Impak Bioteknologi ke atas Perlindungan Pengguna: Aspek Undang-undang Berhubung Keselamatan Produk (Biotechnology Impacts on Consumer Protection: Legal Aspects in Relation to Product Safety)

Consumerprotection in Malaysia is nowfacing a great challenge due to the impact of globalisation and the advancement of new technologies which resulted into various creativities and innovations. Biotechnology is a branch of science and technology in which its use and contribution to society have been endless and it stillpromises new things to come. Besides providing benefits, it also invites variouschallenges in many aspects oflife, particularly in the aspect ofproduct safety to consumers. There is growing evidence that biotechnology products are increasing in number in consumer market especially with the existence of GMO (a product of modern biotechnology) where consumers are having difficulties in determining its level of safety. Consumers have no knowledge of the risks and defects of each product. With the inequality ofbargaining power associated with the information gap between consumers and market providers, consumers need a legal mechanism to protect them against the risks which they have to bear. This paper aims at exploring the issue of consumer protection as regards to product safety in biotechnology products. Hence, adopting a pure legalistic analysis with contentanalysis at its core, this article focuses on the development ofconsumer protection and biotechnology in Malaysia. By adopting the historical, analytical, critical and jurisprudence method, this paper also examine the sufficiency of legal protection given to consumer in dealing with the issue ofproduct safety. The study shows that the law on this aspect needs reform as a move to give more protectionto consumers.