Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Bill

Baroness Crawley Excerpts

Report stage
Wednesday 13th March 2024 Lords Chamber

[The Earl of Lindsay (Con)]

My Lords, I shall speak to Amendments 99 to 101 and I declare an interest as president of the Chartered Trading Standards Institute. I am pleased that also sponsoring these amendments are my predecessor as president of the institute, the noble Baroness, Lady Crawley, and the noble Baroness, Lady Bakewell of Hardington Mandeville, a former leader of Somerset County Council.

Before speaking to these amendments, I thank my noble friend for using the Bill to extend online interface order provisions to trading standards, an issue we raised in Committee in amendments moved very ably by the noble Lords, Lord Clement-Jones and Lord Bassam of Brighton. I thank my noble friend also for the correspondence and discussion with him and his officials since Committee about the ongoing concerns that have prompted our amendments in this group and the next.

Amendments 99 and 100 would enable local authority trading standards officers to exercise their powers throughout the United Kingdom. Currently, the legislation implies that officers in England and Wales can exercise powers only in England and Wales but not in Scotland, and vice versa, but rogue traders operate across our internal borders and the legislation and powers that underpin trading standards and consumer protection should recognise this cold, hard reality. We fully respect the different legal jurisdictions involved. The current restriction, however, relates to the exercise of powers, not to the ability to take legal proceedings, and the legislation applies equally in the devolved nations. The restriction makes enforcement more challenging if, for example, a trader based in Scotland commits an offence in England, as trading standards officers can face legal challenges if they request documents they would be entitled to were it not for this anomaly. I should add that trading standards officers across Scotland, England and Wales support this amendment, as it would allow them to conduct investigations throughout the United Kingdom in a more efficient and cost-effective manner.

Amendment 101 would enable trading standards to access information by letter, rather than being restricted to having to exercise a power of entry to access that same information. As the Bill is currently drafted, trading standards need to visit the business in person to obtain paperwork to use as evidence in criminal proceedings. This amendment would ease the pressure on businesses, as they will then have time to gather and send any documents requested, and to seek legal advice, rather than face a trading standards officer just turning up at their business address without notice and seizing documents.

This proposal is therefore in the interests of both businesses and enforcers, and we believe that it does not breach the individual’s human rights or cause any greater risk of self-incrimination. It also reflects the financial difficulties that local authorities are facing, not least those that have declared bankruptcy. There are clear cost implications if an enforcement officer is required to drive half way across the country to obtain documents. Cases can be dropped if there is insufficient council budget for such travel. The documents I am referring to are those that the officer has the right to request and seize when on the business premises, and in those circumstances a trader would have to provide them immediately.

We believe that the ability to make a written request for documents that are held by the business and are required as evidence would substantially reduce costs to the local authority, reduce pressure on businesses and allow those breaching the legislation to be brought to justice more efficiently and cost effectively.

[Baroness Crawley (Lab)]

My Lords, I support the noble Earl, Lord Lindsay, and I wish to speak briefly to Amendments 99 to 101 in his name, mine and that of the noble Baroness, Lady Bakewell of Hardington Mandeville. In doing so, I apologise for not being able to speak at Second Reading or in Committee. I sincerely thank my noble friend on the Front Bench and the noble Lords on the Lib Dem Front Bench for promoting and supporting our amendments in our absence. I also thank the Minister for being so very generous with his time in meeting us between Committee and Report, and for listening so intently to trading standards officers who do this work on the ground, day after day.

The effect of Amendments 99 and 100 would be to give new powers to trading standards officers to operate across national borders when necessary. Current legislation does not make it clear that trading standards officers in England and Wales can exercise their powers across the border with Scotland, even though this is an area of reserved powers. In fact, the current legislation implies that this cross-border enforcement activity is not permitted. It would be helpful if the Minister, in his reply, could make clear the exercise of powers across borders, so that it is at least on the record for trading standards professionals.

At a post-Brexit time when the UK is building up its new internal market in goods and services, and needs corresponding consumer protection, this current questionable restriction on pursuing officers makes it very difficult to enforce legislation where a rogue trader offends across a national border. I am sure the Minister will agree that, for the success of the new internal market, trading standards officers should be able to pursue and enforce right across the United Kingdom.

Amendment 101, to which I have also added my name, would be an opportunity to finally update trading standards officers’ powers of entry, as the noble Earl said. At present, trading standards officers are required to exercise physical powers of entry to premises before information access or the seizing of documents, which may well be needed in criminal proceedings. The amendment, which we support, would have the effect of changing their information-gathering powers to enable documents to be requested in writing and without the need for physical entry, and for those documents to still be used in criminal proceedings.

This would be a lot less hassle for legitimate businesses and traders, and would give them more time to source the required documents. For the small, overstretched band of trading standards officers, the requirement to exercise physical powers of entry across the country, in order to seize documents that they may need to use in criminal proceedings, is not cost effective for their cash-strapped local authorities. Rogue traders are not constrained by local authority boundaries, and trading standards officers may have to travel long distances to obtain documents physically. Their local authorities may not be able to finance such activity, and the case would therefore be dropped. I ask the Minister to think again on this matter, to sustain consumer confidence in the consumer enforcement powers of a UK-wide trading standards profession.

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[Baroness Bakewell of Hardington Mandeville (LD)]

My Lords, I put my name to two sets of amendments in this group: Amendments 104 and 118 on the right to repair, and Amendments 109 and 115 on trading standards issues.

I will speak first to the right to repair. The noble Baroness, Lady Hayman, set out clearly the rationale behind these amendments, and I know that she has been working with the Minister and officials to try to get some traction on this issue. Part of my role in the House, for my party, is waste: how to minimise it, how to deal with it when it is created, and how to prevent it being created in the first place.

I was also brought up to repair what was broken and give items a new lease of life; the Screwfix catalogue is always lying around somewhere in our house. If you are going out for the evening and have a full skirt, which is no longer fashionable and can be unpicked, it is relatively easy to sew it back up into something more appealing, ready to wear out and wow your friends in the evening. This is not the case when a washing machine goes wrong and starts to flood the kitchen floor.

The amendment is very detailed and gives plenty of time for manufacturers to adapt their practices and start thinking again about abandoning their wasteful practices, which force the hard-pressed consumer to buy a replacement for an item that, with a little thought, could well have been repaired and lasted much longer, instead of joining the heap of white goods at the local household waste recycling centre and then landfill. The right to be able to repair an electrical or electronic item or household product should be universal.

The noble Earl, Lord Lindsay, set out the arguments for Amendments 109 and 115 extremely well. While I understand that the Government do not believe that fake reviews should be a criminal offence, it is difficult to understand why, if there are currently 31 schedule practices, of which 29 are both civil and criminal breaches of the CPRs, two, including fake reviews, should be subject to civil breaches only. Of the 29, it is up to the judgment of the officer whether they take civil or criminal action. Many of the “fake review” fraudulent claims and activities are deliberately targeted at children and the elderly—the most vulnerable in our society. Civil action does not give the protection they deserve or require.

I have received a contribution from the National Trading Standards eCrime Team; it is a case study. A consumer is looking to buy a dehumidifier, so googles “dehumidifiers”; Google or other search engines show top results at the top of the page, which are usually Google adverts. The advert shows a 5-star-rated product. The consumer clicks on that product link, which takes them to a website that spotlights reviews that look genuine about how amazing the product is. The consumer buys the product and the money is taken from their bank, but it is a totally fake site with fake reviews and the products do not actually exist. There are 600 cases of consumers being tricked by fake reviews on this site and product alone; there is a detriment here of £90,000. There are multiple examples of this with lots of different products. Consumers are being drawn to sites using fake reviews and handing over their money, and the products do not arrive as they do not exist. I am sympathetic to the Minister’s wish not to increase the number of activities that come under the “criminal activity” banner but remain convinced that action is needed on this issue.

On invitation to purchase and the subject of price, I am grateful for the Minister’s clarification but remain concerned that a rogue trader will make a particularly good case that the price being quoted is the total cost to the consumer, only later to add in other costs and taxes. This is not something we are used to in this country. In America I can decide to buy something for $25, having looked at the price label, but when I get to the checkout I find I am charged $27.50, as both local and national tax have been added. All Americans are used to this; it is only the uninformed tourist who gets caught out, but usually only once.

I remain convinced that those targeted by rogue traders are those who may not be aware that VAT or material costs are not always included in the initial price quoted. Will the Minister see whether there is some way in which our request on this issue can be accommodated?

[Baroness Crawley (Lab)]

My Lords, as the third of the consumer protection enforcement team mentioned by the noble Lords, Lord Clement-Jones and Lord Stevenson, I have added my name to Amendments 109 and 115.

Amendment 109 concerns the issue of fake reviews; this has already been well set out by the noble Earl, Lord Lindsay, and the noble Baroness, Lady Bakewell. It is worth looking again at Hansard and the example from the noble Baroness, Lady Bakewell, of the live evidence we have received from the National Trading Standards eCrime Team as to the sites where people are handing over their money as we speak, thinking they have read a legitimate review and bought an amazing product, but the product does not exist.

I recognise the move that the Government have made in adding fake reviews to the list of 31 commercial practices that are, in all circumstances, considered unfair and banned practices. However, trading standards sees the practice of giving fake reviews as clearly fraudulent in nature, and therefore it should be a criminal as well as a civil offence, if the circumstances are correct for that judgment to be made. At the moment, we are confined to looking at fake reviews as a civil offence.

Fake reviews are also a growing distortion of the online marketplace. They are unfair to legitimate businesses and completely deceptive of consumers. This amendment is important in making fake reviews a criminal as well as a civil offence. I hope that the Minister understands the seriousness of this—I am sure he does—and will think again about his stance on this amendment.

[Lord Moynihan (Con)]

My Lords, I rise to speak to Amendment 150, which builds on the work undertaken in this House at the time of the Consumer Rights Act 2015. I am fully supported by the indefatigable Sharon Hodgson, the MP for Washington and Sunderland West in another place, who is the co-chair of the APPG on Ticket Abuse; I am the other co-chair. Many leading musicians, sportsmen and sportswomen also support further action, as does FanFair Alliance.

Amendment 156 seeks to protect the many people who buy tickets for popular sport and arts events from the fraudulent abuse provided by a poorly regulated secondary market, a term coined by touts in 2008 to provide their activities with a veneer of respectability. What we are dealing with is a black market that profits from ticket obtained in bulk, illegally. Promoters whose terms and conditions are ignored have, in effect, lost the ability to sell tickets to the public at face value. To see hundreds of thousands of attempts by bots to harvest tickets in bulk for a single event is not uncommon. These amendments simply seek to implement recommendations made by the Competition and Markets Authority and to provide important safeguards for consumers. As evidenced by the security team at the O2, there are daily stories of families travelling to London to go to sold-out events finding on arrival that the tickets they had bought in good faith were fraudulently sold and unsuitable for admission. They have no recourse available to them at the time of the event. They have lost all the costs they incurred for travel and a hotel, to which must be added the bitter disappointment of missing what might be the event of a lifetime for them and their children, and all the incidental costs of the process.

In 2007, when I joined the campaign against modern-day ticket touts, there were approximately 120 full-time ticket touts in the United Kingdom. By 2015, the number had risen to 400, who regularly attacked primary ticketing systems using aggressive software to harvest tickets in bulk—400 too many when we were working on the Bill which resulted in the Government accepting many of our amendments. Today, there are not 400, there are between 3,000 and 4,000 touts, not based only in the UK but attacking ticket systems for UK events. This explosion has been brought about by the advent of mobile and digital ticketing. Whereas touts previously had to wait for paper tickets to arrive by post, they can now harvest tickets and send them out in an instant from mobile devices and apps.

Put simply, this aggressive software takes the form of scalper bots, computer programs which can store the details of hundreds of credit cards, which, at the press of a button, sweep the market for tickets for popular events while the likes of us and, more importantly, many families across the country are filling in all their details online, often waiting a long time for their applications to be processed, only to find that all the tickets have been sold. Within minutes after filling in the forms, the tickets they were seeking appear on secondary ticketing sites, at vastly inflated prices, benefiting only the touts and the secondary platforms. Most ordinary fans do not stand a chance against this. This is particularly true, sadly, at the Royal Albert Hall, where the market provides evidence that board members and trustees can benefit from the corrosive practices of the secondary market, which I address in Amendment 151.

The truth is that tickets are being harvested by today’s ticket touts in bulk. To do so, they have perfected their trade to the point that they have become “trusted suppliers” for the likes of viagogo and StubHub and guarantee the delivery of a large number of tickets before they have gone on sale to the public. If, for whatever reason, they fail to deliver their tickets, many resort to printing fraudulent tickets and delivering them to the secondary market to retain their trusted supplier status in the future, to the detriment of consumers who turn up to the concert or sport event to find that they are turned away.

My noble friend the Minister kindly wrote to Members of the Committee and was correct when he said that ticketing is more secure. However, the same technology also enables touts to carry out larger attacks on ticketing systems than ever before due to the increased portability of digital tickets. Frankly, the ticketing industry is on the cusp of losing the ability to sell tickets to genuine fans at an affordable price, thus depriving the lowest-paid, hardest-working fans of the ability to see their favourite artist or sports team.

In writing to the Members of the Committee, my noble friend the Minister mentioned the trial resulting in the conviction of two touts and the subsequent £6 million forfeiture order. They used dishonest and fraudulent tactics which would have been found out far sooner if the amendments before the House this evening were on the statute book. National Trading Standards, whose budget has been frozen for many years, has stated that it simply does not have the budget to pursue any more cases of this kind. The number of touts now attacking ticketing systems makes it an impossible task for law enforcement to prosecute some, let alone all, of them to the point where it would disrupt their activities and protect consumers.

Recently, viagogo has taken to concealing the face value of tickets behind an icon. This is a loophole in consumer protection that needs to be closed. Consumers should be able to see clearly the original price of the ticket they are about to purchase, as well as the ticket tout’s details, in order to check that the business they are buying from even exists. That would have helped both the cases that are currently under consideration by the courts.