Office of Fair Trading

The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) was responsible for protecting consumer interests throughout the UK. Its responsibilities have been passed to a number of different organisations.

View the closed OFT site in the UK Government Web Archive.

Use services and information now provided by other organisations

Consumer rights

You can:

• find out who to contact about consumer protection and complain about a product or service
• complain to the Advertising Standards Authority if you think advertising rules have been broken
• complain to Monitor about a healthcare provider in England
• contact the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) with enquiries about the regulation of consumer credit

Anti-competitive behaviour and issues with market sectors

You can:

• tell the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) about:
  • anti-competitive practices (eg price fixing and bid rigging)
  • a market not working well
  • unfair terms in a contract
  • any issues related to poor competition
• find out how to avoid and report anti-competitive behaviour
• find out how to avoid unfair terms in sales contracts

History of OFT

OFT was a non-ministerial department. It existed from 1973 to 1 April 2014. OFT’s responsibilities passed to a number of different organisations when it closed.