The Consumer Protection (Northern Ireland) Order 1987

Code of practice

18.—(1) The Department may, after consulting the Director General of Fair Trading and such other persons as the Department considers it appropriate to consult, by order approve any code of practice issued (whether by the Department or another person) for the purpose of—

(a) giving practical guidance with respect to any of the requirements of Article 13; and

(b) promoting what appear to the Department to be desirable practices as to the circumstances and manner in which any person gives an indication as to the price at which any goods, services, accommodation or facilities are available or indicates any other matter in respect of which any such indication may be misleading.

(2) A contravention of a code of practice approved under this Article shall not of itself give rise to any criminal or civil liability, but in any proceedings against any person for an offence under Article 13(1) or (2)—

(a) any contravention by that person of such a code may be relied on in relation to any matter for the purpose of establishing that that person committed the offence or of negativing any defence; and

(b) compliance by that person with such a code may be relied on in relation to any matter for the purpose of showing that the commission of the offence by that person has not been established or that that person has a defence.

(3) Where the Department approves a code of practice under this Article it may, after such consultation as is mentioned in paragraph (1), at any time by order—

(a) approve any modification of the code; or

(b) withdraw its approval;

and references in paragraph (2) to a code of practice approved under this Article shall be construed accordingly.

(4) An order under this Article shall be subject to negative resolution.