Based on the earlier Consumer Law: Text, Cases and Materials by David Oughton, Textbook on Consumer Law seeks to explain the general principles which underlie consumer protection law and the many ways in which those principles are applied. It provides students of consumer law with an up-to-date and readable text on the subject.
Topics of central importance are those of consumer redress, product quality, product safety (including food safety), consumer services law (with particular reference to repair services), holidays, consumer insurance and consumer finance.

There is also a discussion of the various methods by which advertising, sales promotion practices and misleading claims are regulated. Where appropriate, domestic law is related to the general principles and policies of European Community law which have increasingly come to recognise the consumer interest. In this respect, account has been taken of the effect of the Treaty of Amsterdam which, amongst other things, has renumbered many of the familiar provisions of the Treaty of Rome.
Textbook on Consumer Law, also considers the relevant merits and disadvantages of business self-regulation under both trade association codes of practice and the growing number of statutory codes of practice introduced to reduce the burdens on business created by legislative intervention.

This edition takes account of a number of recent judicial decisions in the appellate courts and below, and also takes account of the provisions of the Contracts (Rights of Third Parties) Act 1999, the Access to Justice Act 1999, the Civil Procedure Rules 1998, the Food Standards Act 1999, the Human Rights Act 1998, the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations 1999 and the EC Directive on Consumer Sales and Associated Guarantees 1999.