Contract and Commercial Law Act 2017

Sale of goods - Formation of contract - Conditions and warranties

136: Sale by description

You could also call this:

“The seller must give you what they described when you buy something”

When you buy something that is described to you, the seller must make sure that what you get matches that description. This is a rule that sellers have to follow.

If you’re buying something that you can see a sample of, and it’s also described to you, it’s not enough for what you get to just look like the sample. It also needs to match the description you were given.

There’s another part of the law that talks about buying things by sample. You can find more information about that in section 142 of this law.

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135: Implied condition and warranties as to title and quiet possession, or

"The law says sellers must own what they sell and you can use it without problems"


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137: Implied conditions or warranties as to quality or fitness, or

"Automatic promises about a product's quality or usefulness when you buy things"

Part 3 Sale of goods
Formation of contract: Conditions and warranties

136Sale by description

  1. In a contract for the sale of goods by description, there is an implied condition that the goods will correspond to the description.

  2. If the sale of goods is by sample as well as by description, it is not sufficient that the bulk of the goods corresponds to the sample if the goods do not also correspond to the description.

  3. See section 142 (which relates to contracts of sale by sample).

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