7.7 Horizontal vs. Vertical Privity

• Vertical privity — the relationships along the distribution chain: manufacturer → importer → wholesaler → retailer → consumer. Each link is a contract; the end-consumer is in contract only with his retailer (the remoteness problem runs vertically). • Horizontal privity — relationships across or outside the chain: the consumer (or a bystander injured by the goods) versus the remote manufacturer with whom he has no contract at all; also same-level strangers (two end-users). The horizontal gap is where pure privity failed consumers most. • The law's answers: the exceptions (agency — Unit 4; assignment; trusts; third-party beneficiary rules; collateral contracts by name only), the consumer statutes' direct claims against any link, and — decisively — products liability without privity. Nepal's structural answer is the Code's own Part 5, Chapter 18 — Liability for Defective Products (verified from the official table of contents): a dedicated products-liability chapter placing the injured party's claim on the defect, not on a contract's chain — the horizontal-privity problem dissolved by statute (with the Consumer Protection Act 2075's remedies beside it).