Following adoption of the EU Directive on Unfair Commercial Practices, the UK Government has introduced regulations to bring UK law in line with the EU requirements. In general terms the regulations revoke a number of different UK rules and bring them under a single umbrella of unfair commercial practices.
The new 'CUPTR' introduce a list of commercial practices which are always considered unfair; but they also introduce the concept of "contravening the requirements of professional diligence" as an unfair practice. This provides officers with flexibility in dealing with problems that may evolve in the future, without requiring new legislation.
In addition the Business Protection from Misleading Marketing Regulations also implement part of the Directive and cover a range of business to business frauds, making it easier to deal with common practices such as the 'office supplies' scams where junior staff are conned by traders giving the impression that they are regular suppliers.