On Friday, the 1st April 2011 we pointed out that the Consumer Protection Act had become law without the necessary regulations which was going to make it very difficult to know the full impact and operation of the Act.
It now appears on the same day the Minister of Trade and Industry published a notice changing the threshold  for “juristic persons”  who enjoy CPA protection from the R 3 million, that he had indicated in October 2010 would be the threshold, to R 2 million.
The Regulations are now also available for download.

The confusion and uncertainty that seems to surround most Department of Trade legislation these days continues. The new Companies Act that was so much of a dog’s breakfast in it’s original form that it required an amendment before implementation appears to have been delayed again. This because the amendment Bill to try correct all the grammatical and reference errors has not be signed by the President, who is currently out of the country.
The Amended Companies Act was meant to have come into operation at the end of September last year was delayed …

The much anticipated Supreme Court of Appeal  (SCA)judgment on the appeal from the so-called NCR Declaratory judgment has been delivered, in a judgment referred to as Nedbank v The National Credit Regulator (662/2009 & 500/2010) [2011] ZASCA 35 (28 March 2011).
In the original case the National Credit Regulator sort a declaratory order on various vague and contentious provisions of the National Credit Act, specifically regarding debt reviews but also relating to the charging of interest while a consumer is in default with the payment of a credit agreement.
Judge Du Plessis, …

The 1st April 2011 will see the implementation of the Consumer Protection Act which will, amongst other things, change the rights of consumers in contracts of sale.
For businesses this means the revising of standard terms and conditions of trade to ensure that they comply with the Act. The extent of the Act means it is not only those businesses that trade with private individuals who will be impacted but also those businesses trading with small businesses, since most of the provisions and protection of the Act have been extended to …

On Business Report:
“Fitch Ratings says it expects that elevated levels of consumer indebtedness may prolong the recovery of the asset quality of SA’s major banks.
The ratings agency said on Friday that high consumer indebtedness and the difficult operating environment had led to an increase in the number of consumers applying for debt review in terms of the National Credit Act’s debt review process.
Fitch estimates the value of debt review exposures of the four major banks at 21 billion rand during 2010, which accounted for between 14% and 18% of the …