Consumer Rights Act 2022

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Objective requirements for conformity with digital content contract or digital service contract

54. (1) Digital content or a digital service supplied under a digital content contract or digital service contract shall—

(a) be fit for all of the purposes for which digital content or digital services of the same type would normally be used, taking into account so far as relevant any enactment or rule of law, European Union law, technical standards or, in the absence of such technical standards, applicable sector-specific codes of conduct,

(b) comply with any trial version or preview of the digital content or digital service that the trader made available to the consumer before the conclusion of the digital content contract or digital service contract,

(c) be supplied along with any accessories and instructions, including on the installation or integration of the digital content or digital service, that the consumer may reasonably expect to receive, and

(d) be of the quantity, and possess the qualities and performance features (including in relation to functionality, compatibility, accessibility, continuity and security) normal for digital content or digital services of the same type that the consumer may reasonably expect given the nature of the digital content or digital service and taking into account any public statement in relation to the digital content or digital service made by, or on behalf of, the trader or any other person constituting a previous link in the chain of transactions relating to the digital content contract or digital service contract, particularly in advertising or on labelling.

(2) The trader shall not be bound by any public statement referred to in subsection (1)(d) if the trader shows that—

(a) the trader was not, and could not reasonably have been, aware of the public statement in question,

(b) at the time of the conclusion of the digital content contract or digital service contract, the public statement had been corrected in the same way as it had been made (or in a comparable way), or

(c) the decision of the consumer to acquire the digital content or digital service could not have been influenced by the public statement.

(3) Unless the parties have agreed otherwise, digital content or a digital service shall be supplied in the most recent version available at the time of the conclusion of the contract.

(4) The trader shall ensure that during the relevant period the consumer is—

(a) informed of the availability of, and

(b) supplied with,

any update (including a security update) that is necessary for the digital content or digital service to be in conformity with the digital content contract or digital service contract.

(5) Where—

(a) the consumer fails to install within a reasonable time an update supplied by the trader in accordance with subsection (4),

(b) the trader informed the consumer of the availability of the update and the consequences of a failure of the consumer to install it, and

(c) the failure of the consumer to install the update, or the incorrect installation of the update by the consumer, was not due to shortcomings in the installation instructions provided by the trader,

the trader shall not be liable for any lack of conformity with the digital content contract or digital service contract resulting solely from the failure to install the relevant update.

(6) Where the digital content contract or digital service contract provides for a continuous supply of digital content or a digital service for a period specified in the contract, the trader shall ensure that the digital content or digital service is in conformity with the contract during that period.

(7) There shall be no lack of conformity with the digital content contract or digital service contract under subsection (1) or (4) if, at the time of the conclusion of the contract—

(a) the consumer was specifically informed that a particular characteristic of the digital content or digital service deviated from the requirements of the subsection concerned, including a lack of conformity with the contract caused by a restriction resulting from a violation of an intellectual property right or any other right of a third person, and

(b) the consumer expressly and separately accepted that deviation.

(8) In case of dispute, it shall be for the trader to show that the consumer—

(a) was specifically informed that a particular characteristic of the digital content or digital service deviated from the requirements of subsection (1) or (4), and

(b) expressly and separately accepted that deviation when concluding the contract.

(9) In this section, “relevant period”, in relation to a digital content contract or digital service contract, means—

(a) where the contract provides for a continuous supply of the digital content or digital service for a period specified in the contract, that period, or

(b) where the contract provides for a single act of supply or a series of individual acts of supply of the digital content or digital service, such period as the consumer may reasonably expect, given the type and purpose of the digital content or digital service and taking into account the circumstances and nature of the digital content contract or digital service contract.