Summary: We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint about the Council’s Trading Standards involvement with her business. This is because we cannot achieve the outcome Mrs X wants, which is for the Council to compensate her for her losses. If Mrs X wishes to claim compensation it would be reasonable for her to take the matter to court

The complaint

1. Mrs X complained Trading Standards wrongly closed her business and she has not been able to trade for several months.
2. Mrs X said Trading Standards’ based its decision on inaccurate information.
3. Mrs X also complained Trading Standards have refused to meet her to discuss the issues and has threatened her with prosecution if she sells her products.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

4. We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’, which we call ‘fault’. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse impact on the person making the complaint, which we call ‘injustice’. We provide a free service, but must use public money carefully. We do not start or continue an investigation if we decide we cannot achieve the outcome someone wants.
5. The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
6. The law says we cannot normally investigate a complaint when someone could take the matter to court. However, we may decide to investigate if we consider it would be unreasonable to expect the person to go to court. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26(6)(c), as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

7. I considered information provided by Mrs X.
8. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

9. The Council’s Trading Standards test purchased one of Mrs X’s products. The Council told Mrs X the product was not compliant and she should not sell any further products until she had updated the label and website.
10. Mrs X believed this meant she could not sell any products at all, which effectively closed her business. A Council officer told Mrs X a week later that she only had to stop selling the product Trading Standards had test purchased. However, Mrs X said her business has remained closed since the Council’s original advice.
11. Mrs X said she would like the Council to pay compensation for her lost sales, and for the time and money needed to regain her customers. Mrs X said she would also like compensation for the damage to her business’ reputation.
12. We cannot determine the impact on Mrs X and her business in terms of loss of sales or damage to the business’ reputation. We also cannot say whether the Council’s concerns about the product were justified, or separate the impact of these concerns from any other impact based on the loss of sales of the other products.
13. We cannot therefore quantify the losses Mrs X says she has experienced, or hold the Council responsible for them. If Mrs X wishes to pursue this matter, it would be reasonable for her to take action against the Council at court.

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Final decision

14. We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint because we cannot achieve the outcome she wants. If Mrs X wishes to make a claim for damages it would be reasonable for her to take the matter to court.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman