Legal Protection for Online Consumers and Online Shopping Self-Protection Practices among Malaysian Higher Education Institution Students

Abstract

Online shopping has shaped a new trend of getting consumer goods and services during the pandemic. However, online shopping has also recorded an increasing number of consumer complaints. Hence, this paper explores the legislative approach of consumer protection laws in protecting consumers in online transactions using a content analysis approach. The relevant provisions of several laws, including the Malaysian Consumer Protection Act, were analysed based on the current development to highlight online consumers' legal protection. Additionally, a questionnaire survey was carried out among 400 respondents in the higher education institutions in the four zones of Peninsular Malaysia using systematic random sampling to determine the level of consumer self-protection practices in online shopping. The analysis of the laws revealed that the current consumer protection laws were inadequate in giving comprehensive protection for online consumers. The survey results demonstrate that while the overall findings show that consumers have high self-protection practices, the preventive measures and consumer redress dimension must be seriously considered since this dimension showed the lowest mean score. Therefore, the relevant ministry and NGOs should increase advocacy programs to motivate consumers to utilize the right to redress, and become empowered consumers to exercise self-protection practices.

The Legal Protection of E-Consumers Against E-Commerce Fraud in Malaysia

“…According to Arif, the issue in cyberspace is that the advertisement placed on the website is considered as an 'invitation to treat' and the problem is whether the acceptance made only using the computer system without the knowledge of the trader can be considered as acceptance as the law has required that before it considered as a valid contract, both parties must agree and know about the terms of the contract (Muhammad Arif et al, 2021). After that, the issue of contract validity is resolved by the enactment of the Electronic Commerce Act 2006 (ECA) which is under the purview of the Ministry of Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs (MDTCA) (Muhammad Arif et al, 2021). The ECA recognizes electronic messages, but electronic transactions must be done in a secure system (Muhammad Arif et al, 2021).…”

“…After that, the issue of contract validity is resolved by the enactment of the Electronic Commerce Act 2006 (ECA) which is under the purview of the Ministry of Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs (MDTCA) (Muhammad Arif et al, 2021). The ECA recognizes electronic messages, but electronic transactions must be done in a secure system (Muhammad Arif et al, 2021).…”

“…Then, the Trade Description Act 2011 (TDA) was enacted to promote good trade practices to forbid false or misleading trade descriptions regarding the supply of goods or services (Muhammad Arif et al, 2021). The TDA is applicable for both online and physical store transactions (Muhammad Arif et al, 2021).…”

“…According to Arif, there is a deficiency of research on how consumers should empower and protect themselves in the online market even though there are extensive studies on the legislative measures (Muhammad Arif et al, 2021).…”

“…However, in an online transaction, the disadvantage is that the consumers unable to see and touch the products but merely look at the electronic images of the products which may be misleading and the consumers have the right to information (Muhammad Arif et al, 2021). Besides, E-commerce is also struggling due to online fraudulent activities (Misiran et al, 2021).…”