Consumer Protection (Trade Descriptions and Safety Requirements) Act 1975

JurisdictionSingapore
Coming into Force31 October 2013
Act Number(Original Enactment: Act 18 of 1975)
Enactment Date01 August 1975
Record NumberCap. 53
Published date31 October 2013
Consumer Protection (Trade Descriptions and Safety Requirements) Act
(CHAPTER 53)

(Original Enactment: Act 18 of 1975)

REVISED EDITION 2013
(31st October 2013)
An Act to make provisions prohibiting misdescriptions of goods supplied in the course of trade; to confer power to prescribe requirements relating to informative marking and advertisement of goods and to their safe composition, construction or design, and for purposes connected therewith.
[1st August 1975]
PART I
PRELIMINARY
Short title
1. This Act may be cited as the Consumer Protection (Trade Descriptions and Safety Requirements) Act.
Interpretation
2.—(1) In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires —
“advertisement” includes a catalogue, a circular and a price list;
“Director” means the Director of Consumer Protection appointed under section 3;
“goods” includes ships, aircraft, vehicles, animals, plants and all kinds of movable property;
“premises” includes any place, stall, ship, aircraft or vehicle;
“supply”, with its grammatical variations and cognate expressions, includes offer to supply or having goods in possession for the purpose of supply;
“trade description” means any description, statement or indication which, directly or indirectly and by whatever means given, relates to any of the following matters:
(a) quantity, length, width, height, area, volume, capacity or weight of any goods;
(b) method of manufacture, production, processing or reconditioning of any goods;
(c) composition of any goods;
(d) fitness for purpose (including expiry date), strength, performance, behaviour or accuracy of any goods;
(e) degree of fineness of gold and silver goods;
(f) physical characteristics of any goods not included in paragraphs (a) to (e);
(g) testing of any goods by any person and the results thereof;
(h) approval of any goods by any person or their conformity with a type approved by any person;
(i) place or date of manufacture, production, processing or reconditioning of any goods;
(j) person by whom any goods are manufactured, produced, processed or reconditioned;
(k) other history, including previous ownership or use, of any goods.
(2) Where any trade description is subject to the provisions of the written laws specified in the Schedule, the provisions of this Act shall not have effect in relation to any such description which is applied in accordance with the requirements of that written law; and the Minister may, by order published in the Gazette, amend the Schedule.
(3) For the purposes of this Act, a trade description published in any newspaper, book or periodical or in any film or sound or television broadcast shall not be deemed to be a trade description applied in the course of a trade or business unless it is or forms part of an advertisement.
Appointment of Director of Consumer Protection and other officers
3.—(1) The Minister may appoint a Director of Consumer Protection, a Deputy Director of Consumer Protection, and such number of Assistant Directors of Consumer Protection and other officers as he may consider necessary or expedient for the purposes of this Act.
(2) The powers and duties of the Director under this Act may be exercised and discharged by the Deputy Director or an Assistant Director of Consumer Protection.
PART II
PROHIBITION OF FALSE TRADE DESCRIPTIONS
Prohibition of false trade descriptions
4. Subject to the provisions of this Act, any person who in the course of a trade or business —
(a) applies a false trade description to any goods; or
(b) supplies any goods to which a false trade description is applied,
shall be guilty of an offence.
False trade descriptions
5. For the purposes of this Part —
(a) a false trade description means a trade description which by reason of anything contained therein or omitted therefrom is false or likely to mislead in a material respect as regards the goods to which it is applied or in connection with which it is used, and includes every alteration of a trade description whether by way of addition, effacement or otherwise which makes the description false or likely to mislead in a material respect; and
(b) a false indication, or anything likely to be taken as an indication which would be false, that any goods comply with a standard specified or recognised by any person or implied by the approval of any person shall be deemed to be a false trade description, if there is no such person or no standard as specified, recognised or implied.
Applying trade description to goods
6.—(1) A person applies a trade description to goods if he —
(a) affixes or annexes it to or in any manner marks it on or incorporates it with —
(i) the goods themselves; or
(ii) anything in, on or with which the goods are supplied;
(b) places the goods in, on or with anything which the trade description has been affixed or annexed to, marked on or incorporated with, or places any such thing with the goods; or
(c) uses the trade description in any manner likely to be taken as referring to the goods.
(2) An oral statement may amount to the use of a trade description.
(3) Where goods are supplied in pursuance of a request in which a trade description is used and the circumstances are such as to make it reasonable to infer that the goods are supplied as goods corresponding to that description, the person supplying the goods shall be deemed to have applied that trade description to the goods.
Trade descriptions used in advertisements
7.—(1) This section shall have effect where in an advertisement a trade description is used in relation to any class of goods.
(2) The trade description shall be taken as referring to all goods of the class, whether or not in existence at the time the advertisement is published —
(a) for the purpose of determining whether an offence has been committed under section 4(a); and
(b) where goods of the class are supplied by a person publishing or displaying the advertisement, also for the purpose of determining whether an offence has been committed under section 4(b).
(3) In determining for the purposes of this section whether any goods are of a class to which a trade description used in an advertisement relates, regard shall be had not only to the form and content of the advertisement but also to the time, place, manner and frequency of its publication and all other matters making it likely or unlikely that a person to whom the goods are supplied would think of the goods as belonging to the class in relation to which the trade description is used in the advertisement.
Trade marks containing trade descriptions
8. A trade description which is or is part of a trade mark within the meaning of the Trade Marks Act (Cap. 332) may be a false trade description when applied to any goods, except where all of the following conditions are satisfied:
(a) it could have been lawfully applied to the goods if this Act had not been passed;
(b) on 1st August 1975 the trade mark either is registered under the Trade Marks Act or is in use to indicate a connection in the course of trade between those goods and the proprietor of the trade mark;
(c) the trade mark as applied is used to indicate such a connection between the goods and the proprietor of the trade mark or a registered user of the trade mark under the Trade Marks Act; and
(d) the person who is the proprietor of the trade mark is the same person as, or a successor in title of, the proprietor on 1st August 1975.
[46/98]
PART III
POWER TO REQUIRE INFORMATIVE MARKING AND TO IMPOSE SAFETY REQUIREMENTS
Informative marking, etc., of goods
9.—(1) Where it appears to the Minister necessary or expedient in the interest of persons to whom any goods are supplied that the goods should be marked with or accompanied by any information (whether or not amounting to or including a trade description) or instruction relating to the goods, the Minister may by regulations impose requirements for securing that the goods are so marked or accompanied, and control or prohibit the supply of goods with respect to which those requirements are not complied with.
(2) Where any regulations made under this section are in force with respect to goods of any description, any person who, in the course of any trade or business, supplies goods of that description in contravention of those regulations shall, subject to the provisions of this Act, be guilty of an offence.
Information, etc., to be given in advertisements
10.—(1) Where it appears to the Minister necessary or expedient in the interest of persons to whom any goods are to be supplied that any description of advertisements of the goods should contain or refer to any information (whether or not amounting to or including a trade description) relating to the goods, the Minister may by regulations impose requirements as to the inclusion of that information, or of an indication of the means by which it may be obtained, in such description of advertisements of the goods as may be specified in the regulations.
(2) Regulations made under this section may specify the form and manner in which any such information or indication is to be included in advertisements of any description and may make different provision for different circumstances.
(3) Where an advertisement of any goods to be supplied in the course of any trade or business fails to comply with any requirement imposed by regulations made under this section, any person who publishes the advertisement shall, subject to the provisions of this Act, be guilty of an offence.
Safety requirements
11.—(1) The Minister may, if he considers it necessary or expedient for the purpose of protecting the safety of consumers, by regulations impose with respect to any prescribed class or description of goods —
(a) requirements for securing that goods of that class or description should comply with those requirements whether as to composition or contents, design, construction, finish or packing as the Minister thinks fit; and
(b) requirements for securing that goods of that class or description should be marked with or accompanied by any information, warning or instruction,
and control or prohibit the supply
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