More regulation for trader recommendation sites

Trader recommendation sites are websites and apps often used by people to find and connect to traders from a wide range of specialisms, such as building and home improvements, plumbing, and home heating.

Working in partnership with four key consumer organisations – National Trading Standards (NTS), Trading Standards Scotland (TSS), The Society of Chief Officers of Trading Standards in Scotland (SCOTSS), and Northern Ireland Trading Standards (TSNI) – the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) analysed the conduct of these sites and identified a number of concerns that had the potential to cause harm to consumers. The issues identified include:

• making potentially misleading claims – or creating the misleading impression – that a trader can be trusted, when in fact the platform does not vet or monitor traders;
• failing to have appropriate vetting or verification processes in place for traders using their site or app;
• failing to deal appropriately with and sanction problematic traders;
• not operating effective and accessible complaints processes; and
• presenting consumer reviews in a misleading way and failing to take appropriate steps to remove fake reviews.

To tackle these issues, the CMA’s draft advice will help trader recommendation sites better understand their obligations under consumer protection law. It provides practical advice on the key principles they should follow to protect consumers and outlines six key principles that these sites should follow:

1. ensure that claims about services and the traders on their sites are clear and accurate, and do not mislead consumers;
2. conduct appropriate checks before traders are allowed to advertise on their site;
3. have accessible, transparent, and effective complaints processes;
4. effectively monitor the performance of traders on their site;
5. act effectively on issues highlighted by complaints or monitoring activities, including imposing sanctions; and
6. have an effective, transparent and impartial process concerning online consumer reviews.