Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they will take to tackle unfair market practices by e-commerce companies that run online marketplaces; and whether they will ban such companies from selling products in which they have an equity interest.

Consumer protection legislation prohibits traders from engaging in unfair commercial practices. The Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008 (CPRs) prohibit traders from engaging in unfair commercial practices such as misleading actions.

There is also legislation in place that protects consumers when buying tickets from secondary ticketing facilities which have an equity interest in the tickets being sold. For example, the Consumer Rights Act 2015 requires that, where the ticket seller is the operator of a secondary ticketing facility or a person who is employed or engaged by them, they must make this matter known to a prospective buyer.

In April 2018, the European Commission published a draft Directive to modernise and improve the enforcement of EU consumer law. This included a proposal to require online marketplaces to provide more information to help consumers understand their rights when shopping through an online marketplace. The proposal is still being negotiated.