Navigating the new CTSI guidance: What businesses need to know

If ever there was a document which shows how the consumer regulatory regime is a complex tapestry, it’s the Chartered Trading Standards Institute’s (CTSI) Guidance for Traders on Pricing Practices.

On 14 August, the CTSI published an updated version of its Guidance for Traders on Pricing Practices. The previous version from 2018 is now withdrawn. The document itself makes clear it is not statutory guidance and therefore is not binding on the courts. 

Key principles 

While designed for traders to help them display prices in a compliant manner, it is referenced by both the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) in guidance and the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) when assessing price claims. 

In fact, the background to the prices section of both the Ad Codes enforced by the ASA expressly states that price statements should take into account the Chartered Trading Standards Institute’s Guidance for traders on pricing practices. The Committees of Advertising Practice refers to it regularly in guidance. 

Previous guidance which remains broadly the same includes the comments on reference pricing. For example, RRPs are still described as “contentious”, the RRP section references the CAP requirement for evidence that the RRP quoted is the price the product is generally sold at and the position that when promoting “up to” and “from” prices a “significant proportion” of the range of products needs to be available at the “up to” or “from” price is unchanged.

Looking ahead

The updates seek to retain the guidance’s practical purpose while updating it in line with changes from the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 (DMCCA). 

However, looking forward we can be reasonably certain the CTSI guidance will be updated again because, at the time of writing, the new version is not fully up to date in light of the DMCC. For example, the version:

• refers to the previous legal definition of a misleading omission under The Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008 (which were revoked by the DMCCA), and;
• refers to not falsely stating that a particular price or particular terms will only being available "for a very limited amount of time", whereas the DMCC has removed the reference to "very" in the relevant provision.

It’s also likely some of the comments will need adjusting when the CMA finalises its Guidance on Price Transparency.