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Unfair Commercial Practices Directive

The Directive:

• harmonises unfair trading laws in all EU Member States;

• introduces a general prohibition on traders not to treat consumers unfairly. This prohibition is intended to act as safety-net consumer protection legislation.

In particular, the Directive obliges businesses not to mislead consumers through acts or omissions; or subject them to aggressive commercial practices such as high pressure selling techniques. The Directive also provides additional protections for vulnerable consumers who are often the target of unscrupulous traders.

The Directive’s wide scope – it applies to all business sectors – and flexible provisions means that it will plug gaps in existing EU and UK consumer protection legislation; and set standards against which new practices will automatically be judged.

Implementation of this Directive should help ensure the UK has a consumer regime amongst the level of the best in the world.

The Directive’s broad scope means that it overlaps with with many existing laws. In addition, because the UCPD is a maximum harmonisation Directive (ie setting out the maximum level of restriction permissible in respect of unfair commercial practices which harm consumers’ economic interests) a supplementary objective in transposing the Directive was to achieve, where possible, some regulatory simplification. The Consumer Protection from Unfair trading Regulations repeal provisions in a number of overlapping laws, including most of the Trade Descriptions Act 1968 and Part 3 of the Consumer Protection Act 1987 (misleading price indications).

Please have a look at our "Transposition" and "Green Paper" pages for latest news and further details and history.

View the full text of The Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008 on the Office of Public Sector Information (OPSI) website.