An excellent account of the regulations - and a far better one than I was planning (and now abandoning)! It is worth pointing a few things out however.
What the regs do:
Basically - what most other legislation that it has amended / replaced does anyway. In terms of what is outlawed, there are few things that are new. There are new things - like "pester power", but others, such as claiming products can cure illnesses when they cant have already existed in one form or another (in this case, for example, the Cancer Act in 1902 (or thereabouts) created a similar offence).
Interpretation
A main problem is how wording is to be interpreted. some language of the new regs are completely alien to English Law for example:
- the use of X and Y for example when referring to act or default of another),
- Professional dilligence
- "average consumer"
whilst many of these are similar in wording, and indeed the intent is the same, the fact that it is in legislation means there will undoubtedly be challenges in the courts, as has always happened with new legislation even where it is very similar to that which is repealed. Should be rather interesting to see how it works out.
What the regs dont do:
Make contracts unenforceable just because of a breach (virtue of s. 29). The committal of an offence (where there is one) does not automatically make a contract unenforceable in and of itself. This is / was the case with, e.g, Property Misdescriptions. If you are wondering then why these have been put in if you can't do anything, well like most criminal legislation, it is there for the benefit of those in enforcement authorities. The State wishes to prohibit certain practices, and duly wishes to punish those that engage in them. the legislation enables that to happen.
They will also not stop every single prohibited practice. Like any other legislation, it is only as good as its enforcement. Half of this is down to Government and Local authorities which (samefully) put so many duties on trading Standards to enforce various legislation but not the resources to allow them to do so. The other half (and don't tut or huff) is by people REPORTING MATTERS TO CONSUMER DIRECT! I have gone into this before in detail. TS need information in order to take action, so if something does go wrong, please report it.
Re: The Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008 - draft 
