Trade unions as suppliers of goods and service

by | Oct 22, 2019 | SAMLJ, SAMLJ V30 I2

Trade unions as suppliers of goods and service

Authors Jacolien Barnard, Monray Botha

ISSN: 1996-2185
Affiliations: Associate Professor, Department of Mercantile Law, University of Pretoria; Professor and Head of Department, Department of Mercantile Law, University of Pretoria
Source: South African Mercantile Law Journal, Volume 30 Issue 2, 2018, p. 216 – 250

Abstract

Trade unions are important vehicles through which social justice is achieved in the South African society. They play a role in the social, political, and economic spheres. Trade unions are powerful institutions and many provide a wide variety of services and goods to their members, having extended their activities to financial services such as insurance, pension funds, and health products. Some unions have questioned the constitutionality of limiting workers to a particular pension fund which has the effect of impinging on their freedom of association.1 Section 5(6) of the Consumer Protection Act 68 of 2008 (‘the CPA’) forms part of the application provisions of the Act. The aim of the section is to provide ‘greater certainty’ regarding the scope of application of the CPA. It provides that the supply of any goods or services in the ordinary course of business to any of its members by a club, trade union, association, society, or other collective entity, whether incorporated or not, of persons voluntarily associated and organised for a common purpose or purposes, whether for fair value consideration or otherwise, irrespective of whether there is a charge or economic contribution demanded or expected in order to become or remain a member of that entity, will fall under the Act. This section implies that the goods and services provided by trade unions to their members are subject to the Act, and has fundamental implications for trade unions and their members. This contribution illustrates the development and extended role that trade unions play, not only with regard to labour relations, but also as the suppliers of goods and services to their members.

Lessons from America? A South African perspective on the Draft Restatement of the Law, Consumer Contracts

by | Oct 22, 2019 | SAMLJ, SAMLJ V30 I2

Lessons from America? A South African perspective on the Draft Restatement of the Law, Consumer Contracts

Authors Jacques du Plessis

ISSN: 1996-2185
Affiliations: Distinguished Professor of Law, Stellenbosch University
Source: South African Mercantile Law Journal, Volume 30 Issue 2, 2018, p. 189 – 215

Abstract

The American Law Institute is drafting a Restatement of the Law, Consumer Contracts. It deals at a very broad level with various requirements for the formation, validity, and proof of consumer contracts and terms, and especially with how they are to be applied in modern commercial environments, characterised by the widespread use of standard terms in online contracting. At the heart of the Draft Restatement lies the notion that it reflects a ‘grand bargain’ or trade-off in American consumer contract law. While its rules follow a ‘permissive’ approach to assent, through granting businesses significant freedom to draft contract terms, the effect of these rules is balanced by greater ex post substantive control, through imposing mandatory restrictions on terms. The purpose of this paper is to view this central idea of the Draft Restatement, as well as some related features, from the perspective of South African consumer contract law. Aspects that enjoy attention include the treatment of standard contracts, rules on actual or deemed assent, various forms of substantive control, the relationship between common-law and statutory regulation of consumer contracts, restrictions on adducing evidence, and the most appropriate institutions for granting consumers effective relief.