Prof. Adnan Ibrahim Sarhan
Professor of Civil Law –  Assistant Director for of University of Sharjah – Branch Affairs and Dean of the College of Community –  Former Dean of the School of Law – UAE

Abstract:

The contractor’s will may not be tainted by coercion, error or solicitation, but its intention remains flawed by the defect of haste and lack of deliberation, under the influence of multiple propaganda and exciting views using high-tech techniques that induce the consumer to enter into a contract without his/her full consent, or to enter into a contract that may not fulfill his/her interest in goods and services. A sense of urgency on the part of the legislator to protect consumers from the risks caused many consumer protection laws to determine their right to withdraw from the contract after it has been concluded and within a specific period if the contract is found to be not in the consumer’s favor, which was not previously permitted by the general rules of the contract governed by the principle of binding force, which does not allow one party to withdraw from the contract unilaterally.
One of the most recent Arab laws that introduced this right was the Kuwaiti Consumer Protection Act No. 39 of 2014. In this search, we have attempted to provide an evaluative study of the provisions of this law governing the right of the consumer to withdraw from the contract without having to provide a justification for his withdrawal. It is clear to us that despite the clear recognition of this right in Article 10 of the Act, the law has limited this right on the consumer of goods without services, for which withdrawal is allowed only if the service is defective or incomplete. The exceptions established by law to this right are scattered and overlapping in multiple texts, some of which are an exception to the right of the consumer to a full withdrawal, but they set out exceptions to the right to withdraw from the contract due to a defect in the goods or if the goods do not conform to the adopted specifications or the purpose of the contract.
The implementing regulation of this law was not immune to all of this, as some of its provisions contravened the provisions of the law and, in other texts, introduced rulings that did not exist in law, it was not empowered by law to introduce them, and those provisions would have harmed the rights of the consumer, while the regulation, and the law, must be enacted in the interest of the consumer and to grant him/her protection.

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