According to section 21 of the Consumer Protection Act 68 of 2008 (“CPA”), unsolicited goods are defined to include goods delivered to a consumer for which no express or tacit request was made. In such a case the consumer has a duty to inform the supplier that the goods have been erroneously delivered within 10 days of delivery taking place. If the supplier does not collect the goods within 20 business days, the goods will be deemed unsolicited goods.

It is important that the consumer does not do anything to hamper or impede the supplier from collecting the misdelivered goods within the 20-business-day period. The consumer will not be responsible to bear any costs relating to the retrieval or further delivery of the goods and the consumer will furthermore not be held liable for damages to the goods (excluding intentional damage caused to the goods by the consumer).

However, it often happens that the consumer is still in possession of the goods after the expiration of the 20-business-day period. In such circumstances ownership of the goods has already passed to the consumer and the consumer is accordingly entitled to retain the goods – the CPA makes express provision for this. Moreover, the supplier is not entitled to demand payment from the consumer for the unsolicited goods. In a nutshell, the consumer receives goods which were not requested free of charge upon the expiry of the 20 business days.