Product Recall and Redress for Victims of Recalled Products in Tanzania

Abstract

Product recall in consumer protection laws is a remedy for rescuing the general public from harmful or hazardous goods supplied for consumption. When the goods are recalled from the market, the individual victims of the recalled product are entitled to compensation from the supplier of the defective goods. The Fair Competition Act [CAP. 285 R.E. 2023] (FCA) is the principal consumer protection law that regulates product recalls and remedies to the victims of recalled products in Mainland Tanzania. However, the findings of this article show that the FCA does not establish a clear procedure for product recalls and compensation to victims of recalled products. There are no prescribed consumer product safety and information standards whose infringement forms the basis for recall and redress to the victim. This article, therefore, recommends reform of the product recall legal framework to establish a clear mechanism for recalling unsafe products and to assist individual victims in obtaining redress. It also recommends prescribing consumer product safety standards as required under sections 49(2) and 50(2) of the FCA and empowering the Fair Competition Commission (FCC) to recall defective products from the market and facilitate redress to the victims of the recalled products.

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