Apply consumer service standards and remedies
Separate reasonable care and skill from guaranteed results, then select repeat performance or an appropriate price reduction.
Exam scope and assessment notes
A Level · section 3.2.2. Original educational scenarios about the law of England and Wales, checked on 14 October 2026. Model answers are formative reasoning, not advice about a real dispute, Cambridge marks or predicted grades. Read the exact statute, case and exam-year source where a rule is disputed or changes. A larger annotated authority bank, full unseen papers and specialist law-teacher review remain outstanding.
Before you begin
- Read a short source carefully and separate its rule from the facts
- Explain which element a fact supports and what is still uncertain
Work on paper. Try each question before revealing help, and explain why your method works.
Quick readiness check
What should a legal problem answer connect?
What you will learn
- Apply CRA sections 49 and 52
- Explain the different conditions for sections 55 and 56
Define the service obligation
Section 49 requires reasonable care and skill in a trader's service to a consumer. An unfavourable outcome alone does not prove lack of care; inspect the work and the promised obligation. A separate contractual result promise may matter. Section 52 supplies reasonable-time performance where time is not fixed by the contract or an agreed method.
The type of service, its purpose and circumstances inform what is reasonable. Poor workmanship and an unreasonable delay are distinct problems. Identify which standard is breached rather than use a goods-style rejection rule for every service.
Fit the remedy to the breach
Section 55 requires repeat performance, where possible, to bring the service into conformity. The trader bears necessary costs and must act within a reasonable time without significant inconvenience. A service tied to an event that has already passed may be impossible to repeat meaningfully.
Section 56 gives an appropriate price reduction, potentially the full price where appropriate. Where both repeat performance and price reduction are available, reduction is subject to the section's conditions, such as impossibility or failure to repeat promptly without significant inconvenience. A section 52 reasonable-time breach has its own price-reduction route; do not demand repeat performance in every case. Other lawful remedies may also exist, but recovery cannot duplicate the same loss.
Sources for this lesson
Pause and explain
May a trader automatically charge extra for the necessary repeat performance under section 55?
Worked example
A trader's carelessly installed shelf can be safely corrected. The consumer asks for correction and the trader proposes charging again. Apply section 55.
Show the worked solution
- Identify the care-and-skill breach.
- Repeat performance is possible.
- The trader bears necessary correction costs.
Answer The consumer can require qualifying repeat performance at the trader's necessary expense, within a reasonable time and without significant inconvenience. The trader cannot automatically charge a second installation fee to remedy its breach.
Try a topic test
Choose Easy, Normal or Difficult. Save your answers and open worked review after finishing.
Test this topic →From guided practice to a new situation
Write your answer and reasoning first. Use a hint only if you are stuck. The model solution is for self-checking; your written work is not automatically marked.
Guided: Identify three section 55 requirements in the shelf example.
Give me a hint
Use cost, time and inconvenience.
Compare my reasoning
- The trader bears necessary costs.
- Completion must be within a reasonable time.
- It must avoid significant inconvenience.
Qualifying correction must be at the trader's necessary expense, within a reasonable time and without significant inconvenience. Those conditions must be assessed rather than merely promising eventual correction for another fee.
Look for these in your work
- Uses cost
- Uses time
- Uses inconvenience
Independent: A poorly performed event service cannot be repeated because the event has ended. Explain the statutory remedy issue.
Give me a hint
Meaningful conformity may now be impossible.
Compare my reasoning
- Identify the breach.
- Assess impossibility of repeat performance.
- Consider an appropriate section 56 reduction.
If repeat performance into conformity is impossible, the section 56 price-reduction route may apply. Its amount must be appropriate to the facts and can be the full price where warranted; neither a compulsory meaningless repeat nor automatic full reduction follows in every case.
Look for these in your work
- Uses breach
- Uses impossibility
- Assesses amount
Application: No completion time was agreed and the trader takes an unreasonable time despite careful workmanship. Must the consumer prove defective workmanship too?
Give me a hint
Care and reasonable time are separate standards.
Compare my reasoning
- Identify absence of an agreed time.
- Apply section 52 reasonable time.
- Use its price-reduction route.
A reasonable-time breach can arise under section 52 without proving defective workmanship. The remedy analysis follows that breach's route; it should not import a compulsory repeat-performance sequence from every care-and-skill case.
Look for these in your work
- Identifies missing time
- Separates standards
- Selects correct route
Common mistakes
- Treating all services as guaranteed outcomes
- Requiring repetition of an impossible event
- Assuming every reduction must be 100%
What can you explain now?
May a trader automatically charge extra for the necessary repeat performance under section 55?
Compare with the explanation
No
The trader bears necessary costs of the statutory repeat performance.
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Make it stick
May a trader automatically charge extra for the necessary repeat performance under section 55?
If you needed the solution, close it and solve the problem again from a blank page. A correct answer is stronger when you can explain the reason for each step.