Trading standards - advice to businesses

Consumer protection law
Latest guidance issued

Trading Standards helps businesses with consumer and trading law issues.

In general, trading standards legislation:

deals with false descriptions, misleading price indications, advertising of credit, counterfeit goods and internet shopping
controls weighing and measuring equipment used for selling and buying goods and makes sure the quantities of packaged goods are the correct weight or measure
provides general product safety guidelines
controls the sale of age restricted products, eg knives, fireworks, cigarettes, alcohol etc
provides guidance on the sale and storage of fireworks

Major changes to consumer protection law - 2008

New regulations have now come into force that harmonise consumer protection laws across the European Union. The new regulations (The Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008) are known as the CPRs and replace a lot of existing UK laws including the price marking element of the Consumer Protection Act 1987 and most of the Trade Descriptions Act 1968.

The new regulations have been described as "Trade Descriptions ++" as they replicate and expand previous controls to cover both goods and services and allow enforcement agencies to take action against non-compliant traders in both the criminal and civil Courts.

In summary the most significant changes are:

Pricing - the 2005 Code of Practice for Traders on Price Indications has now been replaced by the Pricing Practices Guide which sets out traders' guidance on good practice in giving information about prices.

General duty not to trade unfairly - traders are now expected not to run their businesses unfairly. The regulations impact on all commercial transactions between traders and consumers and examine how 'average' consumers are likely to act taking professional diligence into account.

Misleading actions and omissions - the controls are similar to those previously contained in the Trade Descriptions Act 1968 but have been extended to cover both goods and services and also cover not providing key information such as the product description, price or the name and address of the trader to the 'average' consumer.

Aggressive practices - these prohibit the use of harassment, coercion (including physical force) or undue influence to significantly impair the 'average' consumers' freedom of choice.

Banned practices - 31 specific practices are now banned as they are always considered to be unfair.

These include:

visiting a consumer at home and refusing to leave when asked to;
making persistent and unwanted solicitations by phone/fax/e-mail;
telling a consumer a trader's job will be in jeopardy if the consumer does not buy the product;
claiming a trader is going to cease trading or move premises when they will not.

The full list of banned practices can be downloaded below.

The above is only a summary of the new controls which only the Courts can interpret with authority. Please use the associated links to download the regulations and latest government guidance.

Inspections and investigations

Trading Standards regularly inspects all trade premises in Croydon to ensure compliance with trading standards legislation.

We aim to carry out inspections promptly, courteously, fairly and consistently. Inspection staff will aim to give all reasonable assistance and advice to help traders comply with the laws that affect them.

Trading Standards investigates alleged or suspected breaches of legislation. The service undertakes specific projects such as surveying tobacconists to check that cigarettes are not being sold to children and conducts investigations following complaints from the public. Investigations are carried out in a fair, equitable and consistent manner according to our Enforcement Policy. This policy details a range of enforcement options, from taking no action or the issuing of a caution through to prosecution.

As a general guide, at least one of the following criteria will apply before an investigation is considered for legal proceedings:

There has been an element of fraud or intent in the commission of the offence, eg counterfeiting goods
There has been gross negligence, eg making a false claim about goods when no checks had been made about the accuracy of the claims
There is an immediate serious risk to the public, eg the supply of an electrically unsafe power-tool
Previous warnings have failed to solve the problem

Penalties

The final decision as to whether to prosecute is taken by the council's legal services division.

Penalties may include:

Compensation being paid to the person who has suffered as a result of the crime
Conditional Discharge - if a similar offence is committed within a specified timeframe, the first offence may be taken into account
Payment of all or some of the legal expenses of the court case
Forfeit - the goods may be destroyed or, if appropriate, given to charity
Fine or imprisonment