Browsing by Person "Cathcart, Craig"

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Consumer choice for hearing aids and listening devices: newspaper advertisements for UK private sector provision
(Wiley, 2011-01-15) Ross, Liz; Cathcart, Craig; Lyon, Phil
In the UK there can be several ways to access health care and this is true of hearing aid provision. Although there may appear to be a well-defined distinction between the National Health Service (NHS) and independent dispenser hearing aid provision, there have been many examples of overlap between the two and recent government policy initiatives mean that distinctions have become less clear. This article outlines the changing relationship between the two sectors and the problems that potential consumers face accessing information on private sector options for amplification devices. A 1-year sample of newspaper advertisements was content-analysed for clarity of information provided. The analysis highlighted a range of provision, from well-known hearing aid dispensers to the greyer areas of listening device retailers and intermediary services. Some advertisements were found to have been reported to the Advertising Standards Authority. Sufficiently misleading adverts may also infringe consumer protection legislation. The article concludes there is the possibility of consumer confusion about products and their potential for amelioration.
Pills, potions and devices: treatments for hearing loss advertised in mid-nineteenth century British newspapers.
(Oxford Journals, 2014-01) Ross, Liz; Lyon, Phil; Cathcart, Craig
This article examines the ameliorative options facing people with hearing loss in mid-nineteenth-century Britain. As reflected in professional journals of the day, medical understanding of diseases and dysfunctions of the ear was limited, yet there was vigorous assertion and counter-claim as to the cause and treatment of problems. At the time, medicine was largely unregulated and quack practitioners were also able to promote their nostrums and services to a credulous the general public with little chance of a genuine cure for their hearing loss. Using the nineteenth-century British Library Newspapers Archive for 1850, 379 advertisements offering cures for deafness were identified and examined to illustrate the variety of nostrums and devices offered to the public. Individuals with hearing loss were easy prey when even qualified medical practitioners had little understanding of cause or treatment, and when scant legal protection protected them from fraudulent treatment claims or offered redress for their failure.
The highly detailed general principles of the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008
(Scottish Law Agents Society, 2009) Cathcart, Craig; Williams, Jane
Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 20082 (hereinafter referred to as the Regulations-) came into force. The Regulations have radically overhauled the existing UK provisions regulating fair trading, as part of the further harmonisation of consumer protection laws across the EU.3 This being a maximum harmonisation measure, 23 pieces of domestic law have been repealed in whole or part and a completely new framework to regulate fair trading put in their place.