How can we protect victims of unfair commercial practices, ask David Hertzell & Amy Smith
This month is Scams Awareness Month. Research commissioned by Consumer Focus in 2009 found that around two thirds of those questioned had been subjected to misleading or aggressive sales practices. They estimated that these practices cost consumers around £3.3bn every year. Moreover, honest businesses are undermined by the unscrupulous.
Speak out
The Trading Standards Institute, Citizens Advice, and Action Fraud are encouraging consumers to speak out if they have been a victim of a scam. They are also helping consumers to recognise a scam. But what happens when you fall victim to a misleading or aggressive sales practice? The Law Commission and the Scottish Law Commission have recently published a report which deals with these issues.
The Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008 (SI 2008/1277) (the regulations) implemented the Unfair Commercial Practices Directive into UK law in 2008. The regulations prohibit unfair commercial practices which include: misleading actions, misleading omissions and aggressive practices. The regulations also have a blacklist of 31 automatically unfair commercial practices. However,
