Effective policy is essential to sustaining a strong brand-led economy in the UK. When the right frameworks are in place, brand businesses can invest in quality, innovation and trust—delivering better products and services for consumers while supporting growth, jobs and competitiveness nationwide. The British Brands Group works to ensure the UK provides the best possible environment for brands to succeed. We maintain a constructive, ongoing dialogue with policymakers across Government and its arm’s-length bodies, contribute evidence and insight to key consultations, and lead targeted campaigns on the issues that matter most. This work underpins a policy landscape in which brands—and the consumers who rely on them—can thrive.
Confidence to Invest in the UK
Brand building requires significant, long-term investment—in product development, quality, marketing and the trust that consumers place in a name. The UK has historically been an attractive place for this investment, underpinned by strong intellectual property rights and robust consumer protection laws that prevent bad-faith actors from unfairly benefiting from others’ efforts. However, in recent decades there has been a growing prevalence of copycat packaging designed to mislead consumers into believing products are equivalent to established brands. They are not. This erosion of fair competition allows imitators to piggyback on brand investment, weakening incentives to invest and making the UK a less attractive market for brand-led businesses. To restore confidence, we need stronger enforcement of consumer protection rules—particularly under the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act (DMCCA), which prohibits misleading practices—alongside a modernisation of the current common law “passing off” regime to ensure it is fit for 21st century commerce.
Fair competition
The brand business model thrives on vigorous, fair competition. Brands invest to innovate—creating new products and even entirely new categories—while competing through distinctive, eye-catching marketing to win the attention and trust of shoppers. But to reach consumers, brands depend on powerful route-to-market channels, where a relatively small number of major supermarket chains and online platforms act as critical gatekeepers. These same retailers are also direct competitors through their own private label ranges, which face none of the same barriers to market access as branded products. This imbalance makes it essential that competition works fairly at every stage of the value chain. The British Brands Group champions a level playing field, supporting robust safeguards such as the Groceries Supply Code of Practice (GSCOP)—a world-class remedy that helps ensure fair dealing between retailers and their suppliers—and advocating for its effective enforcement and ongoing strengthening.