (From 3 hours to a 2 day workshop) ADVOCATE LOUIS NEL (B Comm, LLB, LLM) is your man – he has been working on it since the Green Paper in 2004 & has done over 50 presentations. He has worked with DTI.

TRAINING

ADVOCATE LOUIS NEL (B Comm, LLB, LLM) offers the following: A full day (R13 500), 1/2 day (R7 500) or 3 hour (R5000) presentation. For more information, please contact us.

ISSUES THAT SHOULD BE COVERED
• What is this act & who is it aimed at?
• How does it affect your business?
• How do you ensure that your business is compliant?
• How can you avoid or pre-empt customers reporting you to the consumer council & if they do, how do you deal with it?
• What are your rights vis-à-vis the consumer & your suppliers?

WHY YOU SHOULD BE SERIOUS ABOUT THE CPA
• All suppliers of goods and services are affected!
• All existing contracts, terms & conditions ('T&C') must be reviewed
• All exemptions from/limitation of liability must be discussed with customers and must be signed!!
• All contracts & terms must be in 'plain language' – these have to be checked in ALL your documents – How?
• There are in certain cases strict ('no fault') liability!! How do you avoid that and/or protect yourself?
• Deceptive advertising & innuendos are outlawed – are your T&C compliant?
• Customers can cancel contracts without any penalty within 5 days – what are you going to do about that?
• Penalties include fines of R1 million or 10% of your annual turn-over!