Section 3: “Consumer” and “consumer matters”
36.Section 3 defines “consumer” and “consumer matters” for the purposes of Part 1. For Great Britain the definition covers every person who purchases uses or receives goods or services supplied in the course of a business. A “consumer” includes an existing and a future one (subsection (3)); “goods” includes interests in land (subsection (4)(b)) and “business” includes a profession and the activities of a government department and public bodies (subsection (4)(c)). For Northern Ireland, the definition is limited to persons who purchase, use or receive “relevant postal services” (as defined in section 41(1)). This is because the Council’s functions in Northern Ireland will be limited to the postal services sector. The General Consumer Council for Northern Ireland will represent the interests of consumers in other sectors (as it does now).
