Stockton on Tees Trading Standards recently got involved and lost in a messy case concerning a price promise made in leaflets at a Curry’s store claiming that they would refund 110% of any price difference of the same model available at another local retailer.

A Trading Standards enforcement officer bought a tumble dryer from Curry’s, which was also on sale at a local Comet store for £40 less. Curry’s would not refund the difference.

Only at the very late stage in Court did it come out that the tumble dryer purchased from Curry’s came with a vent kit and evidence from Comet was that the machines sometimes come with a vent kit and sometimes not.

Because of this the appeal at High Court threw out the case and Trading Standards had to foot the legal costs.

NB. Don’t rely on this case to attempt to evade the law by offering a price promise because one car had a deodoriser hanging from the mirror while your competitors doesn’t. The point to understand is that, if Trading Standards had prepared their case better, they may have won the day and it goes to show how high the standard of evidence is in a criminal case (beyond all reasonable doubt) compared with civil cases in the County Court (on the balance of probabilities).