2001 Street Trading Act (Northern Ireland) – Restraint of Trade

Street Trading Act (Northern Ireland) 2001

This Act was drafted by HMG and Section 2 (1) lists 5 activities that are not street trading for the purposes of the Act.

link to the Act

exemptions include:

Section 2 (1) (a) trading with occupiers of premises adjoining any street

Section 2 (1) (e) trading by a person acting as a pedlar under the authority of a Pedlars Certificate “if the trading is carried out only by means of visits from house to house”.

In regard to pedlars, the first exempts trading at houses and Parliament could not have intended that the second carries the same meaning so by necessity must carry a different meaning. The qualifying words “if the trading is carried out only by means of visits from house to house” are those formulated in the City of Westminster Act 1999 and later repeated in all private Acts in some 11 jurisdictions but there is a problem in those jurisdictions with proper interpretation both by promoters and enforcers.

The Street Trading Act (NI) 2001 clarifies the meaning of the second exemption above by differentiating certified pedlars as ambulant traders when compared with street traders who occupy a static pitch allocated by licence. The only confusion remains in the generic description that both are street traders or traders in the street.