Cap. 378 Art. 72Interpretation.

(1) In this Part unless the context otherwise requires:

"consumer" means any natural person who, in relation to contracts covered by this Part, is acting for purposes which are outside that person's trade, business, craft or profession;

"commercial guarantee" means any undertaking by a seller or a producer (the guarantor) to the consumer, in addition to the seller’s legal obligation relating to the guarantee of conformity, to reimburse the price paid or to replace, repair or service goods in any way if they do not meet the specifications or any other requirements not related to conformity set out in the guarantee statement or in the relevant advertising available at the time of, or before the conclusion of the contract;

"compatibility" means the ability of the goods to function with hardware or software with which goods of the same type are normally used, without the need to convert the goods, hardware or software;

"digital content" means data which are produced and supplied in digital form;

"digital service" means:

(a) a service that allows the consumer to create, process, store or access data in digital form; or#

(b) a service that allows the sharing of or any other interaction with data in digital form uploaded or created by the consumer or other users of that service;

"durability" means the ability of the goods to maintain their required functions and performance through normal use;

"durable medium" means any instrument which enables the consumer or the seller to store information addressed personally to that person in a way that is accessible for future reference, for a period of time adequate for the purposes of the information, and which allows the unchanged reproduction of the information stored;

"free of charge" means free of the necessary costs incurred in order to bring the goods into conformity, particularly the cost of postage, carriage, labour or materials;

"functionality" means the ability of the goods to perform their functions having regard to their purpose;

"goods" means:

(a) any tangible movable items of property: Provided that water, gas and electricity shall be considered as goods within the meaning of this Part when they are put up for sale in a limited volume or a set quantity;

(b) tangible movable items that incorporate or are inter-connected with digital content or a digital service in such a way that the absence of that digital content or digital service would prevent the goods from performing their functions, hereinafter referred to as "goods with digital elements; "guarantor" means the person who is responsible to the consumer for the execution of a commercial guarantee and includes any other person acting for or on behalf of the guarantor;

"interoperability" means the ability of the goods to function with hardware or software different from those with which goods of the same type are normally used;

"producer" means a manufacturer of goods, an importer of goods into the European Union or any person purporting to be a producer by placing its name, trade mark or other distinctive sign on the goods;

"public auction" means a method of sale where goods or services are offered by the seller to consumers, who attend or are given the possibility to attend the auction in person, through a transparent, competitive bidding procedure run by an auctioneer and where the successful bidder is bound to purchase the goods or services;

"repair" means in the event of lack of conformity, the process of bringing goods into conformity with the sales contract;

"sales contract" means any contract under which the seller transfers or undertakes to transfer ownership of goods to a consumer, and the consumer pays or undertakes to pay the price thereof;

"seller" means any natural person or any legal person, irrespective of whether privately or publicly owned, that is acting, including through any other person acting in that natural or legal person's name or on that person's behalf, for purposes relating to that person's trade, business, craft or profession, in relation to contracts covered by this Part.

(2) The provisions of this Part shall be applicable to sales contracts between a consumer and a seller.

(3) Contracts between a consumer and a seller for the supply of goods to be manufactured or produced shall also be deemed sales contracts for the purposes of this Part.

(4) This Part shall not apply to contracts for the supply of digital content or digital services. It shall, however, apply to digital content or digital services which are incorporated in or inter-connected with goods, as defined in paragraph (b) of the definition "goods" in sub-article (1) and are provided with the goods under the sales contracts, irrespective of whether such digital content or digital service is supplied by the seller or by a third party. In the event of doubt as to whether the supply of incorporated or inter-connected digital content or an incorporated or inter-connected digital service forms part of the sales contract, the digital content or digital service shall be presumed to be covered by the sales contract.

(5) This Part shall not apply to:

(a) any tangible medium which serves exclusively as a carrier for digital content;

(b) any goods sold by way of execution or otherwise by authority of law; or

(c) contracts for the sale of second-hand goods sold at public auction: Provided that in the case referred to in paragraph (c), clear and comprehensive information that the rights deriving from this Part do not apply shall be made easily available to consumers by auctioneers as defined in the Auctioneers Act.