Online deceptive advertising and consumer protection in South Africa – The law and its shortcomings?

Abstract

E-commerce and e-marketing has grown significantly over the past few years. More businesses are moving away from original forms of marketing tools such as newspapers, magazines, billboards and televisions and instead prefer online platforms such as social media. The article focuses on false, misleading and deceptive online marketing representations. It examines the legislative framework that seeks to protect online consumers in South Africa in terms of the Electronic Communications and Transactions Act 25 of 2002 (ECTA), the Consumer Protection Act 68 of 2008 (CPA) as well as the Social Media Code1 of the Advertising Regulatory Board (ARB). It is recommended that although a consolidated statute that makes provision for both offline and online consumers would be ideal, the current provisions in ECTA could also be reviewed to ensure that they are in line with the new developments in marketing trends such as influencer marketing. The Social Code of the ARB is also important to complement ECTA and the CPA, as well as to promote the overall protection of consumers in South Africa.