1st NUM Business Talk Series
The theme of the event was “Consumers Protection: Unfair Contractual Clauses” which was held at the National University of Management on Saturday January 14, 2024.
Under the principle of freedom of contract and the principle of private autonomy, the parties to the contract have (i) the right to or not to conclude the contract, (ii) the right to choose the party to the contract, (iii) the right to decide the content of the contract and (iv) the right to choose the form of their contracts. It is argued that the above principles best apply to the situation where the parties to the contract hold equal negotiation powers. However, due to knowledge gap, social and economic superiority of the suppliers of goods or services, there are cases where the suppliers have superior power in the contract formation and content thereof. One of the examples is the Standard Agreement drafted by the suppliers of the goods or services.
For the purpose of protecting the consumers, the Law on E-Commerce and the Law on Consumers Protection were promulgated in 2019 to supplement and revise to the general protection rules under the Civil Code of Cambodia. In particular, the Prakas on Unfair Contractual Clauses was issued by the Ministry of Commerce on 1 March 2022 to set out the conditions and procedures applying to the standard form of the contract and types of unfair contractual clauses in order to protect consumers’ rights in connection with the acts of making excessive benefits and abuse of circumstances through contractual relations made between consumers and business persons for the supply of goods and/or services in Cambodia.