Commentary on Sections Part 1: Consumer Contracts for Goods, Digital Content and Services Can a trader contract out of statutory rights and remedies under a goods contract? Section 32: Contracts applying law of non-EEA state
164.The parties to a contract may agree that the contract is to be governed by the law of a particular country. This might be because the trader is based in a country other than the UK. The Rome I Regulation governs which laws apply to those contracts. In some circumstances, despite another law being chosen, laws of the consumer’s habitual residence apply if they cannot be derogated from by agreement. See paragraph 27 for further details.
165.This section provides that most of Chapter 2 will apply to protect a consumer under a sales contract (as defined in section 5), where a contract has a close connection with the UK, even if the contract states the law of a non-EEA State applies (the EEA is the European Economic Area of the EU plus Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway). The provision is included to comply with Article 7(2) of the CSD, which requires that the consumer should not be deprived of its protection, where a contract has a close connection with a Member State, even if the contract states the law of a non-Member State applies. It does not cover section 28 and 29, nor restriction of liability under sections 28 and 29, as these derive from the CRD which does not have this requirement.