How can we protect consumers after Brexit?

What the UK lacks is an effective policing of products to remove those that are unsafe/dangerous/non=compliant with the UK’s (and currently the EU’s) regulations. If you want to really protect consumers you need to deal with this, and heavily penalise those who seek to evade the regulatory system.

What we also need to introduce quickly is a means of (maximum) product recall to ensure purchasers are informed about a dangerous product they have bought and have it dealt with. I’d suggest compulsory registration at the point of sale.

What bothers me is the complacency in this intro, rather than recognising deficiencies that need to be addressed. Perhaps Which? is not passing on Convo comments to Government?

If the UK is the least exposed to persistent sales calls, it must be an absolute nightmare for other EU countries. Nuisance sales calls might have reduced somewhat, but scammers intent on fraud are still very much making people’s lives a misery.

It is despicable that BT make money out of people’s misery by selling them call blockers instead of blocking calls for everyone before they to get to their destination. All telecoms companies should be stopping these calls traversing the networks but until the government forces them to they are unlikely to comply. Number spoofing is rife, so all unused and unpaid for phone numbers need to be blocked.

Back in December 2018, I considered buying an air-fryer. These are some of the “brand names” I found on Amazon:
Adler Europe, Andrew James, Aigostar, Aobosi, Aucma, Blusmart, Camry, Casart, Cecotec, Cooks Professional, Coopers, Cosori, Costway, Crzdeal, Cuisinier, Dihl, Duronic, electriQ, Fineway, Geepas, Gold-tec, Gourmetmaxx, GWO, Habor, Heska, Holaroses, Homgeek, Hyvaluable, JML, Jocca, KBKG2421, Kalorik, Klarstein, Koolle, KWZGKX, Livivo, Lloytron, NeoChef, Netta, Nomen, NuWave, Omorc, Ovation, Princess, PureMate, Quest, Rackaphile, Rayem, Rendio, RSTJ-Sjaf, Selcng, Sensio, Sentik, Severin, SimpleTaste, Sodial, Ss, SXMXA, Tidylife, Tiluxury, TKG, Uten, Vitinni, VonShef, Vpcok, YS, Wrapok, ZZAZXB.

Some of those “brand names” will be for identical products ordered from China with any name you like printed on them. They can be bought in bulk from around 8US$ each. How safe are they? Heat and oil is a recipe for disaster if the product is dangerous.

I absolutely agree with the above comments by wavechange and malcolm on dangerous products and that much needs to be done to get them removed them from sale and heavily penalise those who trade in them.

Something also needs to be done to stop fake reviews that can persuade people to buy unsafe products.

I would also like to see a stop put to traders using virtual offices as addresses. They must use the actual address they trade from not hide behind multiple names and virtual offices.

The UK has always had much stronger consumer protection than other European countries, an example of which is the Consumer Rights Act 2015 which Kelly correctly points out. Our stronger consumer protection can put British businesses at a disadvantage compared to their international competitors in other European countries who are subject to weaker consumer protection. Membership of the EU has allowed the UK to impose a huge amount of our strong consumer protection legislation upon the rest of Europe, ensuring a fairer level playing field for British business. However, the Leave campaign instead focussed misleadingly on the negligible amount of resisted legislation that is imposed upon the UK by the rest of the EU. A departure by the UK from the EU will lose the UK’s significant influence over consumer legislation applied to 30 countries of the European Economic Area. Did those who voted to leave the EU consider the loss of the UK’s rule-making role or did they naïvely consider only their emotional and ideological goals?

To a considerable extent the question of how to protect consumers after Brexit [if it ever happens! – there seems to be little sense of urgency] depends on trust in the government. Like environmental protection, and workers’ rights, there are justifiable fears that after the UK steps out from under the EU umbrella, a lot of the protections will be revoked or abandoned or have their sustenance denied in a desperate attempt to become extra competitive in world markets. I wouldn’t rate trust in the government very high right now as it seems to have adopted a policy of serial expediency. Why should we believe the government would become more diligent once released from the influence of the EU. I have not heard any pledges to maintain the UK’s alleged supremacy in consumer protection after Brexit or even to maintain level pegging. We should be aiming to take the best examples in each sector from the other states of Europe and form them into a coherent and comprehensive charter of consumer rights and protections underpinned by a mandate to keep pace with positive developments elsewhere. My suspicion is that the UK government will respond that such a stance will impose costs and liabilities on UK companies and put them at an international disadvantage so the Intro to the Conversation could be disingenuous to say the least. I should like to be proved wrong.