# Consumer Protection Act 1999: Malaysia's Consumer Rights Statute and Its RM5 Tribunal

> Statute entity page for Act 599 — the rights it confers against misleading practices, unsafe goods and guarantees, and the Tribunal for Consumer Claims: a RM5, lawyer-free forum for claims up to RM50,000.

- Category: law
- Language: en
- Status: published
- Updated: 2026-07-24
- Canonical: https://negaraku.md/en/law/consumer-protection-act

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A phone that dies in week two. A renovation contractor who takes the deposit and
vanishes. A "50% off" sticker on a price that was never actually the original
price. Malaysia has one statute that answers to all three: the Consumer
Protection Act 1999.

This page is the statute record for Act 599 — what it covers, the rights it
gives consumers, and the Tribunal it created to enforce them without a lawyer
or a court filing fee. It is not a walkthrough of every offence, penalty or
Tribunal filing form.

## At a glance

| | |
| --- | --- |
| Short title | Consumer Protection Act 1999 |
| Act number | Act 599 |
| Administered by | Ministry of Domestic Trade and Cost of Living (KPDN) |
| Enforcement forum | Tribunal for Consumer Claims (established 15 November 1999) |
| Tribunal claim limit | RM50,000 |
| Tribunal filing fee | RM5 |
| Limitation period | Claim must arise within 3 years |

## What the Act covers

Act 599 gives consumers statutory rights that sit alongside — and in places go
further than — ordinary contract law. Its main protections address:

- **Misleading and deceptive conduct** — false or misleading representations
  about goods, services or prices, including bait advertising and misleading
  claims about limited stock.
- **Safety of goods and services** — standards for goods and services sold to
  consumers, and a general prohibition on supplying unsafe goods.
- **Guarantees in the supply of goods and services** — implied guarantees that
  goods sold to a consumer are of acceptable quality and fit for their
  disclosed purpose, and that services are carried out with reasonable care
  and skill.
- **Unfair contract terms** — added by a later amendment, giving consumers
  grounds to challenge terms in a consumer contract that cause a significant
  imbalance in the parties' rights to the consumer's detriment.

The Act also established the **National Consumer Advisory Council** to advise
the Minister, and the **Tribunal for Consumer Claims** as the enforcement arm
most consumers actually encounter.

## The Tribunal for Consumer Claims

The Tribunal is the Act's most-used feature — a quasi-judicial body under KPDN
built as a cheaper, faster alternative to civil court.

| | |
| --- | --- |
| Established | 15 November 1999 |
| Claim limit | RM50,000 |
| Filing fee | RM5 |
| Time limit | Claim must arise within 3 years |
| Award timeline | Tribunal aims to decide within 60 days of the first hearing day |
| Finality | Award is final and binding; enforceable through the Magistrate's Court |

A claim is filed at any Tribunal counter nationwide, or online. It has to be
for **redress arising from the purchase of goods or services** — not any
dispute involving money.

### What the Tribunal will not hear

The Tribunal explicitly excludes several categories of dispute, even if they
otherwise involve a consumer transaction:

- Personal injury or death
- Land or property disputes
- Professional services regulated by other written law
- Healthcare services
- Aviation services
- Matters that fall under another tribunal's jurisdiction

### If you disagree with the award

Because the award is final and binding under the Act, there is no ordinary
right of appeal. A party who disagrees can apply to the **High Court for
judicial review** — a narrower remedy focused on whether the Tribunal acted
lawfully, not a rehearing of the facts.

## Common mistakes

- **Assuming any consumer complaint qualifies.** Personal injury, land, and
  regulated professional-service disputes are outside the Tribunal's
  jurisdiction even when a consumer is on the losing end of them.
- **Sitting on a claim.** The three-year limitation runs from when the claim
  arose, not from when the consumer gets around to filing it.
- **Expecting an appeal.** Treating a Tribunal award like a first-instance
  court judgment that can simply be appealed — it cannot; judicial review is a
  different and narrower route.

## What's next

This page fixes Act 599's identity, scope and Tribunal mechanics. The general
law of contract that consumer transactions still sit on top of is set out in
the [Contracts Act 1950](/en/law/contracts-act-1950); where a Tribunal award
needs enforcing, or a dispute falls outside the Tribunal's jurisdiction
entirely, the relevant forum sits within the
[court hierarchy](/en/law/court-hierarchy). Traders selling as a registered
company should also read the [Companies Act 2016](/en/law/companies-act-2016)
for their own compliance obligations.

## Sources

- Tribunal For Consumer Claims — https://www.kpdn.gov.my/en/faq/tribunal-for-consumer-claims (Ministry of Domestic Trade and Cost of Living (KPDN))
- Consumer Protection Act 1999 (Act 599) — https://www.kpdn.gov.my/images/2024/awam/akta/ttpm/Act%20599.pdf (Commissioner of Law Revision / KPDN)
- Consumer Protection Act 1999 (Act 599), updated text of reprint including 2019 amendment — https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1690994_BI/011121_Act%20599_final.pdf (Attorney General's Chambers of Malaysia)

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