Trade Descriptions Act 1968

Prohibition of false trade descriptions

Prohibition of false trade descriptions.

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• (2) Sections 2 to 4 shall have effect for the interpretation of expressions used in this Act

Trade description.

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• (1) A trade description is an indication, direct or indirect, and by whatever means given, of any of the following matters with respect to any goods or parts of goods, that is to say—

• (a) quantity, size or gauge;

• (b) method of manufacture, production, processing or reconditioning;

• (c) composition;

• (d) fitness for purpose, strength, performance, behaviour or accuracy;

• (e) any physical characteristics not included in the preceding paragraphs;

• (f) testing by any person and results thereof;

• (g) approval by any person or conformity with a type approved by any person;

• (h) place or date of manufacture, production, processing or reconditioning;

• (i) person by whom manufactured, produced, processed or reconditioned;

• (j) other history, including previous ownership or use.

• (2) The matters specified in subsection (1) of this section shall be taken—

• (a) in relation to any animal, to include sex, breed or cross, fertility and soundness;

• (b) in relation to any semen, to include the identity and characteristics of the animal from which it was taken and measure of dilution.

• (3) In this section “quantity” includes length, width, height, area, volume, capacity, weight and number.

• (4) Notwithstanding anything in the preceding provisions of this section, the following shall be deemed not to be trade descriptions, that is to say, any description or mark applied in pursuance of—

• (a) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

• (b) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

• (c) the Plant Varieties and Seeds Act 1964;

• (d) the Agriculture and Horticulture Act 1964 or any Community grading rules within the meaning of Part III of that Act;

• (e) the Seeds Act (Northern Ireland) 1965;

• (f) the Horticulture Act (Northern Ireland) 1966;

• (g) The Consumer Protection Act 1987;

• (h) the Plant Varieties Act 1997;

any statement made in respect of, or mark applied to, any material in pursuance of Part IV of the Agriculture Act 1970, any name or expression to which a meaning has been assigned under section 70 of that Act when applied to any material in the circumstances specified in that section . . . any mark prescribed by a system of classification compiled under section 5 of the Agriculture Act 1967 and any designation, mark or description applied in pursuance of a scheme brought into force under section 6(1) or an order made under section 25(1) of the Agriculture Act 1970

• (5) Notwithstanding anything in the preceding provisions of this section,

• (a) where provision is made under the Food Safety Act 1990 or the Food Safety (Northern Ireland) Order 1991or the Consumer Protection Act 1987 prohibiting the application of a description except to goods in the case of which the requirements specified in that provision are complied with, that description, when applied to such goods, shall be deemed not to be a trade description.

• (b) where by virtue of any provision of Chapter 1 of Part 13 of the Human Medicines Regulations 2012 anything which, in accordance with this Act, constitutes the application of a trade description to goods is subject to any requirements or restrictions imposed by that provision, any particular description specified in that provision, when applied to goods in circumstances to which those requirements or restrictions are applicable, shall be deemed not to be a trade description.

• (c) where any description of a veterinary medicinal product is required to be applied to the product by an authorisation for the product granted under the Veterinary Medicines Regulations 2006, that description, when applied to the product, shall be deemed not to be a trade description.

False trade description.

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• (1) A false trade description is a trade description which is false to a material degree.

• (2) A trade description which, though not false, is misleading, that is to say, likely to be taken for such an indication of any of the matters specified in section 2 of this Act as would be false to a material degree, shall be deemed to be a false trade description.

• (3) Anything which, though not a trade description, is likely to be taken for an indication of any of those matters and, as such an indication, would be false to a material degree, shall be deemed to be a false trade description.

• (4) A false indication, or anything likely to be taken as an indication which would be false, that any goods comply with a standard specified or recognised by any person or implied by the approval of any person shall be deemed to be a false trade description, if there is no such person or no standard so specified, recognised or implied.

Applying a trade description to goods.

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• (1) A person applies a trade description to goods if he—

• (a) affixes or annexes it to or in any manner marks it on or incorporates it with—

• (i) the goods themselves, or

• (ii) anything in, on or with which the goods are supplied; or

• (b) places the goods in, on or with anything which the trade description has been affixed or annexed to, marked on or incorporated with, or places any such thing with the goods; or

• (c) uses the trade description in any manner likely to be taken as referring to the goods.

• (2) An oral statement may amount to the use of a trade description.

• (3) Where goods are supplied in pursuance of a request in which a trade description is used and the circumstances are such as to make it reasonable to infer that the goods are supplied as goods corresponding to that trade description, the person supplying the goods shall be deemed to have applied that trade description to the goods.

Trade descriptions used in advertisements.

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Offer to supply.

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Power to define terms and to require display, etc. of information

Definition orders.

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Marking orders.

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Information etc. to be given in advertisements.

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Provisions supplementary to sections 8 and 9.

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Misstatements other than false trade descriptions

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False representations as to royal approval or award, etc.

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• (1) If any person, in the course of any trade or business, gives, by whatever means, any false indication, direct or indirect, that any goods or services supplied by him or any methods adopted by him are or are of a kind supplied to or approved by Her Majesty or any member of the Royal Family, he shall, subject to the provisions of this Act, be guilty of an offence.

• (2) If any person, in the course of any trade or business, uses, without the authority of Her Majesty, any device or emblem signifying the Queen’s Award to Industry or anything so nearly resembling such a device or emblem as to be likely to deceive, he shall, subject to the provisions of this Act, be guilty of an offence.

• (3) A person shall not be guilty of an offence under subsection (1) or (2) by reason of doing anything that is a commercial practice unless the commercial practice is unfair.

In this subsection “commercial practice” has the same meaning as in Chapter 1 of Part 4 of the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 and, for the purposes of this section, a commercial practice is unfair if it would be unfair for the purposes of that Chapter.

False representations as to supply of goods or services.

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False or misleading statements as to services etc.

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Orders defining terms for purposes of section 14.

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Prohibition of importation of certain goods

Prohibition of importation of goods bearing false indication of origin.

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Where a false trade description is applied to any goods outside the United Kingdom and the false indication, or one of the false indications, given, or likely to be taken as given, thereby is an indication of the place of manufacture, production, processing or reconditioning of the goods or any part thereof, the goods shall not be imported into the United Kingdom.

Restriction on importation of goods bearing infringing trade marks.

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In the Trade Marks Act 1938 the following section shall be inserted after section 64:—

(64A) (1) The person who is registered as the proprietor or registered user of a trade mark in respect of any goods may give notice in writing to the Commissioners of Customs and Excise (in this section referred to as the Commissioners)— (a) that he is the proprietor or registered user of that trade mark, and (b) that such goods bearing the trade mark are expected to arrive in the United Kingdom at a time and place and by a consignment specified in the notice, and (c) that the use within the United Kingdom of the trade mark in relation to the goods would infringe the proprietor’s exclusive right to that use, and (d) that he requests the Commissioners to treat the goods as prohibited goods. (2) Where a notice has been given under this section in respect of any goods bearing a trade mark and has not been withdrawn and the requirements of any regulations made under this section are complied with, then, subject to the following provisions of this section, the importation into the United Kingdom of the goods shall, if the condition of paragraph (c) of the preceding subsection is satisfied, be deemed to be prohibited unless the importation is for private and domestic use of the person importing the goods. (3) The Commissioners may make regulations prescribing the form in which notices are to be given under this section, and requiring a person giving such a notice, either at the time of giving the notice or at the time when the goods in question are imported, or at both those times, to furnish the Commissioners with such evidence, and to comply with such other conditions (if any), as may be specified in the regulations, and any such regulations may include such incidental and supplementary provisions as the Commissioners consider expedient for the purposes of this section. (4) Without prejudice to the generality of the preceding subsection, regulations made under that subsection may include provision for requiring a person who has given a notice under subsection (1) of this section, or a notice purporting to be a notice under that subsection,— (a) to pay such fees in respect of the notice as may be prescribed by the regulations; (b) to give to the Commissioners such sercurity as may be so prescribed, in respect of any liability or expense which they may incur in consequence of the detention of any goods to which the notice relates, or in consequence of any thing done in relation to goods so detained; (c) whether any such security is given or not, to keep the Commissioners indemnified against any such liability or expense as is mentioned in the preceding paragraph. (5) For the purposes of section 11 of the Customs and Excise Act 1952 (which relates to the disposal of duties) any fees paid in pursuance of regulations made under this section shall be treated as money collected on account of customs. (6) Regulations made under subsection (3) of this section shall be made by statutory instrument, which shall be subject to annulment in pursuance of a resolution of either House of Parliament.

Provisions as to offences

Penalty for offences.

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A person guilty of an offence under this Act for which no other penalty is specified shall be liable—

• (a) on summary conviction, to a fine not exceeding four hundred pounds; and

• (b) on conviction on indictment, to a fine or imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years or both.

Time limit for prosecutions.

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• (1) No prosecution for an offence under this Act shall be commenced after the expiration of three years from the commission of the offence or one year from its discovery by the prosecutor, whichever is the earlier.

• (2) Notwithstanding anything in section 127(1) of the Magistrates’ Courts Act 1980, a magistrates’ court may try an information for an offence under this Act if the information was laid at any time within twelve months from the commission of the offence.

• (3) Notwithstanding anything in section 23 of the Summary Jurisdiction (Scotland) Act 1954 (limitation of time for proceedings in statutory offences) summary proceedings in Scotland for an offence under this section may be commenced at any time within twelve months from the time when the offence was committed, and subsection (2) of the said section 23 shall apply for the purposes of this subsection as it applies for the purposes of that section.

• (4) Subsections (2) and (3) of this section do not apply where—

• (a) the offence was committed by the making of an oral statement; or

• (b) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

• (c) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Offences by corporations.

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• (1) Where an offence under this Act which has been committed by a body corporate is proved to have been committed with the consent and connivance of, or to be attributable to any neglect on the part of, any director, manager, secretary or other similar officer of the body corporate, or any person who was purporting to act in any such capacity, he as well as the body corporate shall be guilty of that offence and shall be liable to be proceeded against and punished accordingly.

• (2) In this section “director”, in relation to any body corporate established by or under any enactment for the purpose of carrying on under national ownership any industry or part of an industry or undertaking, being a body corporate whose affairs are managed by the members thereof, means a member of that body corporate.

Accessories to offences committed abroad.

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• (2) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

• (3) Any person who, in the United Kingdom, assists in or induces the commission outside the United Kingdom of an act which, if committed in the United Kingdom, would be an offence under section 12 of this Act shall be guilty of an offence.

Restrictions on institution of proceedings and admission of evidence.

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Offences due to fault of other person.

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Where the commission by any person of an offence under this Act is due to the act or default of some other person that other person shall be guilty of the offence, and a person may be charged with and convicted of the offence by virtue of this section whether or not proceedings are taken against the first-mentioned person.

Defences

Defence of mistake, accident, etc.

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• (1) In any proceedings for an offence under this Act it shall, subject to subsection (2) of this section, be a defence for the person charged to prove—

• (a) that the commission of the offence was due to a mistake or to reliance on information supplied to him or to the act or default of another person, an accident or some other cause beyond his control; and

• (b) that he took all reasonable precautions and exercised all due diligence to avoid the commission of such an offence by himself or any person under his control.

• (2) If in any case the defence provided by the last foregoing subsection involves the allegation that the commission of the offence was due to the act or default of another person or to reliance on information supplied by another person, the person charged shall not, without leave of the court, be entitled to rely on that defence unless, within a period ending seven clear days before the hearing, he has served on the prosecutor a notice in writing giving such information identifying or assisting in the identification of that other person as was then in his possession.

• (3) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Innocent publication of advertisement.

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In proceedings for an offence under this Act committed by the publication of an advertisement it shall be a defence for the person charged to prove that he is a person whose business it is to publish or arrange for the publication of advertisements and that he received the advertisement for publication in the ordinary course of business and did not know and had no reason to suspect that its publication would amount to an offence under this Act.

Enforcement

Enforcing authorities.

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• (1) It shall be the duty of every local weights and measures authority as defined in section 69(3) of the Weights and Measures Act 1985to enforce within their area the provisions of this Act and of any order made under this Act; . . .

• (1A) For the investigatory powers available to a local weights and measures authority for the purposes of the duty in subsection (1), see Schedule 5 to the Consumer Rights Act 2015.

• (2) Every local weights and measures authority shall, whenever the Board of Trade so direct, make to the Board a report on the exercise of their functions under this Act in such form and containing such particulars as the Board may direct.

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• (5) Nothing in this section shall be taken as authorising a local weights and measures authority in Scotland to institute proceedings for an offence.

Power to make test purchases.

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Power to enter premises and inspect and seize goods and documents.

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