Consumer Rights (Information) Bill

A01

(1) After Section 5, insert the following Section:

Section 5A: Prohibition of price signalling

(1) A trader must not engage in price signalling.

(2) For this section, a trader engages in "price signalling" if:

(a) it communicates selling price information to a competitor; and

(b) it does so for the purpose of inducing or encouraging the competitor to vary the price at which it supplies or acquires, offers to supply or acquire, or proposes to supply or acquire, goods or services; and

(c) the communication of that information has, or is likely to have, the effect of substantially lessening competition in the market for those goods or services or in another market.

(3) For the purpose of this section, the following terms apply:

(a) "communicates" includes announcements, transmissions or imparts it in any form, and by any means, direct or indirect, public or private, including by way of public announcement.

(b) "competitor" of a trader is any entity that is in actual or potential competition in a market with the corporation or a related body corporate of the trader.

(c), a trader "varies" its prices for goods and services after receiving a communication if it offers them, or offers to acquire them, at prices or on terms or conditions that differ materially from those that would have applied if it had not received that communication.

EN: This amendment seeks to expand the remit of this bill to include a prohibition on price signalling. Anti-competitive price signalling disadvantages consumers (as is the broad intent of the existing bill) as it facilitates price coordination amongst competitors, often leading to stickier prices, and removes the uncertainty of prices that are supposed to underpin a free market. While existing prohibitions do exist in some trade laws, price signalling itself is less so, as a corporation can unilaterally price signal and impact the market, rather than entering into what would normally be an illegal arrangement.

A01 was submitted by /u/Mikiboss.

A02

Change section 2(3) to read “Information provided to a consumer shall be in English unless the consumer has agreed to that information being provided in another language.”

EN: this bill would be in force in the devolved nations so the wording of this subsection is strange

A03

Change section 10(1) to read "This Act extends to England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland"

Explanatory note: the convention now is to state explicitly which legal jurisdictions the legislation extends to

A02 and A03 were submitted by /u/LightningMinion.

This amendment division will end on Thursday 17th August at 10pm BST.