Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations

Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations (26th May 2008) has brought to an end a number of questionable trading practices. If you come across any of these practices and have parted with money as a result, the trader will be in breach of these regulations. Traders are now not allowed to mislead customers by giving false messages, or leave out important information to induce a sale. The regulations broadly reflect the new provisions in the Fraud Act 2006, a controversial piece of legislation that, many lawyers have argued, criminalises ‘lying.’

Lying about Products

A trader cannot state that an offer is open for a ‘limited time only’ in order to rush consumers into making a hasty decision about a purchase. Similarly, advertising a ‘closing down sale’ when the shop is not closing down is also a breach of these rules.

A consumer’s statutory rights (fitness for purpose, reasonable quality and goods to conform to description) cannot form part of the seller’s offer, as this may provide a false benefit to consumers that they would otherwise have been entitled to by law in any event. This also extends to creating extra paperwork to put a consumer off from exercising their statutory rights.

Products cannot be sold on the basis that they are able to cure illnesses, disfunctions or disorders when in fact there is no such proof or substantial evidence to show that these claims are true. Scaremongering is also not allowed: a trader cannot tell a consumer that they, or a member of their family, are at a greater risk if they do not buy a certain product than is in reality the case.

Advertising

The new regulations extend to the way in which traders advertise their businesses. A trader cannot hold themselves out as being private individuals, or that what they are doing is a hobby, or that they too are simply a consumer. An advertisement cannot directly appeal to children to buy products or to tell them to persuade their parents to do the same.

Lying about Credibility

It is now a breach of these regulations if a trader falsely claims adherence to a code of conduct, displays a trust mark that has not been awarded to them or falsely claims that a product or service has been endorsed by a public or private body when it has not.

Pyramid Schemes

It is now unlawful for a business to entice a consumer to part with money in consideration for the opportunity to be paid for introducing other consumers into the scheme, rather than primarily in consideration for making sales.

Competitions

Any prize draw must in fact have a prize, and the prize must be as advertised or equivalent to the prize that was advertised. A product, whether a service or system, cannot claim that it will facilitate a win in a game of chance. If there is a claim that the consumer has already ‘won’ something, there must be an actual prize, and claiming the prize must not incur an extra cost or payment of money.

Sales

Consumers cannot be pressurised into making purchases, for example by being made to feel that they cannot leave without signing a contract. A salesman who comes to someone’s home and then won’t leave, or won’t stop making a sales pitch when the homeowner tells them that they aren’t interested, is breaking these regulations.