Trade Consultation Forum – Trade Descriptions Ordinance

The Trade Descriptions (Unfair Trade Practices) (Amendment) Ordinance 2012 will come into operation on 19 July 2013. Companies in food industry, in general, are not familiar with the content & enforcement of this Amendment Ordinance in detail. Hence, Food and Environmental Hygiene Department has organized a Trade Consultation Forum particularly targeted to the food industry on June 20, 2013 addressing the above-mentioned Amendment Ordinance. The Customs & Excise Department (Consumer Protection Bureau, CPB(2)) were invited to give explanation in the forum. The key points of this Amendment Ordinance include 1) the extension of the coverage of the Ordinance to prohibit false trade descriptions in respect of services made in consumer transactions, 2) the creation of 5 new offences, such as misleading omissions, aggressive commercial practices, bait advertising, bait-and-switch and wrongly accepting payment in order to protect consumer interests. The final draft of the Enforcement Guidelines has been uploaded to the Department’s website. Issues discussed in the forum and related to Health Food are listed below for reference. 1. If any health claims which are deemed misleading / false, the Customs & Excise Department may question and ask for “substantiation” of these claims. 2. For description on the packaging, information like product quantity / weight / dimension must be accurate. 3. This Amendment Ordinance applies to all kinds of communication, i.e. B to C, B to B, or even product for exportation and shall not be confined only to packaging.