As a business owner in the UK, you don’t have free rein over what you do. There are a range of laws and regulations that have been put in place to ensure your services are provided at a certain quality, protecting consumers from poor practices as a result.
They have a broad remit, and as a result, you may be wondering whether or not various Trading Standards departments in the UK will be able to prosecute your business. In this article, we explore what measures they’re able to take against businesses, to give you a better idea of what you can expect.
Trading Standards
Trading Standards operate on two different levels.
Location Trading Standards
There are the local Trading Standards, which are hosted within local authorities. They are essentially UK council departments that are there to support businesses and protect consumers, by ensuring businesses act in accordance with the law.
This includes enforcing consumer protection laws, tackling rogue traders, and just generally ensuring that the products and services sold by local businesses are up to scratch.
National Trading Standards
The National Trading Standards team supports and funds local teams, while also working on a broader level to ensure trading standards are upheld.
They provide cross-boundary intelligence-led enforcement projects across both England and Wales, ensuring that products which enter the UK are of a high standard, especially in the context of food, tobacco and vaping.
That being said, their primary remit is focused on redistributing grants and funds to local authorities to carry out this work on the ground.
What a Trading Standards prosecution looks like
Should Trading Standards decide that your business has provided or is providing a product or service that doesn’t meet the acceptable standard set out in law, they can take a number of actions against you. This is what that process will look like.
A complaint is made
In most cases, a Trading Standards prosecution will start with a complaint being made. Someone – a customer, competitor or another investigatory body – will lodge a formal complaint about the quality of the product or service that the business is providing.
Investigation
If Trading Standards believe that there might be a serious breach, they will launch an investigation. During this investigation, officers will aim to assess what breaches have occurred and what criminal offences may have been committed.
They will potentially carry out inspections of the business premises, test the products themselves, carry out interviews under caution of employees at the business, and review business records in depth.
If you need to attend an interview under caution, it’s imperative that you have access to expert legal advice both before and during the interview – anything you say can be used in court as evidence against you, and you have a right to legal advice to minimise the chances that you inadvertently incriminate yourself.
A range of different records, equipment and products may be seized, and then used in a court of law as evidence of any illegal activities.
Prosecution
Should Trading Standards decide that they have sufficient evidence to prove that the business in question committed a criminal offence, they will likely choose to pursue prosecution.
Depending on the circumstances, they may choose to formally charge either individuals working at the business or the business itself. At this stage, it is imperative that you have experienced legal representation, so that you can aim to either build an effective defence or come to an out-of-court settlement that allows you to avoid going to trial.
Potential repercussions
Should the business or individual be found guilty, they can face a number of different repercussions, depending on what criminal offence they are found guilty of. These could include:
- Fines being imposed on the business or responsible individuals – potentially unlimited
- Prison sentences for individuals, if it can be proven that they were personally culpable for the criminal offence
- Confiscation of any financial benefit that the business obtained through trading that was then deemed to have been obtained through illegal trading
- The seizing and potential destruction of any unsafe or illegal goods or items that are discovered during the course of the investigation.
It’s imperative that you have access to expert legal counsel to limit the severity of these potential repercussions. The sooner you or your business is able to start working on a legal defence, the better the outcome will likely be.
What acts might apply?
As an investigatory body, Trading Standards will be looking to see what specific laws have been broken by the businesses that they’re investigating. Below are a few potential acts that could be relevant.
Digital Markets, Competition and Consumer Act 2024
The Digital Markets, Competition and Consumer Act 2024 provided a landmark overhaul of general consumer protections against business practices. Among other things, it bans the use of hidden fees, fake reviews, and subscription traps that lead consumers into difficult-to-cancel subscriptions.
The Consumer Rights Act 2015
The Consumer Rights Act 2015 ensures that consumers have a right to goods that are of a satisfactory quality, and that are fit for their intended use. It also ensures that consumers have a right to remedial action should this not be the case, such as repairs, replacements or full refunds.
The Weights and Measures Act 1985
The Weights and Measures Act 1985 ensures the use of approved units and measurements in order to ensure consumers receive fair, verifiable products. It is designed specifically to reduce the occurrence of fraud and other forms of corporate misrepresentation, but contraventions of the act can result in action being taken even if fraud has not yet occurred.
Trading Standards absolutely can and will prosecute you and your business if they find that you are guilty of a criminal offence. Should you be reported and find that you are currently under investigation, it’s imperative that you start to put together a legal team as soon as possible. It’s not only your business that could suffer – you could also end up facing a custodial sentence, should you be deemed personally liable as well.
For further advice, call our team now on 0161 234 0020 (Manchester) /0203 053 8625 (London) / 07956 555979 (24 hour), or you can also contact our team at Ashcott Solicitors via our contact form. We will respond to your message as soon as possible.
