Aggressive Selling and Unfair Trading Are Now Criminal Offences
In the biggest change to consumer law for 40 years and for the first time ever it is now a criminal offence to trade unfairly or use aggressive selling techniques.
Warwickshire County Council Trading Standards Service is hailing the changes as a massive boost to their ability to protect consumers and honest businesses.
Under the new ‘Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008’ (CPR’s) it is now a criminal offence to trade unfairly, mislead consumers or use aggressive selling techniques.
Aggressive practices whereby traders put pressure on consumers to purchase, or make payment for goods or services when they are not happy to do so are now prohibited and the legislation introduces a general duty on traders not to trade unfairly.
Traders are now banned for example from overstaying their welcome in a consumers home or ignoring a consumer’s request to leave and not to return, or persistently phone consumers when they have made it clear they do not want to receive phone calls, (except where permitted under national law to enforce a contractual obligation).
Nor can traders now use spurious burglary figures for example to scare an elderly person in to buying a burglar alarm system.
There are 31 specific practices which are always considered to be unfair, and the Regulations prohibit traders from misleading consumers either by what they say or do (misleading actions) or by omitting information consumers need to make an informed decision (misleading omissions).
Warwickshire County Councillor Richard Hobbs, Portfolio Holder for Consumer Protection said:
“This new consumer law is good news for honest businesses and consumers. It will enable the County Council to protect legitimate businesses more effectively from unfair competition and leave us better placed to take action against rogue traders who persist in cheating and defrauding consumers.”
Some of the practices now prohibited
Banned: Scam prize draws which offer impressive prizes which don’t actually exist for example a scratchcard offering a top prize of £10,000 when they haven’t printed a card that wins the top prize.
Banned: Making misleading claims, for example where a trader falsely tells you he is CORGI registered or a business uses fake endorsements.
Banned: Describing a product as ‘free’ if the consumer has to pay anything (other than for example delivery). For example if a salesman offers a consumer a ‘free’ alarm system, but fails to advise them of the cost of installation etc
Banned: Bogus closing down sales where the trader has no intention of closing his business.
Banned: Falsely claiming that a product is able to cure illness dysfunction or malformation (e.g. offering a product which can cure cancer when it cannot)
Banned: Advertising which lures consumers in order to supply them with something different (bait advertising)
The CPR’s will affect all businesses who deal with consumers, including garages, shops, restaurants and hairdressers, for example. They apply to transactions made on the high street, over the phone or online, and similar laws have been introduced across the whole of the European Union.
As a consequence of the introduction of these new Regulations, a significant amount of existing consumer protection legislation will be repealed, including:-
Business Advertisements (Disclosure) Order 1977
Part III of the Consumer Protection Act 1983
Consumer Transactions (Restrictions on Statements) Order 1976
Mock Auctions Act 1961
Price Marking (Food & Drink Services) Order 2003
The majority of the Trade Descriptions Act 1968
Trading Standards Officers will be making information on the new regulations available to businesses
For further information, visit our website: http://www.warwickshire.gov.uk/tradingstandards and click on ‘Business advice pages’.