 |
|
Nov. 6, 2009
JWisdom.com Zero to 1/60th: How
to Empower An Hour with Gavriel Aryeh Sande (7 minutes)
Nov. 5, 2009
JWisdom.com Hidden Hints: Unlocking
Faith & Prayer with Rabbi Jay Yaacov Schwartz (10 minutes)
Nov. 4, 2009
JWisdom.com When God played peacemaker
With Rabbi Sroy Levitansky (5 minutes)
Nov. 3, 2009
JWisdom.com Are you are closet idolater?
With Sara Yoheved Rigler (10 minutes)
Nov. 2, 2009
JWisdom.com Abraham's Strange Change
With Rabbi Yitzchok Fingerer (5 minutes)
Oct. 30, 2009
Oct. 29, 2009
JWisdom.com We Must Revamp our
Religious Vocabulary With Gavriel Aryeh Sanders ( 10 minutes)
Oct. 28, 2009
JWisdom.com Why what we wear
impacts who we are
With Rabbis Mordechai Becher, Menachem Golberger and Aliza Bulow ( 10 minutes)
Oct. 27, 2009
Paul Greenberg: The United Nations Is Outraged Again, Or: Department of Mideast Static
JWisdom.com The Science of Love
With Rabbi Jonathan Rietti ( 7 minutes)
Oct. 26, 2009
JWisdom.com Wisdom and Wonks
With Rabbi Eytan Feiner ( 7 minutes)
Oct. 23, 2009
JWisdom.com Watermark and oneness
with Rabbi Sroy Levitansky ( 4 minutes)
Caroline B. Glick Stop using limited powers in a way that expands our enemies' advantages over us
Oct. 22, 2009
JWisdom.com No More More Family Fights --- Really?
By Sarah Chana Radcliffe ( 5 minutes)
Oct. 21, 2009
Tonya Alanez: Holocaust denier sues survivor, calling Auschwitz memoir 'vicious lies'
JWisdom.com Meditating Jewishly: A
Panacea for Success by Sarah Yoheved Rigler ( 7 minutes)
Oct. 20, 2009
Dennis Prager: Obama and Dalai Lama: Why Israel Worries about U.S. President
JWisdom.com Abraham was not religious
By Rabbi Yitzchok Fingerer ( 6 minutes)
Oct. 19, 2009
JWisdom.comWhy Good People Do Bad Things
By Rabbi Eytan Feiner ( 7 minutes)
Oct. 16, 2009
JWisdom.com Hearing Voices
By Rabbi Sroy Levitansky ( 5 minutes)
Oct. 15, 2009
JWisdom.com: Former MTV producer and stand-up comedian Rabbi Lawrence Hajioff: Taming a Control Freak (A VERY fast 15 minutes)
|
| |
Jewish World Review
June 29, 2009
/ 7 Tamuz 5769
Beware of ‘Caveat Emptor’
By
Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir
| 
|
|
|
|
http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
Q. Recently you wrote that sellers need to shun misleading practices. Can't we rely on the consumer to defend his own interests?
A. In traditional common law, the basic rule in commerce was "caveat emptor," a Latin term meaning "Let the buyer beware". Since it was the responsibility of the buyer to wary of any problems with the purchase, he had a claim against the seller only if there was actual fraud. Merely finding an unusual defect was not grounds for cancellation.
There were some valid justifications for the caveat emptor rule. One was that only the customer can know what his needs are, and if the product meets them. Another is the desire to have clear and unambiguous laws of transfer to keep the courts from being clogged with endless litigation.
However, this rule created more problems than it solved, and today it has been abandoned in the developed world in favor of an implied warranty of merchantability.
It is true that only the consumer can be totally sure why he wants a product, but it is equally true that when people buy standard products the vast majority have exactly the same expectations, so it is reasonable to demand that the seller fulfill them. And even though only the consumer knows what he wants, typically only the seller is well-versed in the finer aspects of the product, especially if it is one sold seldom. An appliance dealer sells more refrigerators in one day than a typical person buys in a lifetime, so it is in everybody's interest to have the seller share his knowledge with the buyer, especially relating to any defects in the product.
It is noteworthy that Jewish law deals with misleading practices on two distinct levels. On one level, we have the ability to nullify a sale when the merchandise has substantive defects, to the extent that there is no true meeting of the minds. This corresponds to what in secular law is known as the implied warrantee of merchantability.
But there is another level of prohibition which is not actionable, but is still forbidden. This is called geneivas da'st, or "stealing judgment." In these cases the substantive information about the product and price are known, but significant context is missing. One case would be where the item is advertised as being "50% off" whereas in fact the discount is from a temporary markup. The customer is properly informed of the item and the price, but he is misled into thinking it is a bargain. This would also apply to meaningful but non-critical aspects of the product. An example would be selling a product as "natural" to a person who doesn't insist on natural products but views it as a sign of quality.
This highlights the fact that Jewish law is not merely a system of litigation or conflict resolution but also a system of ethical and religious norms. The customer doesn't have recourse but the misleading practice is still forbidden. The name of this prohibition is also instructive. The premise of your question is that we can rely on the judgment of the customer, but in fact sellers have many clever techniques of "stealing" that judgment, of inducing the customer to suspend his critical faculties. Jewish law has always affirmed, and current practice confirms, that we need to beware of "buyer beware."
ARCHIVES
Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes inspiring articles. Sign up for our daily update. It's free. Just click here.
JWR contributor Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir, formerly of the Council of Economic Advisers in the Reagan
administration, is Research Director of the Business Ethics Center of Jerusalem, Jerusalem College of Technology.
To comment or pose a question, please click here.
THE JEWISH ETHICIST, NOW IN BOOK FORM
You've enjoyed his columns on JWR for years. Now the Jewish Ethicist has culled his most intriguing — and controversial — offerings in book form.
HARDCOVER
PAPERBACK
Sales help fund JWR.
|
© 2009, The Jewish Ethicist is produced by the JCT Center for Business Ethics
|
