[License-discuss] Consumer protection, defective product

Bradley M. Kuhn bkuhn at ebb.org
Fri Nov 12 02:59:57 UTC 2021


Pamela Chestek wrote:
> There probably are also consumer protection laws in the US that could be
> used with the same defective product theory you mention for Germany. These
> are state laws and I'm not familiar with them enough to know if they would
> apply in this situation. However, I suspect that the remedy is going to be
> very limited, perhaps only getting refund of the amount paid for the
> defective product and maybe some small penalty.

Folks have had some limited success using consumer fraud laws in Australia to
compel compliance, but my understanding this was done as a pre-litigation
theory during a non-litigation enforcement actions that were successful in
achieving compliance.  Thus, I am not aware that it's actually seen the
inside of an Australian court room, but perhaps Australians one the list know
more.

IANAL, but as Pam says, consumer protection and consumer fraud laws are
highly jurisdictionally dependent.  I'd be glad to see folks around the world
researching this possibility in their local jurisdictions.

  -- bkuhn



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