Consumers: Protection
The question
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, whether his Department has considered introducing minimum accessibility standards for customer service functions to ensure consumers can access a human representative where necessary.
Answered by Kate Dearden
Legislation provides the redress rights for consumers. Beyond this, the government does not generally intervene in how businesses choose to conduct their activities as this is a commercial decision.
Businesses have a legal obligation under the Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013 (CCRs), when trading with consumers, to provide contact information in a clear and comprehensible manner which is easily, directly and permanently accessible. This includes the business name, the geographical address where the business is established, a telephone number, and email address to allow consumers to make contact quickly and efficiently if there is a problem. Failure of a trader to provide the information required under the CCRs is a breach of contract and can result in a claim being brought by the consumer.
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