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“By not having it hallmarked, it’s a criminal offence and you could go to prison,” Graham Mogg, founder and chief executive of brand protection specialist WRi Group, warns a seemingly unconcerned shopkeeper about his stock of gold jewellery in east London. Mogg receives a small laugh in response and an assurance from the retailer, who is given 21 days to comply, that the necessary hallmarking will be done in the coming weeks.
During an awareness visit to the shop in Newham on a grey summer’s day, Operation Stamping It Out — a project between the London Assay Office and 11 Trading Standards teams in London and southeast England — is in full swing. Its aim is to educate retailers, from market stall traders to Bond Street brands, about their obligations under the Hallmarking Act (1973) and take enforcement action where necessary.
Jewellery made from silver, gold, platinum or palladium that is offered for sale in the UK has to be tested and hallmarked when it is above a certain weight, which in the case of gold is 1g. Retailers also have to display in a prominent position a document known as a Dealer’s Notice, which explains hallmarks to consumers. A conviction for non-compliance with the law could result in up to two years’ imprisonment.
The project is being funded by the London Assay Office at a cost of £38,400 a year and delivered by WRi Group. “Because there’s been a lack of funding for Trading Standards alongside an increase in the amount of work that they have to do with all the modern issues that need dealing with, like counterfeit vapes and e-scooter batteries, it’s difficult for them to actually enforce the Hallmarking Act,” says Will Evans, director of the London Assay Office. He adds that the assay office, after being challenged by customers in the past about what it was doing to tackle non-compliance, felt it was “appropriate . . . to step in and support the Trading Standards officers” as part of its “consumer protection remit”.
But he stresses the project, launched in 2023, is “not just about catching people out”. “Most breaches seem to be due to ignorance, not malice, so it’s about education, clear signage and guidance for retailers,” says Evans.
The operation was developed on the back of research WRi did for the London Assay Office and the British Hallmarking Council, which supervises the UK’s four assay offices, in 2019 into non-compliant sales of gold on online platforms. Now, WRi carries out covert online and in-store test purchases, which inform intelligence reports prepared for Trading Standards teams. The company also arranges and makes two types of visits to businesses with Trading Standards officers: education and awareness visits to inform retailers of their legal obligations; and follow-ups to see whether they have complied with feedback, or direct inspections where there is a known infringement.
Will Evans, director of the London Assay Office © Anna Gordon for the FT
Depending on the policy of the individual local authority and the response of the trader involved, if on a repeat visit a retailer is found to still have precious metal items without the necessary hallmarks, a sample or all of their stock could be seized and taken to the London Assay Office for testing. The retailer would have to pay the hallmarking costs, which vary with the number of items, to have them returned.
Teams visited 360 retailers in London and the southeast between September 1 2023 and July 24 this year, according to Mogg, a former police intelligence officer. Three-quarters of those visited were in breach of the act, primarily for failing to display a Dealer’s Notice. “One of the first things we were told [in] some of [the high-end] properties was that the current Dealer’s Notice didn’t match their decor and, as such, they didn’t want to spoil the look [of the] shop,” says Mogg.
Separate to Operation Stamping It Out, Edinburgh Assay Office launched a pilot with Pandora last year that led to the development of a format for a tailored notice that could be used by a single-brand retailer to show the marks customers would see on their products. “It engages consumers in an immediate and contextual way with their purchase, as opposed to giving them a much broader overview of hallmarks which have become quite complex,” says Scott Walter, assay master and chief executive at Edinburgh Assay Office. On the back of that pilot, Evans says the London Assay Office is in talks with some of its customers about rolling out tailored Dealer’s Notices.
About 20-25 per cent of the retailers visited under Operation Stamping It Out have been found to be offering non-hallmarked items for sale, says Mogg. “That’s the really serious stuff because consumers . . . don’t really know what metal is actually within that commodity,” he explains. More than 200 verbal or written warnings have been given to non-compliant traders and retailers across London, according to Mogg, and there are four criminal prosecutions pending.