Trades Description Act 1987

The Trade Descriptions Act was created in 1968 and had the purpose of protecting consumers when purchasing goods or services. All traders within the UK have a duty to abide by the regulations stipulated within the Act. Failure to do so can result in prosecution for the traders involved. As well as regular checks by the different Trading Standards organisations, consumers also have the legal right to report any traders that are found to be breaching the regulations stated in the Act. The Act from 1968 states that traders must not apply false descriptions, should not offer to supply goods or services that have had a false description applied and traders should not make false statements about the goods they are selling.

In 1987 the Act was considered in Parliament and the Consumer Protection Act was created to stand along with this. This is a further Act that provides protection to consumers when purchasing goods or services.