Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Bill

Baroness Hayman Excerpts

2nd reading
Tuesday 5th December 2023 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Hayman (CB)]

My Lords, I declare my interests as chair of Peers for the Planet and a director of the associated company.

The content of this Bill is not my area of expertise— I intend to contribute on a very narrow issue—and I was therefore particularly grateful for the clarity with which the Minister described the content of the Bill and for the parsing of its contents by the two Front-Bench speakers. I thought I would be making a speech perhaps at the end of a long list of speakers, when everything had been dealt with and raised, as a little coda, but I find myself speaking first from the Back Benches.

However, I can at least assure the noble Lord, Lord Fox, that I have something to add to the list of things we might need to deal with in this Bill. It is a narrow issue, to which I will speak in a moment, but I would like to raise one other thing. In the briefings that I have received since putting my name down on the list, important points were raised by a number of charities on the measures proposed around the auto-renewal of subscription contracts and the impacts they may have on the claiming of gift aid. That is an issue I hope the Minister responding to the debate might speak about.

I will focus my contribution on Part 4 of the Bill, which relates to the protection of consumer rights, and what I believe is a missed opportunity in relation to right-to-repair provisions. I am grateful for the work of organisations which have briefed on this issue, particularly the Design Council, which has a long-standing interest in this area. Strengthening our existing right-to-repair provisions and extending them in line with international norms would have multiple benefits. It would help us to shift to a more circular economy, reduce the waste from our throwaway culture and drive down emissions.

I am sure that there is no one in the Chamber who has not had some experience of planned obsolescence—where manufacturers have deliberately designed a product to limit its lifespan. For example, they have had to throw away a perfectly good kettle and buy a new one because the on/off switch has stopped working and it is not possible to replace that part, or they have had no choice but to buy a new mobile phone because the producer has stopped providing software updates even though the handset continues to work perfectly.

The apparent growth in terms of increased demand that comes with planned obsolescence is not sustainable growth. It does not add to people’s quality of life. In fact, it impoverishes consumers and wastes resources, depleting us of the critical minerals we will rely on and need more of in the future. It also creates huge problems of waste disposal.

Globally and nationally, we need to do more to protect both consumers and natural resources by extending product lifecycles. The most recent research from the UN-sponsored but industry-compiled Global E-waste Monitor showed that the UK produces 1.6 million tonnes of electronic and electrical waste each year. This is the second highest per capita amount of waste globally. The UK really needs to do better in terms of expanding our right to repair.

The measures that we have introduced to date have been very limited, focusing on manufacturers of certain larger electrical appliances being required to take very limited steps to make repairing the items easier for consumers. While the UK languishes at the bottom end of the league tables in respect of the quantities of electronic waste that we generate, other countries are racing ahead. The European Parliament just last month voted overwhelmingly in support of the consumer’s right to repair, which proposes banning built-in obsolescence. Three US states are now passing similar legislation.

The Government are aware of the problem. They said in their cross-departmental plan, Maximising Resources, Minimising Waste, that they are considering broadening the existing right to repair requirements under the 2010 ecodesign regulations and Schedule 7 to the Environment Act, to include a wider range of electrical products. Given that the Bill provides the ideal opportunity to do this and, at the same time, strengthen the existing provision to make them work better for consumers, why are there no provisions in the Bill on this area? There is widespread public support for what is proposed. A recent poll, carried out by YouGov, found that 85% of the public support expanding the UK’s right to repair regulations to cover all consumer groups.

I hope very much that the Minister might be able to meet and discuss before Committee how a right to repair could be best integrated into the legislation before us. It is an opportunity for the Government to follow through on their commitment to protect consumers and match or exceed the ambition shown elsewhere in the world. By doing so, they would kickstart a shift to a more circular economy, reduce waste and protect consumers from costly and unnecessary expenditure.

Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Bill

Baroness Hayman Excerpts

Committee stage
Wednesday 31st January 2024 Grand Committee

[Baroness Jones of Whitchurch (Lab)]

My Lords, I shall also speak to Amendment 134 in my name. I am grateful for the support from the noble Lord, Lord Clement-Jones, and the noble Baronesses, Lady Kidron and Lady Bennett, in doing so. I also support the amendments in the name of the noble Baroness, Lady Hayman, and the noble Lord, Lord Holmes, on the issue of the right to repair, and I look forward to hearing their contributions shortly.

Amendment 109 focuses on Part 3 of the Bill, which addresses the enforcement of consumer protection law. It sets out what would be a relevant infringement of the law by a commercial practice or trader. Our amendment would add a simple but important addition to that list. It says that the collective interest of consumers would be harmed by a company if by their actions they prevented the UK from reaching net zero emissions by 2050 as defined by the Climate Change Act.

We know from the latest reports of the Committee on Climate Change and the Office for Environmental Protection that the Government are missing a number of the key targets that would get us to net zero in an organised and timely manner. There are numerous missed opportunities for action, such as slowing down the rollout of electric vehicles and the failure to retrofit homes to save energy. This has not been helped by the decision to create new gas drilling licences in the North Sea.

However, it is not just a government responsibility to deliver net zero; it falls to companies to play their part. For example, every fossil fuel company that ignores its responsibility to move towards renewable energy, and every company that sells products created by the destruction of the Amazon rainforest, is contributing to consumer detriment as global warming impacts the planet. All the advertising companies that promote these products have a responsibility to protect consumer interests too.

In the UK, we are already seeing the adverse impact of global warming, as more extreme weather events become commonplace. Communities that might have been flooded once in a generation now face the heartbreak of properties being flooded every couple of years. Farm crops are being destroyed by drought or flooding, losing farmers their livelihoods. Of course, there are many other examples.

My point is that individuals and communities should have some redress under consumer law for the detriment caused by the companies and traders that deliberately delay or reverse our progress to net zero. This is what our Amendment 109 would go some way to achieve. It may be that we have not got the wording right—this is a probing amendment—but it nevertheless raises a fundamental issue about consumer rights that needs to be addressed.

Amendment 134 adds to the list in Schedule 19, which covers commercial practices which are, in all circumstances, considered to be unfair. It specifies that greenwashing actions, such as those giving the impression that a product is sustainable, is recyclable or has a low carbon footprint when these claims are not supported by evidence, should be considered unfair.

This continues to be a widespread practice. Consumers, particularly young people, want to do the right thing, but they are given no help in making informed choices. The EU has already identified around 230 separate sustainability labels and 100 green energy labels, half of which have weak or non-existent verification. The situation in the UK is no different.

Meanwhile, the Advertising Standards Authority has been slow to act and has ruled against only a tiny number of adverts. Many complaints of greenwashing are not investigated and the barrage of spurious environmental claims is falsely persuading consumers that corporations have embraced their environmental concerns. This greenwashing is all around us and we are not convinced that the existing regulators, including the Adverting Standards Authority, have the resources or the determination to hold the perpetrators to account.

When this issue was raised at Second Reading, the Minister replied:

“This is indeed an important issue, which we hope is already covered by existing regulations”.—[Official Report, 5/12/23; col. 1453.]


This is our point: if it is covered by existing regulations, they are not effective. Therefore, adding greenwashing to the list of banned practices would give consumers new opportunities to challenge the misleading product descriptions and adverts that are commonplace.

I look forward to hearing from other noble Lords who have amendments in this group but, in the meantime, I beg to move Amendment 109.

[Baroness Hayman (CB)]

My Lords, I declare my interest as chair of Peers for the Planet. I have Amendments 128A and 145A in this group but, before I speak to them, I will say just a couple of words about Amendments 109 and 134, on which the noble Baroness, Lady Jones of Whitchurch, just spoke. I very much support them both. I would certainly have added my name to that on greenwashing, had I not been later to the party than others. Along with the taxonomy for green investments, this is something that the Government have to take seriously if people are to be given the right choices and not deceived about the choices that they make.

My Amendments 128A and 145A cover the right to repair, an issue that Amendment 201, in the name of the noble Lord, Lord Holmes of Richmond, also addresses. They are cross-party amendments, and I am grateful to the noble Baronesses, Lady Ritchie of Downpatrick, Lady Harding of Winscombe, and Lady Bakewell of Hardington Mandeville, for their support. The intent of these amendments is to set a timetable for government to ensure that consumers can more easily and affordably repair their electrical and electronic devices by ending the practices that cause premature and planned obsolescence and ensuring that repair information and affordable spare parts are made available.

Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Bill

Baroness Hayman Excerpts

Report stage
Wednesday 13th March 2024 Lords Chamber

Moved by

[Baroness Hayman]

104: Clause 223, page 149, line 27, at end insert—
“(5A) Section (Right to repair) confers the right to repair on consumers.”

[Baroness Hayman (CB)]

My Lords, I rise to move Amendment 104 and speak to Amendment 118, tabled in my name. I declare my interests as chair of Peers for the Planet. I express my gratitude to my supporters, the noble Baronesses, Lady Harding of Winscombe, Lady Ritchie of Downpatrick and Lady Bakewell of Hardington Mandeville. I also thank the external organisations that have supported us with evidence and briefings.

With these amendments, we return to the issue raised in Committee of the suite of consumer rights known as the right to repair. As I explained then, the current lack of such a consumer right to repair means that many of us have experienced intense frustration at non-existent or overpriced spare parts for broken electrical and electronic equipment, which we are repeatedly told will be more expensive to repair than simply to replace. The least well-off households, on tight budgets, therefore get forced into a cycle of regularly replacing cheap equipment rather than being able to repair it and keep it in use for longer. As well as the economic impact on families and consumers, this wastes scarce resources, such as rare metals, while producing large amounts of waste for landfill. The UK now produces the second-highest per capita amount of electrical and electronic waste in the world.

My amendment would task the Government with producing a strategy to enhance the consumer’s right of repair for electrical and electronic products, and would put a stop to restrictive practices that undermine consumer efforts to repair and continue to use the products they own. As I said in Committee, there is widespread public support for action. That support was echoed around the Committee when we debated it and is evidenced in the extreme popularity of television’s “The Repair Shop”. I am grateful for the support of its presenter, Jay Blades, when he said that too often our efforts to repair things

“are blocked by manufacturers’ badly designed products or unaffordable spare parts. Extending a right to repair would help us rediscover the joy and skill of restoration, repair and redesign”.

I am extremely grateful to the Minister, the noble Lord, Lord Offord, and his team of officials, from both his department and others, for their extensive engagement on this topic since Committee, but I am afraid that I remain unconvinced that everything is well and that there is no need for an overarching strategy. I recognise that a number of limited initiatives are under way, but I am afraid the reality is that the work that is being undertaken falls short of the necessary scale, breadth and urgency if we are to improve the consumer’s experience.

In addition, there is no clear point of accountability for this work at the centre of government. Responsibilities are split between at least three departments. The Department for Business and Trade is engaged in relation to post-Brexit product safety standards. Defra ostensibly owns waste and resource management policies across the board, but all responsibility for the repair of electrical and electronic products now rests under the eco-design regulations, which sit at DESNZ. But DESNZ focuses on reducing domestic greenhouse gas emissions, rather than on the repairability of products such as computers, tablets and smartphones.

My decision to return to this issue, with some limited changes in response to criticisms made in Committee, has been influenced by two additional points. First, I discovered that under the Northern Ireland protocol, where the single market in fact includes eco-design, eco-labelling and battery legislation, consumers in Northern Ireland will be able to repair phones, smart- phones and tablets, and to see a repair index in the energy label from next year. They will also be able to replace all batteries in consumer products from 2027. These rules come from the EU, which, like many other jurisdictions, is pressing ahead with its own reforms. This leads me to believe that the complexities that the Minister has previously outlined are not insuperable and that the Government, if they can do it in Northern Ireland, could extend similar protections to consumers in England, Scotland and Wales.

The second point that makes me return to the subject is the letter published yesterday by Philip Dunne MP, the chair of the Environmental Audit Committee in the House of Commons. That letter criticised and bemoaned—that is probably fair—the progress that has been made in the three and a half years since the committee’s report on electric waste. The letter says that adequate progress is simply not being made. In November 2020, the EAC said that the Government should enshrine the right to repair in law. In February 2021, the Government responded that they

“would explore whether requirements to improve repairability … could be considered for a wider range of products”.

More than three years later, they are still exploring but are yet to discover a single additional product for which they might legislate for increased repairability. I fear that the necessary action will simply not happen unless someone in government takes a grip—I can think of no one better than the Minister we have with us today—and we can see a coherent strategy and plan and the accountability for its implementation.

I believe I have responded to most of the points the Minister made in Committee. He also suggested that adding the right to repair to consumer law would oblige retailers to pre-emptively seek information from manufacturers, adding to costs and reducing choice. My amendment would not do that. It would put the obligation on manufacturers to proactively provide the data—it would not put the duty on retailers; nor do I think the amendment could possibly fall foul of WTO rules when so many other WTO members are doing similar things.

I simply do not believe that the progress made already is sufficient or that there are insuperable barriers to doing what needs to be done. The argument that we can rely on progress that is glacial at best simply does not hold water. Everyone seems to think that this is a good idea. No one argues against having better-designed and easier-to-repair products. It is just that no one seems to be willing to grasp the nettle to do anything about it. This amendment would make sure that they did. I beg to move.

[The Earl of Lindsay (Con)]

My Lords, I will speak to Amendments 109 and 115. Once again, I do so with the co-sponsorship of the noble Baronesses, Lady Crawley and Lady Bakewell.

I will address Amendment 109 first. Fake reviews can cause loss, detriment and harm to consumers and law-abiding businesses. The government amendment that adds fake reviews to the practices in the schedule is therefore welcome. However, that amendment makes the practice an “excluded description”, meaning that enforcement action can be taken only through the civil route.

All the other banned practices, except two relating to matters under the remit of the Advertising Standards Authority, allow enforcement officers to take action through either the civil or the criminal courts. That depends on what is most appropriate and proportionate in the circumstances. If it is deemed that 29 out of the current 31 practices should have the option of a criminal penalty, we strongly believe that fake reviews should also be in this category, as the practice is arguably more serious and causes greater detriment to consumers and reputable businesses than a number of the other practices in that list. Making fake reviews either a civil or a criminal breach would send a strong message to those looking to deceive consumers and would give enforcers the opportunity to take stronger action if and when necessary.

I turn to Amendment 115. Invitation to purchase is a complex area of the legislation, and the Bill differentiates between this and “misleading omissions”. A commercial practice is a misleading omission if it omits “material information”; in other words, information the average consumer needs to make an informed decision. It can be challenging to decide what is information that consumers want and what is information that consumers need. If a practice is an invitation to purchase, a number of matters are identified as being material information. Therefore, an omission of any of these breaches the legislation and allows enforcement action to be taken.

One of those matters is the trader’s name and address. Rogue traders often approach vulnerable consumers offering unnecessary and substandard work, but without giving a price before starting the work. As price is part of the definition of invitation to purchase, in such circumstances the practice is not an invitation to purchase and so the trader’s name and address are not specifically material information. This is to the detriment of the consumer. This information is unlikely to be considered material information under misleading omissions, and the Companies Act 2006 does not require the provision of a name and address if a trader has no trading name or is trading under his own name.

--- Later in debate ---

In conclusion, I am extremely grateful to the noble Lord, Lord Clement-Jones, the noble Baronesses, Lady Hayman, Lady Crawley and Lady Bakewell, and my noble friends Lord Moynihan and Lord Lindsay for their amendments and contributions. I hope, however, that they feel satisfied by my responses and will not feel the need to press their amendments.

[Baroness Hayman (CB)]

My Lords, I am extremely grateful to everyone who has taken part in this debate. I have to say that I have never really experienced such violent agreement—as the Minister put it—from both Front Benches, and such little appetite for doing anything about it, or for any action. So I have to say that I think we are missing a legislative opportunity to do something that would have enormous support both in the country and, I believe, among individuals around the House. However, I really do not want to be churlish. I am genuinely grateful to the Minister, because he has spent a lot of time and thought on this issue and I recognise that he is confident that progress will be made without legislation.

I will just say that I think it would be prudent if I put a note in my diary, for maybe nine months’ time, to put down an Oral Question to see exactly what progress we have made. At the same time, I might remind myself to look very carefully at the Labour Party manifesto to see what its policy on waste actually is. On that note, I beg to leave to withdraw my amendment.

Amendment 104 withdrawn.