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Maintaining standards

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27 July 2012 / Dermot Keating , Monica Stevenson
Issue: 7524 / Categories: Features , Company
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Dermot Keating & Monica Stevenson consider how unfair commercial practices are prosecuted

In May of this year, it was four years since the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008 (SI 2008/1277) (the regulations) came into force and in this time lawyers and trading standards officers alike have grappled with a piece of legislation most notable for its prolixity and complexity.

The regulations implemented an EU Directive (Unfair Commercial Practices Directive [2005/29/EC]) which sought to harmonise the approach of member states towards unfair commercial practices. Many critics have attributed their complexity to the fact that the regulations incorporated, virtually wholesale, the wording of the Directive. Recent case law shows some of the difficulties encountered by the UK courts when interpreting seemingly simple statutory terms (see for example R (on the application of Surrey Trading Standards) v Southern & Scottish Energy plc [2012] EWCA Crim 539, [2012] All ER (D) 164 (Mar), which saw the Court of Appeal consider who qualifies as a “trader” for the purpose of the regulations).

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