Government White Paper Sets Out Changes For UK Consumer Law

The UK Government will appoint a Consumer Advocate with powers to sue on behalf of consumers, the rules for selling digital downloads will change and the law of misrepresentation will be simplified, according to plans published on Thursday.

The Government said that it will also publish a Consumer Rights Bill that will go further than a forthcoming EU Directive on consumer rights. Formal consultations on the Bill's elements will be conducted over the period 2010 to 2012.

The plans are outlined in a wide-ranging White Paper written by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS), A Better Deal for Consumers – Delivering Real Help Now and Change for the Future.

E-commerce protection for consumers

From 2010 a single complaints register, called the Enhanced Intelligence System, will be created to serve anyone encountering an online scam, breach of consumer laws or other problems with online transactions. It will form part of current advice service Consumer Direct. The information will be available for use by the police, Trading Standards and the Office of Fair Trading (OFT).

The enforcement powers of these bodies will be reviewed, according to the White Paper, and there may be changes to the UK's anti-hacking law, the Computer Misuse Act.

"For example, the OFT and Trading Standards need to be able to act against online scammers in the UK even if they are targeting consumers overseas and we need to consider whether abuse of personal data should be a breach of consumer law and whether current laws adequately allow enforcers to act against such scammers, for example, in the way they use 'spyware' and 'malware' attached to some commercial websites," says the White Paper.