Examination and Notification Duties in Consumer Sales Law: How Far Should We Go in Protecting the Consumer?

Is there a place for examination and notification duties in consumer sales law? According to Dutch law, there is. Other countries, such as England or Germany, oppose this view. It is therefore only fair to ask why the consumer should actually lose his rights in the event of lack of conformity of the goods if he has failed to lodge his complaint within a reasonable time. This book finds that functional arguments relating to such cut-off duties are not convincing. When introducing such duties into consumer sales law, one fails to look critically at the rationale that originated in the realm of commercial sales law. It therefore can be concluded that the answer to above question is necessarily a political one. As long as certain minimum requirements of consumer protection are not left out of consideration, there is nothing wrong with such a political choice that may well be different in different countries.