Describe the limitations and constraints of marketing
Businesses need to ensure that their marketing plans and activities are within the limits of the law. These laws are called the consumer laws they make sure that the businesses do not do anything illegal. There are five main consumer laws these are
The Sale of Goods Act 1979
The Trade Description Act 1968
The Consumer Credit Act 1974 and 2006
The Data Protection 1998
The Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008
I will be explaining three of these laws are, who does it apply to and how does it affect the businesses.
The Sale of Goods Act 1979
Sales of goods act requires traders to sell goods that are as they are described and of satisfactory quality. It also gives customers certain legal rights when they buy goods. This directly affects marketing activity because it means that any product should be described accurately and be able to verify any claims.
In summary,
The seller owns the goods and can sell them.
The goods are of satisfactory quality.
The goods are ‘as described
For example Marks and Spencer’s has a lot of problems with its customer services, due to products being returned. Many customers returned their products as they mentioned that they were either faulty, wrong size, ripped etc. So this mislead customers that returned faulty products as they were unhappy with their service selling ripped or faulty clothing/products.
The Trade Description Act 1974 and 2006
The Trade Descriptions act requires trades to sell good with accurate description but false or misleading information must not be given about products. For example, accurate information must be given about who made the product. Fake designer goods that are marketed as genuine are a clear breach of the Trade Descriptions Act
For example there are many fake watches on the high street one of the main one that has breached the trade description act that is fake “ice watches” these are designer watches that shops or