Consumer Protection (Enforcement) (Amendment etc.) (EU Exit) Regulations 2020

Lord Randall of Uxbridge Excerpts

Monday 16th November 2020 Grand Committee

[Lord Randall of Uxbridge (Con) [V]]

My Lords, I do not need to detain this Committee long. My noble friend the Minister has done an excellent job of explaining these regulations. I spent most of my working life in retail, as the fourth generation in our family store, which sadly no longer exists. I am sure that my noble friend Lord Naseby would be delighted to know that we stocked Church’s shoes as well as Dartington glass and many very good quality items from Northern Ireland. As a result, I have always taken a keen interest in consumer rights. I hope that we always put consumers at the forefront of our service commitment and would always go further than any legal requirement. Of course, consumer law is not always clearly written, but that is not relevant to this particular discussion today.

As far as I can see, these regulations are only relevant to ensuring that

“reciprocal arrangements for Member States to cooperate in investigations and enforcement actions in the case of cross-border infringements of consumer laws causing collective harm to consumers”

that are in force up to exit day can continue. Can my noble friend confirm that, with the passing of this instrument, regardless of whether there is no deal, consumer rights in the UK will not be affected in any way as a result of us leaving the European Union? I understand that this is being brought in

“to allow domestic legislation on collective redress to function effectively in relation to EU-derived consumer law after EU exit.”

Presumably, however, if our consumer law is tougher than the EU law, this redress is not applicable.

Finally, I wonder how many UK consumers are actually aware, in any case, of these rights and where they could find out about them more and have them explained in a simple way to understand them within the current regulations? Even with my noble friend’s excellent introduction, I have to say that it is all rather confusing.