About the Office of Fair Trading's enforcement processes

The Office of Fair Trading's (OFT) goal is to protect the rights of consumers and businesses and achieve a fair and safe marketplace. We recognise most businesses want to comply with the law.

When we receive a complaint or suspect a breach of the law, we follow our policies and procedures to investigate, analyse and address the situation.

We follow an escalation model. This means our response to ensuring compliance increases as a trader's attitude to complying with the law decreases.

Our activities and powers to promote compliance and enforce the law include:

• educating businesses and consumers about the law
• working with industry groups to promote good practices
• licensing or registering participants of some industries and not-for-profits
• taking court action for serious or repeated breaches of the laws we administer.

Enforcement options and remedies we can impose include:

• official warnings
• infringement notices (or fines)
• civil penalty notices
• enforceable undertakings
• administrative actions, including issuing show cause notices, changing licence or registration conditions or suspending or cancelling a licence or registration
• public warnings naming businesses and traders consumers should avoid
• prosecutions through a court or tribunal, which can result in court orders or injunctions.

When deciding which enforcement action to take we'll always:

• consider the type of breach, circumstances and public interest
• consider every option, including court or tribunal action
• make sure our evidence can be admitted in court, and is substantial (or important) and reliable
• make sure the severity of our enforcement action matches the severity of the breach
• not proceed without a reasonable chance of success
• be accountable and transparent in our actions and decisions.

Download our Compliance and Enforcement Policy for more information.

Penalties we can impose

We can take the following enforcement actions without a court order.