Regulatory, Competition Policy and the Public Interest - Assignment Example

Business Regulation Name Institution Course Date Question 1 The new trade regulations have had a massive impact on trade operations across the country and the ripple effects have affected trade operations across the continent. Officers involved in trade operations reported that the regulations have had direct impacts on the civil and criminal routes and rules available prior to the regulations. These are massively affected by the structural, operational and cultural impacts, which are carried by the new rules in the process of their operations. However, there are positive views in relation to the operations of the trade regulations concerning the omission of unnecessary facts and bureaucracies. The flexibility within the regulations was influenced by the complaints by various participants within the authorities (Williams & Caroline, 2010). The recent attempts by the commission to harmonise issues have rendered the member states unable to regulate, this remains more as an issue of controversy. In case of failures, it will be a major concern of the consumers rather than an issue of the legislators or the traders. The consumers will be worse hit by any effects of failures in the laws and acts of trade made within the treaties. Presently, the future of Europe is raging .There is a widespread broadening of the activities and membership which brings complexities on issues of constitutionality of issues. The core of all this is the design that will put Europe at the desired point in the world economy and business environments of the future. This outfit will put Europe at a strategic point in the world market offering competitive advantage to the US particularly (Geraint & Christian, 2005). The laws of trade, which have been developed to protect the trade block from issues of tumbling, have dismally failed to provide safeguard measures to protect the trade block from economic externalities. With the enactment of the enterprise act of 2002, criminal action are not only acted upon by the law of the land .However, the Office of Fair Trading may act on the law offenders as stipulated in Part 8 consumers through directives which are not stipulated in the act itself. The act does not apply the intimidation regulation of stop and penalty measures, which are stipulated by Marcory (2006). Regulatory, Competition policy and the Public interest Historically the European Union has had a focus on the development of a pan European market with minimal barriers to trade. This is to be achieved through minimal amounts of directives and barriers. This has been introduced with the application of maximum harmonization of the trade issues among the states. The member states are therefore under the directive to introduce minimum directives and regulations that are hindrance to the international trade between the states. Moreover, regulations and state pacts are the tools developed to control and cushion the local markets and individual national economies. This policy has led to the protection of the consumer at the local market and left a lot of freedom at the top end of the market. However, recently there has been a move to complete and comprehensive harmonisation into European Union systems leaving the member states little options .the member states are not able to regulate their operations past the regulations of the European Union making the regulation quite controversial. The EU policy has been deeply seated and factoring the protection of the consumers in its market base. The globalization of the economy has factored in the issues of co-operations, nationals, citizens, the regulators and the divide between the wealthy and the poor in the society. The regulations in the market has been effected to protect those individuals vulnerable in the market due to the various factors constraining their operations and daily running of their normal businesses (Hutter, 1997). Economic integrations in Europe has its banks on the following freedom attributes-services, goods, capital and persons. Competitive policy allows the traders to move freely offering flexibility to the consumers to have a range of options for the goods to purchase from the market .Due to the variety of goods and services in the market; this offers better options for the consumers to obtain better products within the market. However, it is argued that the regulations in the market by the union should be mostly in relation to the product quality and safety and let there be free flow of trade products. The European Union commission takes its consumer policy model as which is well informed and with the provision for future realignments and developments in relation to the achieving the targets and objectives of the trade block. The consumer laws in the EU are assumptive that given all the information, the consumers are able to handle and take care of their interests. This offers a satisfactory response to the legislators who act in relation to satisfying the needs of the traders (Geraint & Christian, 2005). Question 2 Regulations can be carried out by states or organisations .Self regulation occurs when a group exerts some rules and regulations on its membership in relation to their operations and behaviours. A number of issues can be put forth by the organizations to act as the regulation on their members. Most cases of self-regulations are for the purposes of efficiency and expertise. Meta Regulations and Enforced Self Regulation involve external monitoring of the regulation by an authority or through organs of the government. Normally this form of regulation has impacts on the organization in cases of failure of compliance. This is achieved through monitoring and evaluation of the acts and practices of the organization by the relevant authorities. Failures to adhere to the regulations will lead to correction of the episodes in some instances punishments. The regulatory networks and mixes will always provide the best means of regulation. This is because it involves the mixtures of institutions and instruments to handle the issues of enforcement and compliance. The proponents of this approach emphasise on the following aspects; complementarily sequenced, inherently compatible and inherently complementary. Nearly all self-regulatory instruments of organizations have some kind of external influence whether directly or indirectly. The self and Meta regulations offer solutions that are non-contentious compared to those regulations imposed by the external entities. It is critical to develop mixes in regulation that achieve the optimum effect in relation to the running of the organizations parties (Baldwin, 2012). The problems identified were classified into goods, services and products. The regulations which are enforced and affect the consumers mostly are those related to this issues which they employ their usage on a daily basis and on their regular operations (Office of Fair Trading, 2008). The Directive introduced a framework that is general and governing unfair commercial practices across the European countries. It equally leads to the reduction of obstacles of cross border trades. The directive has invoked prohibition on various unfair practices in the business community and traders. The implementation in UK has been through the protection of the traders from unfair trade regulations (Williams & Caroline, 2010). A New Framework The Directive has lead to a major change in the substantive law governing fair trade in the region. This is due to the changes in principles and definition of issues governing the trade. The move in the Directive to have principle-based laws has had an impact in the operations of the traders and consumers. The move towards principle-based approach will have a massive impact on the enforcers particularly at the early stages of implementation. Generally, the Directive has a prohibition to Unfair Commercial Practices –Article 5, which is in regulation 3(1) of the regulations of UK. The due diligence must be followed for the commercial practice to be fair and to meet the set upon standards. The traders are expected to act with special skills and care towards the customers and to deal with the consumers in a manner that is commensurate with honest practices of the market and spirit of good faith (Harvey & Parry, 2000). Enforcement The impact the Directive has depends on a number of factors. The enforcement should be seen in the wider regulatory context in the UK and the roles to be played by the enforcers. There have been questions in relation to the criminal law in relation to handling of offenders. The roles played by the enforcers have been under massive political spotlight and scrutiny. The Hampton report of 2005 and the Marcory review of 2006m had massive recommendations for legislative implementations. The Directive provides for the implementation of the regulations but concisely gives the framework and regulations for the implementation (Hampton, 2005). Bibliography Baldwin, E. A 2012, Self Regulation, Meta Regulation and Regulatory Networks. Geraint, H., & Christian, W 2005, What Sort of Europe Do Consumers Want, London: ABI/INFORM Global. Hampton, P 2005, Reducing Administrative Burdens :Effective Administration and Enforcement, London: HM Treasury. Harvey, B., & Parry, D 2000, Law of Consumer Protection and Fair Trading (6th ed. ed.), London: Butterworths. Hutter, B, 1997, Compliance Regulation and Environment, Oxford: Claredon. Office of Fair Trading 2008, Consumer Detriment-Assessing the Frequency and Impacts of consumer Problems with Goods and Services. 3-108. Williams, J., & Caroline, H 2010, Early Experiences of the Enforcement of Unfair Commercial Practices directive in Scotland, J Consum Policy, 1-25. Read More