The vulnerability of prospective credit consumers to over-committing their resources and the inherent dangers posed by credit advertising in particular necessitate the proper regulation of credit marketing. It is therefore not unsurprising that responsible marketing forms part of the responsible lending (and borrowing) measures of various jurisdictions – including South Africa and the Member States of the European Union – with the aim of preventing the extension of credit to consumers who cannot afford it. In this article the credit marketing laws that the South African, European (mainly in the Consumer Credit and Mortgage Credit Directives) and Belgian legislators have enacted are considered and compared, with a focus on the information to be included in advertising, prohibited advertising and prohibited marketing techniques. The ultimate aim is to determine whether South African law contains sufficient guarantees to protect consumers with respect to credit marketing and its consequences.  

The vulnerability of prospective credit consumers to over-committing their resources and the inherent dangers posed by credit advertising in particular necessitate the proper regulation of credit marketing. It is therefore not unsurprising that responsible marketing forms part of the responsible lending (and borrowing) measures of various jurisdictions – including South Africa and the Member States of the European Union – with the aim of preventing the extension of credit to consumers who cannot afford it. In this article the credit marketing laws that the South African, European (mainly in the Consumer Credit and Mortgage Credit Directives) and Belgian legislators have enacted are considered and compared, with a focus on the information to be included in advertising, prohibited advertising and prohibited marketing techniques. The ultimate aim is to determine whether South African law contains sufficient guarantees to protect consumers with respect to credit marketing and its consequences.  

During the last two decades South Africa has witnessed not only a sharp increase in consumer debt but also a strong increase in the granting of credit to individuals. This paper brie£y examines the philosophy underlying the contemporary South African insolvency law and also highlights some of the practical problems stemming from its creditor oriented philosophy. In May 2001 INSOL International published a report which is of the view that the solution to over-indebtedness is to be found, inter alia, in the idea that prevention is better than cure. This paper therefore also investigates the extent to which existing measures of the South African consumer protection law are aimed at the prevention of problematic debt situations. In conclusion we suggest that the existing insolvency and consumer protection legislation is not equal to the task of combating over-indebtedness and overspending by individuals and that law reform is therefore essential.

This article considers the provisions of section 97 of the National Credit Act 34 of 2005 (NCA), which are vitally important to credit providers and consumers alike and which entrench the obligation of a credit consumer who is subject to the Act to disclose to the credit provider the location of the goods financed under a credit agreement. Against a backdrop of similar provisions in the NCA’s predecessors (the Hire-Purchase Act 36 of 1942 and the Credit Agreements Act 75 of 1980), the article seeks to evaluate what changes, if any, the NCA has brought in this context and to make appropriate recommendations relating to the scope and application of section 97 of the NCA. The discussion of the disclosure measures in the NCA and its predecessors is preceded by a brief overview of the Acts’ fields of application insofar as the latter are relevant to the disclosure provisions. We conclude that the legislature needs to intervene and amend section 97 of the NCA (and regulation 34, which must be read with section 97), failing which these provisions will be a very limited tool in the hands of the credit provider to keep track of the goods that serve as security and their effectiveness will be greatly diminished.