Your cousin Rachael has heard that there are good deals on the OLX Website. She wants to upgrade her phone to a sleeker smartphone model. She has visited the site constantly in the past week and has identified three potential phones posted on the site. She has contacted their owners over the phone. She now seeks your advice before she concludes the deal.
a) Advise on at least four legal issues that arise out of the transactions concluded from the
OLX site. Attend to legal liabilities and rights of the parties. (9Marks)
1. Online purchasing websites serve to connect the buyer and the seller while not parties to the transaction. This raises obvious issues with regards to the doctrine of privity. The doctrine of privity means that a contract cannot, as a general rule, confer rights or impose obligations arising under it on any person except the parties to it. As such the online facility can not be held liable for any breach as it is not a party to the contract. However, she did contact the owners.
2. To the extent that OLX as a website advertises the products on behalf of the owner, is it tenable that they can be held as agents to that regard? Such that if a piece of advertisement is misleading then they can bind the principal who is the owner? Given that they act in the scope of their authority then they can bind the principal.
3. Items sold over OLX are usually identified by a picture as such in this circumstances the picture represents the existence and status of the said product and may constitute a sample only that testing may be limited. As such whatever is on the picture must represent a true and accurate view of what will be presented in the product. If any specifications are given then the product supplied must match this. Failure of which the buyer may be entitled to repudiate the contract or treat the breach as a breach of warranty and sue for damages.
4. In an online purchase in order to have a recourse in case of breach there must be sufficient identity of the parties this is that the buyer must know the details of the owner name, ID number and address)
5. The goods bought must be sufficiently identified, set aside and agreed upon. This is the process of ascertaining goods. If this happens online and payment is also made online, then property in the said goods shall pass at the instance the contract is made. However, issue arise as to whether the picture provided was real or fake, the law is yet to counter with such issues however the Interpretations an General Provision Act identify computer apparatus as a document admissible in Court. suppose that the
(Insufficient assistance required)
b) Racheal bought an LG smartphone from a man who described himself as Martin. They met at Galleria Mall to conclude the deal. Racheal inspected the phone, tested it with her SIM Card and was satisfied. She paid through her MPESA account Kshs. 15,000 to a number that Martin had given her. Four hours later, the phones died and when she tried to charge it, it could not charge or be revived. She tried to reach Martin but his phone was switched off. Advise her on any cause of action and remedies available to her.
Rachel bought a phone from Martin. The parties were sufficiently identified. The good bought and agreed upon was an LG smartphone for 15,000/= as such the goods were sufficiently ascertained. As such property passed when the contract was made.
In a contract for the sale of goods there are various rights and liabilities that are imposed on the parties. The ones relevant to this fact scenario are as follows;
1. Rachel must locate Martin and reject the goods then treat the contract as repudiated, she would thereafter demand a refund of 15,000/=.
2. Rachel if on a good day may decide to treat the breach of condition as a breach of warranty and seek for damages, for example the amount of money required to repair the phone to status of the contract etc..
3. Rachel may set up an action for consideration which has failed as she paid money for a phone that died for hours later
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