About our service

What we do and how we work

The overall vision of Ceredigion County Council's Trading Standards Service is "Confident Consumers, Trusted Traders" and our primary aim is to ensure that food & agricultural standards, weights & measures, fair trading and safety legislation is complied with for the benefit of consumers as well as fair and honest traders.

We are here to Help ...

• Vulnerable consumers by providing them with advice about their consumer rights (advice on consumer rights and problems for all other residents and businesses is provided by the Citizens Advice Consumer Service).
• Businesses by providing them with advice about how to comply with the laws that affect their goods and services

We are also here to protect...

• Consumers from being ripped off by unscrupulous and fraudulent traders
• Businesses from being damaged by unfair and illegal competition

What we can and can't do

There are many ways in which our service can help you. 

We can:-

• Advise you on the law and your rights.
• Investigate if the criminal law within the Trading Standards remit has been contravened.

Unfortunately, the amount of help we can provide is restricted by the powers given to us by legislation. 

For example, we CANNOT:-

• close businesses down
• act as mediator between you and a trader to obtain a refund or other resolution to a breach of contract for you
• take action where no criminal law has been broken
• recommend a business
• tell you which business to avoid

How we work

Officers of the Trading Standards Section carry out their duties by:

• Inspecting trade premises for legal compliance in respect of legal metrology, quality standards, product safety and fair trading.
• Providing advice to consumers and businesses.
• Investigating complaints about goods and services.
• Sampling and testing products and services - e.g. obtain food samples to test for compliance in respect of compositional standards and labelling;
• Testing the safety of goods e.g. electrical appliances, toys, cosmetic products; take samples of animal feedstuffs and agricultural fertilisers for compositional analysis, etc.
• Carrying out projects and surveys into various products and trade practices.
• Organising talks and exhibitions to promote a greater awareness of the Trading Standards Service.
• Taking enforcement action - where officers investigate breaches of legislation, in many instances offenders are prosecuted in the criminal courts.

The Trading Standards Service does not operate in isolation.  Bearing in mind that commercial transactions are not hindered by geographical boundaries, the officers are in frequent contact with other Trading Standards services throughout the UK.  Officers also contact other enforcement agencies such as Dyfed Powys Police and HM Customs and Excise, as well as Government Departments such as the Office of Fair Trading (OFT), Food Standards Agency and the Local Government Regulation (LGR).