False trade descriptions

The main feature of the Trade Descriptions Act 1968, as its name implies, is to outlaw the use of false trade descriptions. Section 2 of the Act contains a comprehensive and exhaustive list of what constitutes a false trade description for the purposes of the Act. This list can be summarised as saying that any statement about goods which when made can be either true or false is a trade description. This has meant that the statement (made in relation to a bar of chocolate) that it was of extra value was not a trade description it was such a vague kind of claim that no one could say of it that it was true or false. 

One last, and very important, point. An offence is committed under this part of the Act regardless of the absence of any blame on the part of the person making the false trade description. Its falsity is enough to secure the commission of an offence. This makes the offence one known as a strict liability offence. 

In contrast to the position with false trade descriptions, the offence created by s. 14(1) is conditional upon the party charged knowing that the... 

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