Overview

During the 1998 financial crisis, Law No. 8 of 1999 on Consumer Protection (“Law 8/1999”) was one of four critical Laws that Indonesia was required to enact in order to receive aid from the International Monetary Fund. Due to the urgency of the circumstances at the time, the aforementioned framework was drafted and passed into law within a mere six months. Unfortunately, however, this rushed process led to several inherent shortcomings in this important Law and during the more than two decades since its enactment, Law 8/1999 has inevitably been subject to numerous enforcement challenges. These challenges relate to numerous factors, including linguistic problems, structural deficiencies, business obligations, consumer dispute mechanisms and the roles of relevant institutions.[1]