APPENDIX 3
Letter from the Northern Ireland Affairs
Committee to the Trading Standards Service
The Committee has received allegations (in the
context of its enquiry into illegal road fuels in Northern Ireland)
that smuggled, chemically modified or adulterated fuel is sometimes
offered from premises operated by, or under contract to, leading
fuel supply brands, whithout their knowledge and consent. It is
also alleged that such fuel is sometimes offered by premises got
up to look very similar to premises offering leading brands of
fuel, sometimes as a result of non-removal, at the end of a supply
contract, of some or all of the distinctive signalisation associated
with the brand, thus misleading customers as to the provenance
of the product.
It appears to the Committee that the offering
of fuel supplied other than by or under the authority of the brand
owner, or seeking to imply that the fuel is from a particular
source (or of a particular quality) when it is not, may constitute
offences under trading standards legislation regarding misleading
product descriptions. I have therefore been asked to seek the
views of the Trading Standards Service as to whether, in its view,
trading standards offences are committed in the circumstances
described above, and what action is taken by the Service when
evidence of such offences comes to light. On the latter point,
the Committee would in particular be interested to learn what
action was taken, or is to be taken, under trading standards legislation,
in each of the six cases referred to in the Department's January
1999 memorandum where tests had indicated that the fuel had been
"laundered" or extended.
2 February 1999
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