With reference to 084/087 numbers now being illegal for businesses to use for customers to call them, (other than sales), does the rule/law apply to business to business? i.e. Makro, (owned by Booker), uses an 0845 number on their own brand products, (Chefs Larder).

Bearing in mind consumers can use Makro either with a day pass or shopping online.

I have spoken to Booker CS and have been informed that as a business to business they can use these numbers! Can they?

However as I pointed out they allow Joe Public to access these products the Law should apply. They are to get back to me

From their T&C's, (https://www.makro.co.uk/terms-and-conditions.html ), they refer to Consumers under Section 6, in particular S 6.5 where they still refer to Sale of Goods Act, 2 years after it became redundant in favour of CRA: "If you are purchasing as a consumer, in addition to the service offered by Makro under section 5 you also have rights regarding satisfactory quality and fitness for purpose of the products included in the contract between you and Makro by the Sale of Goods Act 1979. Nothing in these terms affects any of your statutory rights which cannot, by law, be taken away from you."


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The Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013 do not cover business to business transactions. However, if they sell to consumers, I would have thought that these rules would then apply to those transactions.

Using 084/087 numbers for sales lines for consumers is just plain daft. Callers are paying up to 62p/68p per minute just so the called partyy can earn around 5p/10p per minute from revenue share payments. This places an undue burden on callers for such a small benefit to the called party.

Ian01 wrote on Sep 22^nd, 2017 at 2:03pm:

The Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013 do not cover business to business transactions. However, if they sell to consumers, I would have thought that these rules would then apply to those transactions. Using 084/087 numbers for sales lines is just plain daft. Callers are paying up to 62p/68p per minute just so the called partyy can earn around 5p/10p per minute from revenue share payments. This places an undue burden on callers for such a small benefit to the called party.

I wasn't sure re business to business but as Makro allow sales to consumers, and reinforce that in their T&C's as I pointed out in my link and quote, then they appear to be in breach, for 3 years!

I agree re 084/087 for sales, but the law allows it and until the law stops it businesses will continue to use them.


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It could be worth testing the applicability of the legislation to this case by a complaint to the Citizens Advice Consumer Service (0345 4 04 05 06).

The un-bundled tariff (Access Charge + Service Charge) principle is not applicable, through Ofcom regulation, to business telephone tariffs. It is however understood that it is used for some business tariffs, with similar Access Charges, and would obviously apply when a consumer uses a business-to-business service. The point about the daftness of using 084/087 numbers for sales lines still stands, although the pricing implications may not be so severe in the case of B2B.

Looking at Booker and Makro's website's most numbers they use are: 01/020/03

Except Booker Website support here which uses an 0845 number.

So if they are happy to mainly use the other numbers, why would they make such a fuss over use of the 0845 number for their Own Brand?  Surely they can just change it over....

Have just received the following email from Booker:

Thank you for bringing the Chef's Larder Advice Line number to our attention. Your emails on the subject have been passed to me to respond on behalf of the business.

We are aware of the relevant legislation and take compliance with any and all legal requirements very seriously. As you may be aware, Booker is predominantly a wholesale cash and carry operator which supplies goods on a business to business basis rather than sales to consumers. Our terms and conditions of registration reflect that, so those using booker.co.uk would be businesses, not consumers.

The telephone number you refer to (0845 602 6002) is an advice line featured on our Chef's Larder products. Chef's Larder is part of our catering range aimed at those in the food service industry and sold through our cash and carry branches. These products have subsequently been made available via another sales channel, enabling the products to be purchased by consumers.  On this basis, the telephone contact number should have been changed to a basic rate line.

Please be assured that we are in the process of changing the telephone line. Our packaging will also be amended in due course to reflect this. You will appreciate however that there is a lengthy process to alter the packaging on these product lines and consequently the 0845 602 6002 will continue to appear for some time. We are however rectifying the matter as soon as we can.

Finally,  we are undertaking a check of any other own label products which are sold via a consumer channel to prevent this issue from arising again.   

Thank you again for your comments. Should you have any further queries, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Kind regards

H****  *****
Legal Counsel
Booker Group plc


I am going to respond re changing the number via their Telco and playing a free to caller message informing callers to dial the 0345 number. Can someone direct me to a page informing of this point?



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derrick wrote on Sep 27^th, 2017 at 12:12pm:

… I am going to respond re changing the number via their Telco and playing a free to caller message informing callers to dial the 0345 number. Can someone direct me to a page informing of this point?

You have described what is necessary perfectly clearly, the telco will understand what is required.