{"id":55046,"date":"2015-03-12T00:15:00","date_gmt":"2015-03-12T00:15:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/?guid=ea1b76c78f8f5d1853c7f8e971bd04bb"},"modified":"2015-03-12T00:15:00","modified_gmt":"2015-03-12T00:15:00","slug":"press-release-cma-advises-universities-and-students-on-consumer-law","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/?p=55046","title":{"rendered":"Press release: CMA advises universities and students on consumer law"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"govspeak\">\n<p>The Competition and Markets Authority\u2019s (<abbr title=\"Competition and Markets Authority\">CMA<\/abbr>) <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gov.uk\/government\/publications\/higher-education-consumer-law-advice-for-providers\">advice<\/a> informs providers about their consumer law obligations to undergraduate students, including advising them to:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>give students the clear, accurate and timely information that they need so they can make an informed decision about what and where to study<\/li>\n<li>ensure that their terms and conditions are fair, for example, so they cannot make surprising changes to the course or costs <\/li>\n<li>ensure that their complaint handling processes are accessible, clear and fair<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The <abbr title=\"Competition and Markets Authority\">CMA<\/abbr> is <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gov.uk\/government\/publications\/letter-from-the-cma-to-higher-education-providers-on-consumer-law\">writing to higher education (<abbr title=\"higher education\">HE<\/abbr>) providers<\/a> asking them to review and, if necessary, amend their practices in line with the advice and has produced a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gov.uk\/government\/publications\/higher-education-providers-short-guide-to-consumer-protection-law\">60-second summary<\/a> to assist.<\/p>\n<p>The <abbr title=\"Competition and Markets Authority\">CMA<\/abbr> has also published an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gov.uk\/government\/publications\/higher-education-a-short-guide-to-consumer-rights-for-students\">at-a-glance guide for undergraduates<\/a>, informing them of their rights under consumer law \u2013 together with a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gov.uk\/government\/publications\/higher-education-guide-to-consumer-rights-for-students\">longer guide<\/a> for students and their advisers.<\/p>\n<p>Students can <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gov.uk\/government\/publications\/report-a-potential-consumer-law-breach-by-a-higher-education-provider\">notify the <abbr title=\"Competition and Markets Authority\">CMA<\/abbr><\/a> of providers who may not be complying with consumer law, via a dedicated email address.<\/p>\n<p>The <abbr title=\"Competition and Markets Authority\">CMA<\/abbr> will monitor the sector and commence a review in October 2015 to assess compliance with consumer law.<\/p>\n<p>Nisha Arora, Senior Director, Consumer at the <abbr title=\"Competition and Markets Authority\">CMA<\/abbr>, said:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>For most students, choosing the right university and course is a crucial one-off decision, leading to a significant investment of time and money. Consumer law is an important part of the wider academic relationship between higher education providers and students. It helps to ensure that students are given the information they need to make an informed choice about what and where to study and are then treated fairly during their period of study.<\/p>\n<p class=\"last-child\">With the UK higher education sector playing a key role in our economy and having an enviable international reputation, compliance with consumer law is an important way of maintaining student confidence and the standards and reputation of the sector.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<h3 id=\"notes-for-editors\">Notes for editors<\/h3>\n<ol>\n<li>The <abbr title=\"Competition and Markets Authority\">CMA<\/abbr>\u2019s advice to higher education providers can be found <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gov.uk\/government\/publications\/higher-education-consumer-law-advice-for-providers\">here<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li>The <abbr title=\"Competition and Markets Authority\">CMA<\/abbr> has issued a range of <a rel=\"external\" href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/cma-gov-uk\/sets\/72157651296521121\/\">images<\/a> illustrating the rights undergraduate students have under consumer law.<\/li>\n<li>The <abbr title=\"Competition and Markets Authority\">CMA<\/abbr> is the UK\u2019s primary competition and consumer authority. It is an independent non-ministerial government department with responsibility for carrying out investigations into mergers, markets and the regulated industries and enforcing competition and consumer law. From 1 April 2014 it took over the functions of the Competition Commission and the competition and certain consumer functions of the Office of Fair Trading (<abbr title=\"Office of Fair Trading\">OFT<\/abbr>), as amended by the Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Act 2013. For more information see the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gov.uk\/government\/organisations\/competition-and-markets-authority\"><abbr title=\"Competition and Markets Authority\">CMA<\/abbr>\u2019s homepage<\/a> on GOV.UK.<\/li>\n<li>This work was initiated following publication of the findings from the <a rel=\"external\" href=\"http:\/\/webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk\/20140402142426\/http:\/\/www.oft.gov.uk\/OFTwork\/markets-work\/othermarketswork\/higher-education-cfi\/\"><abbr title=\"Office of Fair Trading\">OFT<\/abbr>\u2019s call for information into the <abbr title=\"higher education\">HE<\/abbr> sector in England<\/a>. The <abbr title=\"Office of Fair Trading\">OFT<\/abbr> recommended that the <abbr title=\"Competition and Markets Authority\">CMA<\/abbr> undertake further work to clarify universities\u2019 responsibilities under consumer protection law given the potential consumer protection issues found relating to information provision to students, terms and conditions, and the speed and effectiveness of complaints handling.<\/li>\n<li>The <abbr title=\"Competition and Markets Authority\">CMA<\/abbr> is separately considering the current regulatory regime underpinning the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gov.uk\/cma-cases\/competition-and-regulation-in-higher-education-in-england\"><abbr title=\"higher education\">HE<\/abbr> sector in England<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li>The <abbr title=\"Competition and Markets Authority\">CMA<\/abbr> consulted on draft consumer law advice for UK <abbr title=\"higher education\">HE<\/abbr> providers in November 2014. Today we are also publishing <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gov.uk\/government\/consultations\/uk-higher-education-providers-draft-advice-on-consumer-protection-law\">our response to that consultation<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li>For <abbr title=\"Competition and Markets Authority\">CMA<\/abbr> updates, follow us on Twitter <a rel=\"external\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/CMAgovUK\">@CMAgovuk<\/a>, <a rel=\"external\" href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/cma-gov-uk\/\">Flickr<\/a> and <a rel=\"external\" href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/competition-and-markets-authority\">LinkedIn<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li>Enquiries should be directed to Simon Belgard (<a href=\"mailto:simon.belgard@cma.gsi.gov.uk\">simon.belgard@cma.gsi.gov.uk<\/a>) on 020 3738 6472.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The CMA has today published advice for higher education providers to help them comply with consumer law when dealing with students.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55046"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=55046"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55046\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":55063,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55046\/revisions\/55063"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=55046"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=55046"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=55046"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}