Recently in Consumer Law Category

Prime Minister David Cameron has announced a new set of laws to protect those who shop online, with plans to crack down on rogue traders, force replacements for faulty goods and to ensure poor-quality home repairs are re-done, reports The Daily Mail.

The Government has announced plans to provide additional online legal protection for consumers, after ministers acknowledged that too many people were unaware of their rights when shopping online.

The coalition will use next week's Queen's speech, which formally marks the beginning of the next parliamentary session, to announce a new Bill of Rights for consumers.

The Law Commissions of England and Scotland have called for courts both north and south of the border to be given new powers to scrutinise the fairness of pricing for consumers, reports the BBC.

In a report published yesterday, the Law Commission and its counterpart, the Scottish Law Commission, called on Government to empower courts so that they can intervene when companies abuse their market position.

The report calls for legal reform to achieve this goal.

The Prime Minister's ambiguous defence of a previous commitment on minimum alcohol-pricing has left commentators in no doubt that the policy is to be dropped.

The U-turn by the Government has dismayed doctors who fear that harmful drinking may continue unchecked, reports The Independent.

Last year David Cameron backed a policy for a minimum unit-price for alcohol, as he bid to tackle the UK's problem with binge drinking head on. The policy would mean that all alcoholic drinks would be sold at a price set by Government, thought to be around 40p or 50p per unit.

The Office of Fair Trading has announced a three-month deadline for payday loan companies to clear up their operations before the Government introduces new laws to regulate the advertising of cheap finance, reports The Telegraph and Sky News.

The announcement has come in the wake of a three-month investigation into the practice of short-term loans that has revealed severe malpractice by loan companies.

The findings have prompted the Office of Fair Trading to announce the three-month period to allow companies to reform, before implementing tough new rules, including greater supervision by regulators and restrictions on advertising.

The BBC has uncovered a loophole in the law that allows meat suppliers from around Europe to pass off low-quality meat that would otherwise be banned in UK sausages.

The BBC's investigation has uncovered emails that suggest that European meat suppliers are using different names to sell on mechanically recovered meat residues that would otherwise be prevented from inclusion as 'meat' in food products.

Desinewed meat or DSM was introduced into the UK 20 years ago and involves removing small quantities of meat and sinew from the carcasses of butchered animals using low-pressure water. The result is a form of fine mince used in processed foods.

A group of leading doctors have urged the Government to take decisive action against the obesity epidemic by introducing new laws to regulate the advertising of fizzy drinks and junk food, reports the BBC.

The Academy of Medical Royal Colleges, a body that represents all the Royal Colleges in medicine and can claim to speak for almost all UK doctors, has urged the Government to take action against what it calls the 'huge crisis' of obesity.

Obesity affects over a quarter of adults in the UK and is defined by having a body mass index, or BMI, above 30. BMI is calculated by dividing a persons' weight in kilograms by their height in metres squared. Obesity is linked to a huge range of health problems in later life including cancer, heart disease, strokes, diabetes and arthritis.

A French motorist is to sue manufacturer Renault after his Laguna vehicle became jammed with the accelerator depressed, forcing him to drive more than 100 miles into Belgium being chased by a fleet of gendarmerie.

Franck Lecerf, 36, was driving to the supermarket in his home town of Pont-de-Metz in a Renault Laguna that has been specially adapted for his disability, when the accelerator jammed at around 60mph. In a frightening moment, Mr Lecerf realised that every time he attempted to brake the car simply gained more speed.

Fortunately for Mr Lecerf he was on a dual carriageway when the accelerator jammed, allowing him to maintain his speed and transfer to the coastal motorway towards Dunkirk. He travelled much of the way close to the car's top speed of 125mph.

A Romanian law banning the use of horses on public roads could be to blame for the outbreak of horsemeat contamination of beef products affecting the UK and France, reports The Independent.

The horsemeat scandal, which until this weekend appeared to be confined to the UK and Ireland, has now spread across the channel to France and also in Sweden.

Findus, the food producer at the centre of the latest part of the scandal, withdrew thousands of products from French shelves over the weekend after it was revealed that its frozen 'beef lasagna' product may contain up to 100% horsemeat.

The UK Food Standards Agency is weighing up the possibility of launching legal action against one of Europe's largest food producers after it emerged that some of its beef products contained horse DNA.

Two of ABP Food Groups subsidiaries, Silvercrest Foods and Dalepak Hambleton, were this week found to have been supplying beef burgers to the UK's largest supermarket chain, Tesco, which contained significant quantities of horse meat. In one case a burger was found to be 29% horse meat.

A third supplier, Liffey Meats, was also found to be supplying beef products containing horse meat.

Jody Scheckter, a former Formula One World Champion, has revealed that he is taking legal action after the alcohol industry watchdog ordered him to stop selling his 'Laverstoke Park Farm' ale as the labelling breaches rules on appealing to children.

Mr Scheckter owns and runs the Laverstoke Park Farm in Hampshire and produces an organic ale carrying the image of the farmer 'Mr Laverstoke'.

The image is a child's drawing of the farmer with a simple green grass and blue sky behind.

An official website set up by the London Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games (LOCOG) to sell off Olympic memorabilia faces legal action from disgruntled fans after it emerged that some of the items sold on the site do not exist.

Innovative Sports Limited, the company contracted by LOCOG to run the auction of memorabilia after the games, is believed not to be in possession of several items of memorabilia that it have since sold on their site for hundreds and, in some cases, thousands of pounds.

Damian Kelly claims that he spent £7,000 on memorabilia from the games, including the results sheets of Michael Phelps' swimming events. So far none of the items have arrived and it is thought the company has admitted that it do not yet have the sheets.

The Daily Telegraph has revealed how government plans to set a minimum price for a unit of alcohol could spell the end for popular meal deals that offer diners the chance to buy a supermarket 'dinner for two' with wine for £10 or less.

The news comes as the Prime Minister plans to reveal a consultation on the proposal to introduce a minimum alcohol price, as well as new laws that will effectively impose a limitation on retailers' ability to offer extremely cheap 'bulk buy' deals on alcohol, as a loss-leader in order to entice shoppers in to buy other more profitable goods.

The proposals come hot on the heels of the Scottish legislature, which is currently in the process of implementing its own minimum alcohol-pricing at 50p per unit.

The Independent newspaper has conducted an investigation into the activities of various payday loan companies, discovering that almost two thirds of those approached have no valid consumer credit licence and are therefore trading illegally.

Under the Consumer Credit Act 1974, businesses that lend money need to have a 'Category A' consumer credit business licence.

Company licences are available from the Office of Fair Trading, the body that regulates the industry, investigates unfair practices and has the power to revoke licences if its rules on responsible lending are broken.

Liberal Democrat MP and former care services minister Paul Burstow has spoken out against negligent care providers, saying that in future they should face corporate legal sanctions if they fail in their duty of care to residents.

Mr Burstow was speaking on BBC Radio 4's Today programme yesterday morning after it was revealed that 19 of 51 former patients moved from a negligent care home in Bristol have been flagged again for safeguarding issues.

The Winterbourne View care home in Bristol was engulfed in national controversy after a BBC Panorama investigation revealed shocking abuses of patients with learning difficulties recorded on hidden cameras.

The Prime Minister has announced that the Government will legislate to oblige energy suppliers to give their customers the lowest prices possible in a bid to drive down prices, reports Reuters.

The announcement comes after several of the main energy companies announced that they would raise prices in the next month or so.

Scottish Power announced this week that prices will rise up to 8.7%, whilst British Gas will raise their prices by 6% and npower 8.8%. SSE announced a 9% price hike in August, which came into effect this week.