While the travel industry is constantly evolving, it is important to ensure that your business remains compliant with the laws in place and that you are aware of the industry’s powers. It is also greatly important that your consumers know exactly how to resolve any issue they may have directly with you without resorting to the industry powers unnecessarily.
At Protected Trust Services (PTS), we understand the importance of clear communication between the travel business and the client. With fragmented but highly reported knowledge, consumers can at times resort to outside methods to resolve an issue with a travel business that could have been resolved in-house with minimal stress.
With new changes to industry powers in the works for the UK government, it is important to ensure that your business makes it simple for both you and the consumer to resolve any issues that may come up without the threat of a breach.
That is why we at PTS are so enthusiastic about the financial protection provided by our market-leading travel trust account solution. With complete security, transparency, and segregation of funds, your travellers can book their holiday stress-free knowing that if they have an issue, their money is protected and can be swiftly returned where needed.
The changes in industry powers that are to come allow those consumers in need to have their case resolved, and at PTS, we ensure our members are compliant and trustworthy travel businesses with fantastic financial and legal protection and our support to ensure that our members are prepared to help resolve consumer issues without hassle.
So, What Will the New Industry Powers Change?
Regulators within the industry are soon to see some big changes in their powers surrounding consumer protection within the UK. The ability to impose fines will be expanded to prompt greater compliance from businesses and ensure that those who do not comply are punished accordingly, allowing affected consumers better resolution.
It is widely understood that previously, regulators have not had particularly effective tools for some cases of non-compliance. With many consumer laws applying to the specific sale of package holidays, misleading information, terms and conditions, and treatment both during and after the booking, some travel businesses to this day still implement some forms of breach without the regulators being able to effectively prevent them.
As a result, powers have been calling for the ability to enforce the law more effectively for a long time. In the most recent consultations by the UK government on the matter, some resolutions to these calls to action have been proposed and will be put in place.
At present, many of the actions that can be taken by regulators are time-consuming, expensive, and can force a case to go to court or take long-winded measures where greater powers could reduce the strain on time and expense.
New powers in this area proposed under the DMCC Bill will change this. With the new powers, the enforcing power, CMA, will be allowed to reduce the court process or remove it completely and decide whether consumer law has been breached and what action should be taken. Plus, CMA will be able to impose substantial fines for non-compliance where necessary to any travel business selling to UK consumers, not just businesses located in the UK. These fines can also be applied if a business fails or refuses to assist the CMA during an investigation.
To ensure the compliance of businesses further, the bill also proposes the ability for the CMA to impose action or fines against directors, managers, secretaries, or other people with control of the business that consented to or connived in the breach of the law.
The proposal will also allow the CAA and Trading Standards to request the imposition of fines for non-compliance to the same significance as the CMA.
This bill is expected to be put in place after it has worked its way through Parliament in 2024 and proves the great steps the travel industry has taken to protect consumers affected by many outstanding non-compliant businesses.
We are proud to support some fantastic businesses that, with complete compliance through PTS, will be able to continue supporting their consumers with complete peace of mind and potentially even greater consumer confidence after this bill is put in place.
So, if you’d like to learn more about how your consumers’ monies are protected with Protected Trust Services (PTS) and how we support excellent travel businesses, check out our pages. Or you can get in touch with the lovely PTS team by calling 0207 190 9988 or emailing us at ask@protectedtrustservices.com.
