Corporate Responsibility via Malaysian Contract Law: A Concern for Consumer Protection

Corporate responsibility (CR) principles aim to make today’s corporations responsible members of the community. Corporations in fulfilling their CR are anticipated to function within the framework of the laws and regulations as part of the legal responsibility. Having a good law that upholds human rights has been seen as a vital tool in promoting and improving the public image of a corporation in the eyes of their customers. In the area of consumer protection and contract law, the Malaysian contract law has not been a great champion of consumer rights vis-à-vis suppliers and manufacturers. Standard form contracts have come to dominate more than just routine transactions between suppliers and consumers. The increasing use of exemption clauses in consumer standard form contracts has now become a predominant feature of many consumer contracts. In view of increasing unethical conduct by manufacturers, consumer rights vis-à-vis manufacturers have also been a cause for concern. The absence of a contractual relationship between manufacturers and consumers has to an extent provided a good defence for escaping liability for defective goods by the manufacturers. The consumer rights, being the rights of third parties, have never been acknowledged under the Malaysian law of contract. Adopting the content analysis method, this paper aims at exploring CR vis-à-vis consumers in three selected areas of consumer and contract law, namely, the use of standard form contracts in consumer contracts, the exemption of liabilities for defective goods by traders and the rights of consumers against manufacturers under the Malaysian contract and consumer law regime