About Trading Standards

We protect the public and honest businesses from rogue traders and illegal practices.

• Consumers have a right to receive value for money
• Traders and businesses should not face unfair competition from those operating outside the law

We enforce a wide range of laws on the supply and distribution of goods and services.

We aim to:

• protect local communities
• support the local economy
• to improve and protect public health
• deliver an effective, efficient and high quality service

See the Joint Black Country Regulators Operating Framework.

Our services include:

• Advice to traders
• Inspections at local businesses
• Publishing a prosecution register
• Enforcing government legislation to ensure people obey the law
• Free advice to consumers through Citizens Advice Consumer Service
• Warning the public about scams, unsafe goods and unfair trading practices
• Investigating complaints and criminal offences and taking action (including prosecution) in accordance with our enforcement policy
• Working with partner organisations such as the police, HMRC, Citizen Advice Consumer Service and National Trading Standards to provide consumer protection and advice

• Illegal or illicit tobacco
• Safety of consumer goods
• Doorstep crime and rogue traders
• Product counterfeiting and copyright
• Gathering information on scams and issuing relevant warnings
• Problems with goods supplied and services carried out by a trader
• Fales or misleading descriptions of goods, prices, services and property
• Age restricted sales - such as tobacco products, alcohol, solvents, knives, and fireworks
• Matters concerning sales by weight or measure - such as petrol deliveries, sales of fruit and vegetables, and sales of material

• Investigate complaints and prosecute traders that are not complying with trading standards laws
• If we are dealing with your complaint, we will keep you informed and contact you when the investigation is over
• Give advice to local traders on which consumer protection laws apply to them and how they can stay within the law
• With the Citizens Advice Consumer Service, give free advice to consumers on their legal rights when buying goods or services
• Record all enquiries and use the information to identify the issues of most concern to local residents and businesses. This is a vital part of our intelligence gathering work
• If the trader involved is based outside Dudley Borough or our investigations reveal that potential offences have been committed outside this area, we will pass the details to the trader's local Trading Standards team to deal with as they see fit

Dudley Trading Standards cannot:

• Offer businesses contractual advice
• Take civil court action on your behalf
• Pursue a complaint where there is no legally valid reason
• Provide an opinion on the quality of goods or a trader's quality of service
• Help with questions about personal injuries or the sale of land or property
• Demand refunds, replacements or apologies from traders or close them down
• Give out complaint information on a trader or any other information not already in the public domain
• Deal with matters on food standards, food safety, hygiene and quality. These are dealt with by colleagues in Dudley Environmental Health
• Help with enquires about industries that have their own Regulators or Ombudsman Schemes to deal with complaints - such as insurance, telecommunications, utility companies

We rely on information from members of the public, businesses and organisations to catch criminals who trade in illegal goods and use scams to target vulnerable people.

We need you to tell is about:

• Supplying counterfeit goods
• The sale of counterfeit or illegally-imported tobacco and cigarettes
• Traders calling on vulnerable people to offer gardening, roofing and driveway work, etc
• Traders supplying age restricted products, such as tobacco, alcohol, knives, fireworks to children
• Traders exploiting vulnerable people by selling them over priced or misdescribed goods or services
• Illegal money lending activity, known as loan sharks (matter will be passed to the national Illegal Money Lending team)

You can provide information on the issues listed above by contacting the Citizens Advice Consumer Service (CACS).

For further information, please contact Dudley Council Plus.

Telephone: 0300 555 2345
Opening hours: 8.30am to 5pm, Monday to Friday.
The office is closed at weekends and on bank holidays.