DEAN DUNHAM: Is it unlawful to purchase a faux designer purse?

I’m tempted to purchase a ‘designer’ purse from my native market as a Christmas reward. It’s clearly a faux, however is it unlawful for me to personal?

E.C., through e-mail

Dean Dunham replies: Under the Consumer Protection From Unfair Trading Regulations 2008 and varied different legal guidelines, it’s a prison offence to promote faux or counterfeit items.

However, it isn’t unlawful to buy faux or counterfeit items as long as you might be shopping for on your personal private use and never for resale.

You should concentrate on 5 potential penalties of shopping for such items:

Hooky purses: It will not be unlawful to buy faux or counterfeit items as long as you might be shopping for on your personal private use and never for resale

1. Fake items are sometimes unhealthy high quality and, in lots of circumstances, unsafe.

Counterfeit electrical items aren’t put by the identical rigorous security checks as legit gadgets and are sometimes harmful.

Likewise, faux medicines, alcohol and meals aren’t subjected to the identical well being and security procedures as authorized merchandise, so consumption can doubtlessly be deadly.

Fake clothes and niknaks, similar to luggage, are sometimes fabricated from inferior supplies and can hardly ever meet anticipated hearth resistant requirements. 

They might be nowhere close to as sturdy as the real article and could possibly be harmful.

2. While we within the UK have a number of the greatest client safety legal guidelines on this planet, if you happen to knowingly purchase faux or counterfeit items none of them will apply to you.

This means if one thing goes incorrect together with your buy — maybe the strap or clasp breaks in your ‘designer’ bag — there might be little you are able to do. 

However, if you happen to had been unaware that you simply had been shopping for counterfeit items it is possible for you to to demand a full refund underneath the Consumer Rights Act 2015, which says items have to be ‘as described’.

3. Your buy of counterfeit items could possibly be serving to to fund prison actions. According to Action Fraud, cash spent on counterfeit items usually finally ends up funding organised crime similar to drug dealing.

4. Your buy of faux items harms the real manufacturers and will contribute to their eventual downfall.

5. The likes of eBay and Vinted have made it simple to promote used gadgets you now not need, however it might be a prison offence to promote faux gadgets on these web sites.

Plonkers solely despatched half my Del Boy DVDs

I purchased all the field set of Only Fools And Horses on-line however solely half the seasons had been delivered. Can I ship them again for a refund?

J.H., Watford, Herts

Dean Dunham replies: There are two legal guidelines that imply you are able to do precisely that. First, as you bought on-line, the Consumer Contracts Regulations say you possibly can ship the products again and procure a refund as long as you notify the vendor inside 14 days of supply after which ship the products again inside 14 days thereafter.

Second, part 25(1) of the Consumer Rights Act 2015 says you possibly can reject items and demand a full refund if the incorrect amount is delivered, which is the case right here.

My recommendation could be to reject the products underneath the second choice — the Consumer Rights Act — as the vendor will then must pay for the price of returning the products. 

If you reject underneath the Consumer Contracts Regulations choice, the vendor might say it’s a must to pay the return prices, which is allowed underneath this regulation except the products are defective.

One remaining necessary level to notice — it is crucial you don’t open the DVD packaging and break the ‘seal’, as if you happen to do that the vendor will legitimately be capable to reject the return. It is subsequently important that you simply return the products in a ‘saleable’ situation.

• Write to Dean Dunham, Money Mail, Scottish Daily Mail, 20 Waterloo Street, Glasgow G2 6DB or e-mail [email protected]. No obligation may be accepted by the Daily Mail for solutions given.