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Fair Trading

Trading Standards is responsible for enforcing a wide range of criminal fair trading laws, through a combination of routine inspections, special projects and advice to business. Below are brief summaries of relevant law. The main areas of work include dealing with:

Misdescribed goods and services
Counterfeit goods
Misleading price indications
Unsolicited goods and services
Estate agents and property developers
Mileage fraud on motor vehicles and unroadworthy vehicles
Package holidays and timeshare
Rogue and doorstep traders
Scams

Trading Standards are adopting an ‘intelligence-led’ approach to enforcement. The aim is to ensure our limited resources are used to the best effect in protecting the trading environment for the benefit of the whole community. All sources of information, but in particular complaints, are used to identify trends and problem traders and to determine where our future activities should be focused. If you have information that could help the service please go to the Advice to consumers web-page to report it to us.

The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) plays a leading role in helping consumers understand their rights and protecting consumer interests throughout the UK, while ensuring that business practices are fair and competitive.

Below are brief summaries of the fair trading law that Trading Standards enforce.

Trader Identity
Traders must display on their business premises details of who owns their business when the name of the shop does not reveal the surname of the owner, or in the case of a company their corporate name. These details must also be present on business stationery.

Prices to be displayed
All goods on sale are required to have a price displayed either by marking each item, or using shelf-edge markers or price lists near to the goods. V.A.T. must be included in the price – unless the trader sells primarily to other traders. There are detailed rules for showing the price per pound or kilogram, and also specific rules for jewellers, petrol stations, restaurants, pubs and bars and hotels. Traders must also display how the method of payment affects the price (e.g. surcharges on credit card purchases).

Distance Selling - Unsolicited Goods and Services
People buying goods and services by mail order, over the telephone or internet have certain rights such as a cooling off period of 7 days to decide whether to keep the goods.

It is a criminal offence for a trader to demand money for goods sent to a consumer which the trader knows were not ordered.

If the consumer receives unsolicited goods he can write to the sender requesting that the goods be collected. If the sender fails to collect within 30 days, the goods become the property of the recipient. Alternatively, if the consumer does not write to the sender, and the sender does not collect the goods within 6 months, then the goods become the possession of the recipient.

It is also illegal to demand payment for an entry in a business directory for a company when that company has not applied for such an entry.

Estate Agents
Estate Agents must be registered with the Office of Fair Trading (OFT). The OFT can stop persons who are bankrupts, or who have been convicted of fraud, dishonesty or violence, from being an Estate Agent. It is an offence to be trading as an Estate Agent without being registered.

Trading Standards can inspect that clients' deposits are held in a special account and that sufficient insurance exists for such monies.

It is also an offence to make false and misleading statements about matters relating to land and property (e.g. fly-boarding, size of rooms, locations etc…).

Package Holidays
Any person organising packages which include travel accommodation and other tourist facilities (e.g. day trips) must ensure clients are given sufficient information about pricing and the package as a whole. The organiser must cover the clients for repatriation and refunds in the event of insolvency of transport providers.

Rogue Traders
In certain circumstances where a trader has been given legal advice continues to persistently breach the criminal and civil law, Trading Standards may seek an injunction from a court compelling the trader to stop breaking the law. Failure to comply with the court injunction could result in a prison sentence.

Scams
There are dozens of types of scams circulating at any one time. They offer a chance to invest in an “exciting new money-making scheme”, inform you of an “unexpected win on a prize draw or lottery”, and frequently ask you for your bank account details in order to “process your winnings” to you. The scams we see are aimed at businesses as well as consumers.

With email and text messages, it is possible to send unsolicited offers to thousands of people quickly and relatively cheaply. If only a tiny fraction of the people reply, huge profits can still be made by these scammers.
Professionally written letters, faxes and emails can be very convincing, but in our experience, which ever method these promotions are distributed, they are still a dishonest attempt to trap you into parting with your money. Our advice to any consumers or businesses is if something that seems too good to be true, it probably is.

The following bodies can also assist you in dealing with your concerns:

Mailing Preference Service - This allows you to register your wish not to receive unsolicited direct marketing mail

Telephone Preference Service - This allows you to register your home phone number not to receive unsolicited sales and marketing calls.

Email Preference Service - This is a global service managed by the Direct Marketing Association in the States which allows you to register your email address so as not to receive unsolicited sales and marketing email messages.

Click here to make a complaint about a premium rate number - This will allow you to register a complaint with ICSTIS (the industry regulator).

If you’re concerned about protecting your personal details or wish to check whether a specific company is complying with the Data Protection laws then go to the Information Commissioner’s Office website for further information.

Mock auctions
There are sales known as 'mock auctions' which appear to be auctions but are in reality conducted in a way to entice purchasers to pay large sums of money for unknown goods. They are often advertised through leaflets and flyers; held in public rooms rather than retail premises where the sales room doors locked and goods are handed out wrapped tightly in black plastic bags. It is hard to tell what you actually bought until you have left - when it is often too late to complain.

It is an offence to conduct an auction where the sale of goods is by competitive bidding and where the right to bid is restricted to persons who have bought one or more articles. Trading Standards may be able to take action to prevent a sale taking place, or to prosecute the traders concerned.

Sunday trading
All retail shops can open on a Sunday. Larger shops however, whose internal retail area exceeds 280 square meters are only allowed to open for up to 6 hours between the hours of 10am and 6pm.
Larger shops may not open on Easter Sunday or Christmas Day, if it falls on a Sunday.
The following large shops may open at any time on a Sunday: