Report to the Minister for Economic Development, Tourism, Sport and Culture
Price Indicators (Jersey) Regulations 2008
made under the Price and Charge Indicators (Jersey) Law 2008
Proposed Amendments to Regulation 3 – Price to be indicated
Background
Regulation 2 of the Price Indicators (Jersey) Regulations 2008 requires traders who offer goods for sale to consumers to ensure that the selling price is indicated in accordance with those Regulations. The selling price is the price inclusive of GST.
Regulation 3 requires prices to be in sterling and details how you indicate the selling price of goods, for example the price per kilogram or pound if sold from bulk or the price per stated unit.
‘Exceptions’ are included that allow traders to charge a different price to those pre-printed on the goods if they are;
a) pre-packaged food, newspapers, books or periodicals, and
b) the price was pre-printed on the goods before first importation into Jersey
Regulation 3(4)(b)(ii) and 3(5)(b)(ii) allow the selling price (which is inclusive of GST) to be the price marked on the goods with a combination of an amount or of the percentage of that price which is to be added to that price in order to determine the selling price.
Discussion
Consultation before the enabling Law and associated Regulations were debated highlighted the fact that it would be unfair to expect traders to absorb the GST element on certain pre-priced and imported zero VAT rated goods. Re-packaging food or individually removing and re-pricing each item was not economically viable. This could lead to traders reducing the range of goods they made available in Jersey.
Therefore exceptions were agreed which allowed traders to uplift the price without having to re-price or re-package these ‘excepted’ goods whilst still informing consumers on how they could determine the selling price (GST inclusive price).
The recent decision to print national newspapers in Jersey has been welcomed. The digital content will be supplied by a number of national newspapers, imported and printed locally in its original format. These national newspapers will therefore indicate the UK price.
The Regulations do not allow for traders to uplift these prices to accommodate GST as the exception only applies to newspapers ‘printed with a price marked on it before its importation into Jersey’.
An amendment to allow for the ‘digital importation’ of the excepted items listed in Regulation 3(5)(a) would not only enable traders to continue to price national newspapers in the same way, as they have been doing since the introduction of GST, but also remove barriers to trade and potentially open up opportunities for other media such as popular magazines and TV schedule guides to be printed in the same way on island.
In addition, it is now common practice for traders to indicate the selling price of excepted goods in a way that has not been accounted for in the Regulations.
Traders display the excepted goods (which are individually price marked) and indicate the selling price (inclusive of GST) on a shelf edge label with appropriate signage brining to the customers attention that the price charged is the price on the shelf and not the price on the pre-priced goods.
Trading Standards investigate pricing complaints and carry out pro-active inspections. When speaking to retailers and consumers, indicating the selling price on a shelf edge label with an appropriate notice appears to be a popular and well understood method of displaying the GST inclusive price for excepted goods. This method removes the need for consumers to carry out a calculation of the pack price plus a percentage for GST or pack price plus an amount, therefore making it easier to make an informed decision based on the display of the inclusive selling price.
Recommendation
It is recommended that the Minister authorises the Director of Trading Standards to instruct the Law Draftsman to:-
draft an amendment to the Price and Charge Indicator (Jersey) Regulations 2008 to allow newspapers, periodicals or books imported into the island in a digital format but printed in the island to be added to the exceptions for the purposes of Regulation 3(5)
draft a further amendment to allow traders to indicate the selling price of excepted goods by a combination of the price marked on the goods and an indication of the selling price and appropriate notice to the consumer, for the purposes of Regulation 3(4)(b) and 3(5)(b).
Director of Trading Standards
04th May 2016