A better deal for consumers

Citation

Howells, G. (2009), "A better deal for consumers", International Journal of Law and Management, Vol. 51 No. 6. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijlma.2009.01051faa.001

A better deal for consumers

Article Type: Editorial From: International Journal of Law and Management, Volume 51, Issue 6

Peter Mandelson resigned as Trade Secretary just before the previous consumer White Paper was produced (Department of Trade and Industry, 1999). That policy document emphasised the role informed consumers could play in making the UK economy more competitive. He is now back in charge of consumer affairs in time for the latest White Paper, A Better Deal for Consumers (Department of Business Innovation and Skills, 2009), which seeks in changed circumstances to protect consumers from the effects of the recession and set the mechanisms in place for improving protection in the future.

There are four themes to the White Paper – providing real help to vulnerable consumers, a new approach to consumer credit, empowering consumers through better enforcement and information and modernising consumer laws. This editorial will concentrate on one aspect that has been of particular concern to business i.e. collective redress.

This has been high on the agenda because of the EU Commission (2008) Green Paper and the Civil Justice Council’s work in this area[1]. The Government responded to the Civil Justice Council’s proposals by rejecting a general collective action and preferring a sector by sector approach (Ministry of Justice, 2009). The White Paper outlines the contours of the approach favoured in the consumer field.

The lack of compensation delivered to consumers by the reguatory regime is noted and it is hoped this will be changed by businesses either voluntarily offering compensation or regulators taking up the new powers offered to them under the Regulatory, Enforcement and Sanctions Act 2008 (Department for Business Innovation and Skills, 2009, at 48-9). One can emphasise with the preference in an ideal world for regulatory compliance and voluntary redress over collective redress actions, but must question whether on the ground enforcement officers will ever have enough resources to deliver this.

The Government seeks to back this approach up by appointing a Consumer Advocate housed within Consumer Focus (Department for Business Innovation and Skills, 2009, at 60-65). In addition to co-ordinating education and information campaigns the Consumer Advocate will have a potentially important role in litigation. The Consumer Advocate will have the power to take legal actions on behalf of a group of consumers following a breach of consumer protection law if other routes for obtaining compensation have been tried or judged inappropriate:

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  the power to distribute compensation to UK consumers from ill-gotten funds seized by overseas enforcement agencies; and

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  the power to tackle unfairness in consumer credit agreements.

This is an interesting initiative and much attention will be on how effectively the Consumer Advocate takes advantage of these new and innovative powers, which are modelled on the Scandinavian Ombudsman institution.

See, Civil Justice Council (2008) and an earlier research paper by Mulheron (2008).

Geraint Howells