A corporate client contacted us because they were being prosecuted by the Local Authority for various offences under the Trades Descriptions Act 1968. The Directors of the company were also being prosecuted as the Prosecution were alleging the offences were committed with their consent and connivance or their neglect. The allegation related to claims in an advertisement of pharmaceutical products on the web that the product could help to alleviate or prevent diseases. There was an arguable defence but commercial considerations meant that a more pragmatic solution was necessary. We got the Prosecution to withdraw proceedings against one of the Directors, impose a Home Office caution against the other, and to only proceed at court against the company.
Our client was involved in selling weighing scales online which he imported from China. Our client had relied upon the information provided from his suppliers in China. Several sample purchases had been made by the local authority showing that there were a number of machines that were faulty and had been given a false description. Our client co-operated fully with the Trading Standard Investigation and provided the necessary details of his suppliers to prove that he relied upon information from those suppliers before advertising his goods online and selling them to interested purchasers. Our client was able to return all monies paid by different purchasers from those who were identified and to cease importation of the goods from the Chinese supplier. We attended with our client at interview under caution and we were able to persuade Trading Standards officers that whilst he was culpable in so far as he had sold goods with a false description, it was not with that knowledge and that he had taken reasonable steps to ensure the equipment was not faulty. The local authority accepted his account of what happened and took no further action.