Legal Bulletin

(No. 4) Regulations 2020

The latest regulations for England have been published this afternoon (3rd November 2020).

Regrettably there is no mention in the actual regulations of "click and collect" despite the use of that phrase in the official guidance.

All businesses (other than specific exemptions) offering goods for sale or for hire in a shop are required to cease to carry on that business, except

Regulation 18(1)(a)(i) by making deliveries or otherwise providing services in response to orders received-

(aa) through a website, or otherwise by on-line communication,

(bb) by telephone, including orders by text message, or

(cc) by post;

(ii) to a purchaser who collects goods that have been pre-ordered by a means mentioned in paragraph (i), provided the purchaser does not enter inside the premises to do so,

The exceptions include Car repair and MOT services.

We have already had a number of queries from dealers trying to reconcile the requirements of these regulations with the distance selling rights set out in the Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013.

Our current view is that in order to comply with these lockdown regulations the deal needs to be concluded before the customer arrives on site, so that when they do arrive it is just a question of handing the vehicle over. As such the distance selling rights will apply.

This means that it is essential to ensure you've given the customer all the necessary information about what their cancellation rights would be if those regulations apply.

Please also note that when a customer does arrive to collect a vehicle they're not allowed to enter the premises.

Furlough

Although we're currently awaiting for the latest Treasury Direction to set out exactly how the latest Furlough scheme will work, some guidance has been released.

"You can claim for employees who were on your PAYE payroll on 30th October 2020. You must have made a PAYE Real Time Information (RTI) submission to HMRC between 20th March 2020 and 30th October 2020, notifying a payment of earnings for that employee.

If employees were on your payroll on 23rd September 2020 (i.e. notified to HMRC on an RTI submission on or before 23 September) and were made redundant or stopped working for you afterwards, they can also qualify for the scheme if you re-employ them.

Neither you nor your employee needs to have previously used the CJRS [Coronavirus Job retention Scheme]. Further details on eligibility will be provided in the next few days"

Useful Links

Regulations - https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2020/1200/contents/made

Guidance - https://www.gov.uk/guidance/new-national-restrictions-from-5-november

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