The Office of Fair Trading or OFT is one of the major initiatives of the Competition Commission of Pakistan (CCP) to redress deceptive marketing practices and enhance the link between the Commission and the consumer. Establishment of OFT facilitates in completing the picture of the competition agency in Pakistan. The purpose of setting up of OFT is to create a business environment based on healthy competition by protecting consumers from deceptive marketing practices. OFT has a mandate to oversee and act as a watch dog for Misleading and Deceptive Marketing Practices under Section 10 of the Competition Act 2010. The objectives of OFT are;

• To build a vibrant, fair and competitive market place for consumer confidence.
• To encourage and ensure disclosure of sufficient information to enable informed consumer choice.
• Reach out to consumers and general public with the aim of identifying and providing solutions to the potential issues.
• Ensure fair dealing in business and to handle individual/group grievances on account of deceptive marketing practices.

OFT is currently being supervised by Member (Office of Fair Trading (OFT) and Budgetary Affairs), it is manned by the officers drawn from the Legal department. However, it is envisioned that OFT will eventually be headed by a Director General with a team of such number of officers as deemed appropriate by CCP from time to time.

It needs to be appreciated that unlike other jurisdictions where OFT operates and functions as an independent Competition Agency, the establishment of an Office of Fair Trading within the CCP is focused on consumer protection essentially within the limited scope of Section 10 of the Act 2010.