Abstract
Despite the immense growth experienced by global B2C e-commerce since the CoviD-19 pandemic era, Nigeria, the largest economy in Africa, has struggled to grow its business-to- consumer (B2C) e-commerce market. Statistics obtained in 2022 reveal a 13% decrease in e- commerce retail spending compared to the previous year, 2021. This is concerning given that, compared to 2021, there is a significant increase in the total consumer retail spending in the country (see chapter 1.1 for more details). This decline highlights a critical observation - while Nigerian consumers continue to actively purchase in the retail market, they increasingly avoid the digital retail market. This is surprising given the well-known advantages of the digital market as a medium of purchasing (see chapter 1.1) and the global trend towards the digital market. Available research points to the inadequate level of protection offered to Nigerian electronic consumers (e-consumers) as one of the key reasons for the continuous year-on- year decline of the Nigerian B2C digital market.This inadequate level of protection is one of the issues sought to be addressed with the enactment of the first comprehensive consumer protection law in the country – the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Act of 2018 (FCCPA 2018). This Act is the primary focus of this thesis. Its provisions will be extensively analysed to determine their effectiveness for e-consumer protection in the country. With the little research on the Act focusing on traditional consumers, this thesis fills existing research gaps by being the first research to carry out extensive analyses of the Act within the context of e-consumer protection.
This thesis’ analysis of the Act will focus on the four pillars of consumer protection contained in the Act, namely - (i) information regulations, (ii) the implied terms rules, (iii) unfair terms rules and (iv) the right of cancellation. The Act’s provisions on these mechanisms will be examined to understand the level of protection they offer, identify gaps (if any) and make recommendations on how any identified gap can be corrected so that the Act can achieve efficacy. In making its recommendations, this thesis will learn from consumer protection frameworks of selected advanced jurisdictions and international organisations, namely - the United Kingdom, South Africa, the European Union, the United Nations and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.
| Date of Award | 10 Oct 2024 |
|---|---|
| Original language | English |
| Awarding Institution |
|
| Supervisor | Munir Maniruzzaman (Supervisor), Lee Roach (Supervisor) & Susan Yin (Supervisor) |