The DTI has held two public consultations on the Unfair Commercial Practices Directive. The most recent, in December 2005, received 69 formal responses including responses from: consumer bodies, business and business organisations, trading standards departments, regulators, professional institutions and academics. A summary of these is on the Department’s website. The DTI also held a number of workshops before and during the consultation process with consumer groups, enforcers and business representatives. It has also held numerous public presentations. In addition, the Department recently received eight letters from Members of Parliament and another from a local government central body that advises and supports local authority regulatory services.
Implementation of the directive is overseen by a project board that includes representatives from the enforcement community. It is also informed by a stakeholder board consisting of representatives from business and consumer groups and enforcement authorities.
In light of comments received, the Government are still considering how best to implement the directive. Yet implementation offers an opportunity to enhance the powers available to enforcement authorities. Options include: retaining existing criminal offences and investigative powers; and extending these to the new protections contained in the directive. Such powers might also, for the first time, be made available to a national consumer protection body, the Office of Fair Trading. The Government will clarify their intentions when they publish the response to the consultation paper.