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Chapter 3 Outline:
3.1 Consumer Product Safety Commission
3.2 Product Safety Standards
3.3 Product Recalls
3.4 Product Liability
3.5 Consumer Arbitration
Introduction
The principle of caveat emptor, “let the buyer beware,” dates back to the period in which Roman Law served as the legal system of ancient Rome from the 8th century to the 7th century A.D. The tradition and use of Roman law lasted well into the 18th century, carrying with it the principle of caveat emptor. During the Middle Ages, however, caveat emptor was not a principle found among the church and feudal authorities.
Churchmen established the order of obedience and imposed religious purposes upon all human activities, to include wealth and trade. The teaching of the gospel directed Christians to sell what he had and give to the poor, while above all, avoid the pursuit of monetary gain. Thus, in the early Middle Ages, trade was deemed worldly, not heavenly. Influential theologian and philosopher, Thomas Aquinas (c. 1225 – 1274) composed questions and formulated answers to those questions about the ethics of sales and faulty items, showing that selling faulty items or misleading in sales in conflict with passages in the Bible.
Summa Theologica, II, q. 77, a. 2 (in part)
Question 77, cheating which is committed in buying and selling
Article 2. Whether a sale is rendered unlawful through a fault in the thing sold?
I answer that, A threefold fault may be found pertaining to the thing which is sold. One, in respect of the thing’s substance: and if the seller be aware of a fault in the thing he is selling, he is guilty of a fraudulent sale, so that the sale is rendered unlawful. Hence we find it written against certain people (Isaiah 1:22), “Thy silver is turned into dross, thy wine is mingled with water”: because that which is mixed is defective in its substance.
Another defect is in respect of quantity which is known by being measured: wherefore if anyone knowingly make use of a faulty measure in selling, he is guilty of fraud, and the sale is illicit. Hence it is written (Deuteronomy 25:13-14): “Thou shalt not have divers weights in thy bag, a greater and a less: neither shall there be in thy house a greater bushel and a less,” and further on (Deuteronomy 25:16): “For the Lord . . . abhorreth him that doth these things, and He hateth all injustice.”
A third defect is on the part of the quality, for instance, if a man sell an unhealthy animal as being a healthy one: and if anyone do this knowingly he is guilty of a fraudulent sale, and the sale, in consequence, is illicit.
In all these cases not only is the man guilty of a fraudulent sale, but he is also bound to restitution. But if any of the foregoing defects be in the thing sold, and he knows nothing about this, the seller does not sin, because he does that which is unjust materially, nor is his deed unjust, as shown above (II-II:59:2). Nevertheless he is bound to compensate the buyer, when the defect comes to his knowledge. Moreove