Chapter 14Consumer protectionThe Enterprise Act 2002 abolished the office of DGFT
and established a new corporate authority to be known
as the OFT. The DGFT’s functions and responsibilities
were transferred to the OFT. The OFT consists of a chair-
man and a minimum of four other members. The Secret-
ary of State has the power to appoint a chief executive.
The Enterprise Act 2002 sets out the general functions of
the OFT as:
■obtaining and reviewing information relating to its
functions in respect of competition and consumer
matters so that it can take informed decisions and
carry out its other functions effectively;
■promoting to the public the benefits that competition
may have for consumers and the economy in general
and giving information and advice about its functions
in relation to competition, including publishing edu-
cational literature or participating in educational
activities;
■providing information and advice to ministers or
public bodies relating to its functions;
■promoting good consumer practice, e.g. by encour-
agement for the development of consumer codes of
practice and approving such codes.
Food Standards Agency (FSA)
The FSA, which was established by the Food Standards
Act 1999, became operational in April 2000. The main
objective of the FSA is to protect the interests of con-
sumers in relation to food. The FSA has responsibility
for the development of food policy and for providing
advice, information and assistance in relation to food
safety, and other consumer interests in relation to food,
to public authorities.
Local government
Local authorities have two main roles in respect of con-
sumer protection: enforcement of regulatory statutes
and the provision of consumer advice and information.
1 Enforcement.Local government has the day-to-day
responsibility for enforcing many of the statutory con-
sumer protection measures. Most local authorities have
consumer protection or trading standards departments
which have responsibility for enforcing the provisions of
the Consumer Credit Act 1974, the Weights and Meas-
ures Act 1985, the Food Safety Act 1990 and various
regulations and orders made under consumer protection
legislation, e.g. the Consumer Protection from Unfair
Trading Regulations 2008. Local authorities also have
responsibility for testing equipment used by traders and
sampling products put on the market by manufacturers
and retailers.
2 Consumer advice.Many local authorities have set up
consumer advice centres to provide pre-shopping advice
and to give advice on complaints. Sometimes they will
take up individual complaints.Government-sponsored bodies
Consumer Protection Advisory Committee
(CPAC)
The Committee was established under Part II of the Fair
Trading Act 1973 to consider references on the question
of whether a consumer trade practice adversely affected
the economic interests of UK consumers. The CPAC
reported to the Secretary of State, who could give effect
to any proposals by means of an order made by statutory
instrument. The orders are enforced by criminal sanc-
tion only. Penalties, defences and enforcement are sim-
ilar to those under the Trade Descriptions Act 1968.
Membership of the Committee was suspended in
1983 and has now been formally abolished by s 10 of the
Enterprise Act 2002. By 2002 there were only two orders
still in force and therefore the repeal of Part II of the Fair
Trading Act 1973 is partial until such time as the orders
are revoked. The orders are the Consumer Transactions
(Restrictions on Statements) Order 1976 (SI 1976/1813)
and the Business Advertisements (Disclosure) Order
1977 (SI 1977/1918).
1 Consumer Transactions (Restrictions on State-
ments) Order 1976.Article 3 of the order makes it an
offence to display at any place where consumer transac-
tions are effected a notice containing a term invalidated
by s 6 of the Unfair Contract Terms Act 1977. It is also
an offence under Art 4 to supply goods, their container
or a document to a consumer with a statement about his
rights against the supplier with regard to defects, fitness
for purpose or correspondence with description unless
there is in close proximity to the statement another clear
and conspicuous statement to the effect that the statut-
ory rights of the consumer are not affected. Article 5 is
similar to Art 4 except that it applies, although there is
no direct consumer transaction between the business
supplier and the consumer, where the supplier intended
or reasonably expected his goods to become the subject
of a subsequent consumer transaction.405