UK Offence Report

Offences relating to unfair commercial practices

regulation 9 of The Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008

The provision has been revoked and no saving provision preserving liability for earlier conduct was found.

What the provision says

9 A trader is guilty of an offence if he engages in

a commercial practice which is

a misleading action under regulation

5 otherwise than by reason of the commercial practice satisfying the condition in regulation 5(3)(b).

Text as made, from legislation.gov.uk. © Crown copyright, reused under the Open Government Licence v3.0. This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.

Who it binds, and what has to be proved

Binds
a person
Conduct
breaching the provision
Fault element
Strict liability
Burden of proof
No statutory defence — prosecution proves everything

The prosecution must prove that the conduct happened. This is a strict liability offence as drafted: the provision uses no word of intention, knowledge, recklessness or negligence, so there is no need to show that a person meant to do it, knew about it, or was careless.

Intention, knowledge and carelessness are irrelevant to guilt. They may still matter a great deal to sentence.

The provision states no defence, so the prosecution bears the burden on every element of the offence.

Classifier’s reasoning: no word of intention, knowledge, recklessness or negligence in the offence or its provision.

What would breach regulation 9?

These are illustrations, not law. They are generated from the provision’s own words to show the shape of the offence. Whether any particular conduct is caught depends on the full text, on any amendment since, and on the facts.

  1. On these words an offence is committed where a person engages in a commercial practice which is a misleading action under regulation 5 otherwise than by reason of the commercial practice satisfying the condition in regulation 5(3)(b).
  2. Doing what the provision prohibits, or failing to do what it requires under the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008.

Penalty

Mode of trial
Not determined
Maximum fine
Not determined
Maximum prison (summary)
Not determined

no penalty is stated in this instrument; it may be in the enabling Act, or in a general penalties provision this pass did not connect to the offence.

No penalty was determined from this instrument. It may be in the enabling Act, or in a general penalties provision this pass did not connect to the offence. Absence of a figure here is not evidence that the offence carries no penalty.

Sentencing

Offences of this kind are usually sentenced under the guidelines below. This is a mapping by subject, not a finding about this provision, and the links go to a search of the Sentencing Council’s own site.

Prosecution figures

The Ministry of Justice records offences under this instrument against offence code 8414 — 08414 - Knowingly or recklessly engaging in commercial practice contravening R.3(3)(a) distorting behaviour of average consumer (Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008). That code may cover several provisions of the instrument, so a count against it is not a count of prosecutions under this provision alone.

No published per-offence figure was found for this provision. Offences created by statutory instrument very largely do not have their own code in the MoJ’s Outcomes by Offence data tool. Absence of a figure is not evidence that the offence is unused.

Status and lifecycle

Current status
Revoked
Revoked by
Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024
Made
8 May 2008
In force from
26 May 2008
Extent
Not stated

How this was established: the instrument was revoked by a later instrument found in this corpus.

What the instrument is for

(This note is not part of the Regulations) — the explanatory note published with the instrument, © Crown copyright.

These Regulations implement Directive 2005/29/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council concerning unfair business-to-consumer commercial practices (OJ No L 149, 11.6.2005, p22) (“the Directive”). These Regulations also implement article 6.2 of Directive 1999/44/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council on certain aspects of the sale of consumer goods and associated guarantees (OJ No L171, 7.7.1999, p12) (“the Sale of Goods Directive”). Part 2 sets out the prohibition on unfair commercial practices. The prohibition relates to commercial practices that contravene the requirements of professional diligence, misleading actions, misleading omissions, aggressive commercial practices and commercial practices of the type specified in Schedule 1. Part 2 also imposes a prohibition on the promotion of unfair commercial practices by persons responsible for codes of conduct for traders. The prohibitions will be enforceable through the procedure for the enforcement of Community infringements in Part 8 of the Enterprise Act 2002. Part 3 provides that, with limited exceptions, breaches of the prohibition on unfair commercial practices will be criminal offences. It also provides, in relation to the offences, for defences of due diligence and innocent publication of advertisements. Part 4 places a duty to enforce the Regulations on the OFT, local weights and measures authorities and the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Investment in Northern Ireland. These bodies are also given powers to investigate whether there has been a breach of the Regulations including a power to make test purchases and powers to enter premises with or without a warrant. Regulation 26 amends Schedule 13 to the Enterprise Act 2002 so that contravention of the Directive can be enforced under that Act as Community infringements. Regulation 27 inserts section 218A into the Act which provides for traders to substantiate claims where an application is made under the Act in relation to a Community infringement involving a contravention of the Directive. Schedule 2 makes amendments to other enactments in order to ensure that enactments do not provide for requirements or prohibitions on commercial practices which exceed the level permitted by the Directive. The Schedule also makes amendments to accommodate the Directive and these Regulations. In addition the Schedule makes amendments to accommodate Directive 2006/114/EC of the European Parliament and the Council concerning misleading and comparative advertising (OJ No L. 376, 27.12.2006, p21) and the Business Protection from Misleading Marketing Regulations 2008 (S.I. 2008/1276) which implement that Directive. Paragraph 97 of Schedule 2 amends the Sale and Supply of Goods to Consumers Regulations 2002 in order to implement article 6.2 of the Sale of Goods Directive which was implemented by article 4 of the Consumer Transactions (Restrictions on Statements) Order 1976. This Order no longer has effect as a result of the repeal of section 10(2) of the Enterprise Act 2002 in paragraph 69 as a result of which section 22 of the Fair Trading Act 1973, under which the Order was made, is no longer saved. Schedule 3 contains transitional and saving provisions. Schedule 4 contains repeals and revocations. A transposition note and an impact assessment of the effect that this instrument will have on the costs to business and the voluntary sector are available from the BERR website (www.berr.gov.uk). They are also annexed to the Explanatory Memorandum which is available alongside the instrument on the OPSI website (www.opsi.gov.uk). Copies have also been placed in the Libraries of both Houses of Parliament.

Read the full note and every offence in this instrument

What Parliament said

Mentions of this instrument in Hansard. Parliamentary material is reused under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0.

Other offences in the same instrument

How this was identified as an offence

Everything above rests on the judgement that this provision creates a criminal offence, rather than mentioning one. That judgement is made by rule, from the words of the provision, and this is the rule that made it — with a confidence of 0.92.

Basis
the provision says a person is “guilty of an offence”
Confidence
0.92 of 1.00

A provision that states a penalty for an offence created elsewhere can read very like one that creates an offence, and the rules can mistake the one for the other. If the text quoted above sets a penalty for something made an offence by another provision, treat the classification on this page with that in mind, and read the instrument.

Check the source