Fair Trading

The aim of fair trading is to ensure truthfulness of trade and prevent consumers being misled during contractual negotiations for goods and services. Such legislation includes the Enterprise Act 2002 and the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008. 

Improving Consumer Transparency

The Government published their response to the ‘improving consumer transparency’ on 24 January. The key proposals from Government, having considered the responses, are below.

The Government proposes to make various amendments to the Price Marking Order and associated guidance to tackle the following:

Government will explore further options on how there can be better use of consistent measures for the unit pricing of products.

Introduce clear legibility criteria for instore price labels.

Define which types of promotional or loyalty scheme offers should be included within the scope of the Price Marking Order.

Make provision for the Deposit Return Scheme so the cost of the deposit is displayed separately on price labels (working with Defra and Scottish and Welsh Governments.

To access the full document go to Gov.uk. 

Competition and Markets Authority Report

On the 20 July 2023, the CMA published a report on pricing within retail premises. You can access the full report here:  https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/unit-pricing

The focus of the review was primarily on the unit pricing practices of 11 nationwide supermarkets but it also considered the unit pricing practices of seven nationwide variety store retailers that sell general merchandise such as hardware, toys, furniture and seasonal goods alongside a relatively small selection of groceries.

The review found problems in the following areas:-

• missing or incorrectly calculated unit pricing information
• incorrect units of measurement
• different unit metrics being used for the same type of product
• retailers taking different approaches to displaying unit prices for products on promotion both in-store and online, with some retailers not displaying unit prices for discounted products at all;
• examples of unit prices in-store, particularly among the variety stores, which we consider are difficult to read;
• certain pages on some retailers’ websites not providing a unit price alongside a selling price until individual items were selected.

Many problems were similar to the issues identified in the 2015 Groceries super-complaint. At that time, the CMA made recommendations to the UK government to review and reform the Price Marking Order 2004 (PMO). Ambiguities in the PMO continue to be problematic. Compliance with the PMO was worse amongst some of the variety store retailers, compared to the supermarkets.

Pricing Survey

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has now reviewed the way a range of grocery retailers displayed their prices in-store to assess whether they were clear, accurate and matched the price people were charged at the till.

The review looked at the price marking practices of 139 grocery stores in England and Wales, including supermarket chains, symbol convenience stores (small, independent retailers that operate under a symbol brand name), variety stores and independent food stores.

The CMA conducted on-site inspections and looked at a sample of products – such as fresh fruit and vegetables and products on promotion. During inspections at some stores, the CMA found examples where the retailer was displaying inaccurate prices or failed to display prices at all for certain products. Failing to provide clear and accurate pricing information for products on sale is a breach of consumer law.

Overall, the majority of issues were found at independent food stores and symbol convenience stores. The most common types of issues seen were missing prices, conflicting prices (instances where prices indicated on products conflicted with those shown on shelf edge labels) and prices not being displayed sufficiently close to products.

There were also issues with prices not being clearly legible, the selling price being obscured, and multibuy promotion labels that didn’t specify the price of the items individually.

The percentage of pricing errors found at each type of store were:

Supermarkets: 4.2%
Symbol convenience stores: 14.4%
Variety stores: 5.6%
Independent food stores: 7.8%
Overall, 60% of the errors resulted in a higher price being charged at the till. Further breakdowns by store type can be found in the report. For further detail go to CMA. To access a Poster (pdf 2.6 mb)

For more detailed guidance contained on the various legislative provisions go to the following links:

• Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008
• Pricing
• Ban on Excessive Charges for Use of Debit and Credit Cards
• Counterfeit Goods
• Hallmarking
• Essential Packaging Requirements
• Energy Labelling of Household Products
• Energy Performance Certificates
• Labelling of Textile Products
• Footwear Labelling
• Redress schemes for Letting Agents 

Copies of the legislation can be accessed through legislation.gov.uk.

Please note that this information has no legal force and is not an authoritative interpretation of the law, which is a matter for the Courts. It is intended to help business to understand in general terms, the main features of the legislation. The information is not a substitute for the legislation and you should refer to the text of the legislation for a full statement of legal requirements and obligations. Where appropriate, you should seek your own independent legal advice.

Newsletter

The Trading Standards service with the aim of providing updates on our work, produces a newsletter twice a year. To access a copy of our newsletter go to High Standard (pdf 783 kb).

Contact

Trading Standards service, Directorate of City Operations, Neighbourhoods and Regulatory Services, Civic Centre, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 8QH. Email: tradingstandards@newcastle.gov.uk