Trading Standards notice: what should I do?
Read the notice and identify its legal basis, affected products, restrictions and deadlines. Put the restrictions into operation, preserve evidence and obtain prompt legal advice on the applicable challenge procedure. China-side factory records can be gathered by Cambridge China Bridge.
Identify the legislation and exact notice
Keep the complete notice, attachments and evidence of delivery. Record the named recipient, issuing authority, legislation and provision cited, product identifiers, reasons, restrictions and deadlines. Ask the officer to clarify unclear wording in writing. This guide concerns formal notices about non-food consumer products.
The General Product Safety Regulations 2005 provide a consumer-safety framework in Great Britain, but specific product legislation can govern particular safety matters. Ask a solicitor to check the cited power against your product, business role and territory. For an accompanying request for documents, use our guide to Trading Standards evidence requests.
Turn the restrictions into operating controls
Under that general-safety framework, suspension temporarily bans placing products on the market or supplying them while testing is undertaken. Withdrawal prevents supply of a product believed dangerous. Recall concerns a product believed dangerous that has already been made available to consumers. Read the actual notice before deciding which controls are needed.
Assign an owner to each instruction in the notice. Translate it into written tasks for sales, warehouse staff, marketplaces, fulfilment partners and the factory. Check listings, dispatch queues, replacement orders and returned stock for affected goods. Obtain confirmation that controls are active. For customer contact and recovery work, follow our imported-product recall guide.
Build a record that demonstrates compliance
Create a notice compliance log connecting each instruction to its owner, deadline, action and supporting record. Keep dated screenshots of sales blocks, warehouse quarantine records, partner acknowledgements and customer communications. Record gaps and failed actions openly, with the next action assigned. A message asking a warehouse to stop dispatch is weaker evidence than confirmation that the block works.
Preserve original samples, complaints, test reports and factory records before arranging alterations or disposal. Ask the authority about handling evidence and affected goods. Send progress updates that distinguish completed actions, unresolved stock and information still awaited. Ask Cambridge China Bridge’s China-based staff to gather production and component records without waiting for the factory to settle responsibility.
Get advice on the applicable challenge procedure
Send a solicitor the complete notice, delivery evidence, your compliance log and the technical evidence. Ask them to identify the applicable challenge route, who can bring it, the correct court or decision-maker, grounds, filing and service requirements, and the deadline calculated from the relevant event. Ask whether any application affects the notice’s operation and whether interim relief needs to be sought.
Keep the operational restrictions in place while obtaining advice. Do not assume that correspondence with the officer or a complaint replaces the applicable challenge procedure. Ask your adviser to separate requests for clarification or variation from formal proceedings. A product compliance consultant can help assemble technical evidence; obtain legal advice on the procedure itself.
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Control any change and proposed restart
Ask the authority to confirm any clarification, variation or withdrawal of the notice in writing. Keep the original and later versions together. Before changing controls, have your adviser check what remains restricted and tell each operational owner exactly what has changed. Do not treat the factory’s reassurance or a replacement test report as approval to restart.
Prepare a restart file containing the defect investigation, corrective work, product identification and verification evidence. Ask the authority and your advisers what is needed before the proposed activity resumes. Keep supplier reimbursement discussions separate from compliance actions, and retain the notice log with the product records.
Frequently asked questions
What should I check first in a Trading Standards notice?
Check the named recipient, legislation and provision cited, affected products, restrictions and deadlines. Preserve the complete notice and delivery evidence, then assign responsibility for each instruction.
Can I keep selling while I challenge the notice?
Keep the notice’s restrictions in operation. Ask a solicitor whether the applicable procedure affects those restrictions or requires an application for interim relief. Do not assume a challenge permits sales.
What evidence shows I complied with the notice?
Match each instruction to dated evidence: sales blocks, quarantine records, partner confirmations, customer communications and progress updates. Record unresolved goods and failed actions as well as completed work.
What is the deadline to challenge a recall notice?
Have a solicitor identify the deadline under the legislation actually cited and calculate it using the delivery evidence. Obtain advice promptly; do not use a deadline from a different notice or product regime.