What is an unfair commercial practice?
A commercial practice is an activity linked to the promotion, sale or supply of a product to consumers. It covers any act, omission, course of conduct, representation or commercial communication – including advertising and marketing – which is carried out by a trader. If it is unfair, this means it is deemed to be unacceptable with regards to the consumer, according to specified criteria. What does the Directive aim to do? The Unfair Commercial Practices (UCP) Directive aims to clarify consumers’ rights and to simplify cross-border trade. Common rules and principles will give consumers the same protection against unfair practices and rogue traders whether they are buying from their corner shop or purchasing from a website based abroad. It will also mean that businesses will be able to advertise and market to all 480 million consumers in the EU, in the same way as to their domestic customers. The aim is to boost consumer confidence and give business a uniform and transparent EU wide set
