offending trader. Some of the more important criminal
offences in relation to traders were explored in Chap-
ter 12.
Administrative controls
An alternative to using the civil or criminal law as a
means of consumer protection is to place responsibility
for the regulation of traders in the hands of an adminis-
trative body which is given powers to deal with unfair
trade practices. The advantages of administrative con-
trols compared to legal controls are as follows:
1 Individual consumers are often ignorant of their
rights or reluctant to enforce them in the courts. The
creation of administrative controls allows action to be
taken on behalf of all consumers.
2 Depending on the powers vested in the administrat-
ive agency, it may be able to act more quickly than
Parliament to deal with new forms of unfair trading.
3 The administrative agency may be able to achieve the
desired effect by persuasion rather than using the
threat of legal action, and it may be able to use its
influence to raise standards above the minimum
acceptable by encouraging self-regulation.
4 Dishonest traders may not be deterred by the threat
of legal action. Some forms of control, such as licens-
ing, may stop undesirable traders from operating in
the market.
The main forms of administrative control are to be
found in the Enterprise Act 2002.
Administrative controls under the
Enterprise Act 2002 (EA 2002)
1 Super-complaints. The EA 2002 introduces a new
procedure to allow certain designated consumer bodies
to make super-complaints to the OFT and other
specified regulators where ‘any feature or combination
of features of a market in the UK for goods or services
is or appears to be significantly harming the interests
of consumers’. Features of a market which could give
rise to a complaint are the structure of the market, the
conduct of those supplying or acquiring goods and ser-
vices in the market and the conduct of any customers.
The market can be regional, national or international
although the OFT and regulators can only act in the UK.
The OFT and other regulators have up to 90 days to
respond to a super-complaint. The response must state
whether action is to be taken and, if so, what is pro-
posed. Any of the powers of the OFT or regulators may
be used. In the case of the OFT, actions could include:■bringing enforcement action under either competition
or consumer regulation powers;
■launching a market study;
■making a market investigation reference to the Com-
petition Commission (CC) for further investigation;
■making recommendations for changes in legislation.Super-complaints can be made to the OFT and the
following regulators: Civil Aviation Authority (CAA),
Office of Gas and Energy Markets (OFGEM), Office
of Communications (OFCOM), Northern Ireland Auth-
orityfor Energy Regulation (OFREG-NI), Office of the
Rail Regulator (ORR) and the Office of Water Services
(OFWAT). The following have been granted designated
consumer body status: The Consumers’ Association;
National Consumer Council (now known as Consumer
Focus); Citizens’ Advice; Consumer Council for Water
(formerly known as Watervoice); CAMRA and General
Consumer Council of Northern Ireland. The OFT has
received super-complaints in relation to private den-
tistry, door-step selling, mail consolidation, care homes,
home collected credit, Northern Ireland banking, credit
card interest calculation methods, payment protection
insurance and the Scottish legal profession.2 Enforcement orders (Part 8 of EA 2002). Part 8 of
the EA 2002 introduces a new procedure for the enforce-
ment of specified consumer legislation by means of court
orders, known as enforcement orders, taken against
businesses in breach of the legislation which harms the
collective interests of consumers. This new procedure
replaces Part III of the Fair Trading Act 1973 and the
Stop Now Orders (EC Directive) Regulations 2001,
which had been implemented by the 1998 EC Directive
on injunctions for the protection of consumers’ interests
(the ‘Injunctions Directive’).
Enforcement orders can be obtained for two types of
infringement:■Community infringements – these are breaches of UK
laws which give effect to specific EC Directives, e.g.
Package Travel, Package Holidays and Package Tours
Regulations 1992 and Unfair Terms in Consumer Con-
tracts Regulations 1999.Part 3Business transactions