Consumer Rights Legislation exists to ensure that powerful traders do not take advantage of their consumers through unfair terms and actions. However, many academics are unaware that students are one such example, owing to the high fees charged, the high level commitment, and the potential consequences of onerous terms that are impossible to negotiate.
The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), which replaced the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) in 2015, is primarily responsible for regulating Universities’ terms and conditions, aided by other bodies such as the Office for Students (OfS) and Universities UK (UUK). This blog will focus on the CMA, and some important advice that may have been overlooked by many interested in education and consumer rights.
In its most recent advice to Higher Education (HE) Institutions, the CMA has suggested that certain limitation clauses in student contracts-to-educate may be unfair and open to challenge under the Consumer Rights Act 2015 (CRA). At 5.40, the CMA lists several “limitation of liability terms that may be open to challenge”.
