ABSTRACT
The title ‘fair trading’ could well encompass a number of areas of English legislation, including the Fair Trading Act 1973 itself, and Part 3 of the Consumer Protection Act 1987. The former of the two is addressed towards the end of this chapter, whilst the latter can be found within Chapter 4 in the discussion of product liability. What this chapter aims to deal with are two further areas of legislation, the Weights and Measures Act 1985 1 and the Trade Descriptions Act 1968 2 . Both incur criminal liability, both are enforced by Inspectors from local government Consumer Protection or Trading Standards Departments, and all cases which are brought under these Acts are prosecuted in the Magistrates Court, although defendants have the right to have their case heard before a jury in the Crown Court. Appeals may be heard by the Queen's Bench Division of the High Court, but only on points of law, by way of case stated. Being areas which invoke criminal prosecutions, they do not confer any rights to bring civil actions in order to obtain redress. Although as previously mentioned in Chapter 1, criminal courts do have the power to order guilty parties to pay compensation to their victims.
