Section 56 – Sellers of goods
219.Section 56 provides for the carrier bag regulations to apply to either all sellers of goods or to certain types of seller (see subsection (3)). It allows the regulations to apply provisions to both named sellers and to sellers identified by reference to specified factors (and examples of the factors that may be specified are given in subsection (4)).
220.Subsection (1) defines a “seller of goods” for the purpose of the regulations as a person who sells goods in the course of a business. Sellers may, for example, include high street retailers, supermarkets, street or market traders or any person running an internet business selling goods. The term does not include, and the regulations may not apply to, any person who occasionally sells their own possessions privately, for example, at a car boot sale or on an internet sale or auction site.
221.Subsection (2) makes clear that the business carried on by a seller of goods need not be a commercial enterprise undertaken for profit (so that a seller of goods could be a charity) and that a body exercising public functions will be acting in the course of a business.