Consumer protection and commercial transactions in Malaysia

Abstract

This paper analyses the various approaches to ensuring consumer protection in commercial transactions in Malaysia. The transactions in question include that of the sale of goods and property, hire-purchase of goods. The paper focuses on three approaches, namely, the enactment of consumer protecting provisions in statutes governing specific commercial transactions, the enactment of a general law relating to consumer protection and the approach taken by the courts in construing agreements emanating from such commercial transactions. It also highlights one of the major issues arising out of the introduction Islamic financing and banking principles in a system thus far dominated by a conventional financing and banking one.