Sale of Goods Act 1979
Context
This Act replaced the original Sale of Goods Act 1893 and includes all the amendments that have
been made in the intervening years (i.e., years in-between).
The Sales of Goods Act 1979 has been amended by several pieces of legislation:
• Sale and Supply of Goods Act 1994 / Sale of Goods (Amendment) Act 1994 and 1995 (don’t
need to know these Acts; just that they amended SGA 1979)
• European Directives
• Consumer contracts legislation
• Decisions of the European Court of Justice
Interplays with:
• UCTA 1977
• Consumer Credit Acts 1974 and 2006
• Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013
• Consumer Rights Act 2015
Coverage and Definition
s.1(1): This Act applies to contracts of sale of goods.
s.2(1): A contract of sale of goods is a contract by which the seller transfers or agrees to transfer the
property in goods to the buyer for a money consideration, called the price.
s.61(1): the term ‘goods’ includes all personal chattels (i.e., possessions / properties) other than
things in action and money... and in particular ‘goods’ includes emblements, industrial growing
crops, and things attached to or forming part of the land which are agreed to be severed before sale
or under the contract of sale...and includes an undivided share in goods.
Note:
• Emblements is the profit from crops that one has sown (i.e., planted / seeded), regarded as
personal property.
• So, SGA 1979 ONLY covers a transaction in which one side promises to transfer ownership of
goods and the other pays the price in money. This, therefore, excludes cases where there is
no money price and situations where what is sold is not goods but land or what is often
called intangible property i.e., property interests which cannot be physically possessed such
as shares, patents, copyrights etc.
Key Sections (Implied Terms)
Under the Sale of Goods Act 1979, consumer and business buyers entering into a sale of goods
transaction benefit from the protection of FOUR key legal rights. These legal rights are automatically
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