Fair trading covers a wide area of consumer protection law intended to prevent consumers being misled during contractual negotiations for goods and services.
Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008
These regulations bans unfair commercial practices such as mis-describing goods and services, omitting or hiding material information and aggressive conduct. It's scope is very wide and places a duty on traders to trade fairly.
Property Misdescriptions Act 1991
This Act is designed to regulate those persons in the estate agency or property development business who falsely describe or make misleading statements in relation to land. This includes descriptions in relation to the address and location of a property, room sizes and maintenance charges.
Consumer Credit Act 1974
This Act is designed to regulate those businesses or individuals who offer credit facilities to consumers and covers areas such as advertising, loans, mortgages and other credit transactions.
Trading standards aim to ensure that:
- credit is fairly provided
- goods, services and property are not misdescribed
- holidays and timeshare accommodation are not misrepresented
- prices are correctly displayed and do not mislead
- traders do not sell counterfeit goods
- steps are taken to end unfair trading practices
- terms in consumer contracts are fair.