New Consumer Protection Regulations Come Into Force
A new consumer law came into force yesterday. The Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008 is intended to clamp down on many sales practices that most of us would have thought should have been illegal years ago.
There are 31 specific offences such as
1. Claiming to be a signatory to a code of conduct when the trader is not.
2. Displaying a trust mark, quality mark or equivalent without having obtained the necessary authorisation.
3. Claiming that a code of conduct has an endorsement from a public or other body which it does not have.
You would think that blatant lying to make a sale would always have been wrong but apparently it was ok before this law came into effect.
12. Making a materially inaccurate claim concerning the nature and extent of the risk to the personal security of the consumer or his family if the consumer does not purchase the product.
This is well overdue. How many frail and concerned consumers have been frightened into buying by a scenario created by the seller.
The Act contains a whole lot more and you can read it here…
The Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008
There are far too many scams and deceitful practices taking place around the country and this new law is to be welcomed. Unfortunately the Trading Standards officers are not enugh in number or well resourced enough to be able to really take on the dodgy dealers to any great extent. It seems a great shame and a wasted opportunity for the government to have brought in rules that will be welcomed by just about everybody but not to provided the funds for that law to be fully and properly enforced.
We can only hope that a few successful high profile cases will scare off most of the smaller fry who prey on consumers.
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