R v Birmingham City Council, ex parte Ferrero Ltd
| Jurisdiction | England & Wales |
| Judgment Date | 22 February 1990 |
| Date | 22 February 1990 |
| Court | Queen's Bench Division |
Queen's Bench Division
Before Mr Justice Hutchison
Consumer protection - safety - future regulations
In deciding whether to impose a suspension notice under the Consumer Protection Act 1987, a local authority was not entitled to take into account statutory safety regulations which were not yet in force.
Mr Justice Hutchison so held in the Queen's Bench Divisional Court in quashing a suspension notice issued to Ferrero Ltd, suppliers of chocolates, by Birmingham City Council under section 14 of the 1987 Act.
Section 10 of the 1987 Act provides: "(1) A person shall be guilty of an offence if he (a) supplies any consumer goods which fail to comply with the general safety requirement…
"(2) For the purposes of this section consumer goods fail to comply with the general safety requirement if they are not reasonably safe having regard to all the circumstances, including … (b) any standards of safety published by any person either for goods of a description which applies to the goods in question or for matters relating to goods of that description…"
Section 14 provides: "(1) Where an enforcement authority has reasonable grounds for suspecting that any safety provision has been contravened in relation to any goods, the authority may serve a notice (`a suspension notice') prohibiting the person on whom it is served, for such a period ending not more than six months after the date of the notice as is specified therein, from doing any of the following things without the consent of the authority, that is to say, supplying the goods, offering to supply them, agreeing to supply them or exposing them for supply."
Section 15 provides for an appeal to a magistrates court against a suspension notice.
Mr Michael Beloff, QC and Mr Richard Spearman for Ferrero; Mr John Mitting, QC and Mr Colman Treacy for the council.
MR JUSTICE HUTCHISON said the applicants made Kinder Surprise, chocolate eggs containing plastic kits from which small toys could be made.
A new toy, "Pink Panther", was introduced and about a month later, on November 5, 1989, Jennifer Ashton, aged three, had died after one of the Pink Panther feet lodged in her throat.
Three days later, Birmingham trading standards office issued a suspension notice prohibiting Ferrero for six months from supplying Pink Panther eggs. Ferrero sought to have the order quashed.
The grounds on which Ferrero relied were: (i) that the...
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