BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY

On May 6, 2011, Cameroon established a bill to safeguard consumers. Before 2011, Part IV of Law No. 90/031 of August 10, 1990, which controlled commercial activity in Cameroon, governed consumer protection. The twelve sections of this part of the law that are dedicated to consumer protection have come under harsh criticism for, among other things, leaving out crucial details and concepts.   The law was excessively vague and all-encompassing.statute No. 2015/018 of December 21, 2015, controlling commercial activities in Cameroon, revised this statute. The law warns the merchant/producer categorically not to abuse his economic prowess and capabilities to the detriment of the customer. practices in business.

Product liability and consumer protection are interdependent and intertwined.In other words, the foundation of consumer protection is product responsibility. In other words, one of the safeguards established by consumer protection laws to safeguard the interests of consumers is product responsibility.The idea of culpability is the obligation a manufacturer has or that is placed on a manufacturer for creating subpar goods.

This idea is typically seen as a tort and is seen as the primary means by which a nation’s society can enact consumer protection, whether through negligence, strict responsibility, or breach of warranty. It is argued that a nation’s citizens have an inherent right to basic health and safety and are not required to purchase harmful or faulty items. As a result, the state has passed legislation that provide producers, traders, and sellers advance notice. This is true because, in the eyes of the law, the producer is presumed to know more about the goods he is producing than the consumer, and as a result, should be held accountable in the event of any defects. The producer is also held accountable if he is aware of a potential defect in a product but fails to alert the consumer to a potential danger.

2   STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

Cameroon, like other countries in the world face the problem of producers producing  goods of relatively low quality and sell at high prices.Producers create artificial scarcity ,hoardings^[1] black marketing, and wrong measurements and to top it all adulteration even in pharmaceutical products as their main interest is to acquire huge profit at the detriment of consumer’s safety which has warranted us to carry out this study inorder to question the effectiveness of measures put in place to hold producers of such products liable.

  1.3   RESEARCH QUESTIONS

 1.3.1   General research question

How effective is Cameroonian legislation on issues relating to defective products liability?

 1.3.2   Specific research questions

• What is the concept of product liability, its nature and forms?
• What are the various forms of liability for defective products in Cameroon?
• How effective are measures established relating to defective product liability in Cameroon?
• What policy recommendations can be made on the problems identified?

1.4 RESEARCH OBJECTIVE

1.4.1 General Research objective

• To determine the effectiveness of Cameroonian legislations on issues relating to product liability.

1.4.2 Specific Research objectives

• To analyse the conceptual overview of product liability, its nature and forms.
• To examine the various forms of liability for defective products in Cameroon.
• To determine the effectiveness of the measures  established relating to defective product liability in Cameroon

To make policy recommendations to challenge the identified problems