{
  "url": "https://openlegislation.uk/fair-trading-act-1973/section-129",
  "json_url": "https://openlegislation.uk/fair-trading-act-1973/section-129.json",
  "legislation": "ukpga/1973/41",
  "legislation_title": "Fair Trading Act 1973",
  "legislation_url": "https://openlegislation.uk/fair-trading-act-1973",
  "path": "section/129",
  "kind": "section",
  "number": "129",
  "heading": "Time-limit for prosecutions.",
  "text": "(1) No prosecution for an offence under this Act shall be commenced after the expiration of three years from the commission of the offence or one year from its discovery by the prosecutor, whichever is the earlier.\n(2) Notwithstanding anything in section 127(1) of the Magistrates’ Courts Act 1980, a magistrates’ court may try an information for an offence under this Act if the information was laid within twelve months from the commission of the offence.\n(3) Notwithstanding anything in section 136 of the Criminal Procedure (Scotland) Act 1995, summary proceedings in Scotland for an offence under this Act may be commenced within twelve months from the commission of the offence, and subsection (3) of the said section 136 shall apply for the purposes of this subsection as it applies for the purposes of that section.\n(4) In the application of this section to Northern Ireland, for the references in subsection (2) to section 127(1) of the Magistrates’ Courts Act 1980 and to the trial and laying of an information there shall be substituted respectively references to Article 19(1) of the Magistrates’ Courts (Northern Ireland) Order 1981 and to the hearing and determination and making of a complaint and as if in that subsection for the words “an offence under this Act” there were substituted the words “an offence under section 30(1) ... of this Act”.",
  "extent": "E+W+S+N.I.",
  "status": null,
  "version": "current",
  "annotations": [
    {
      "type": "F",
      "label": "F1",
      "text": "S. 129 applied (28.8.1996) by S.I. 1996/2199, reg. 26"
    },
    {
      "type": "F",
      "label": "F2",
      "text": "Words substituted by Magistrates' Courts Act 1980 (c. 43, SIF 82), s. 154, Sch. 7 para. 118"
    },
    {
      "type": "F",
      "label": "F3",
      "text": "Words in s. 129(3) substituted (S.) (1.4.1996) by 1995 c. 40, ss. 5, 7(2), Sch. 4 para. 9(a)(b)"
    },
    {
      "type": "F",
      "label": "F4",
      "text": "Words substituted by Magistrates' Courts Act 1980 (c. 43, SIF 82), s. 154, Sch. 7 para. 118"
    },
    {
      "type": "F",
      "label": "F5",
      "text": "Words substituted by S.I. 1981/1675 (N.I. 26), art. 170(2), Sch. 6 para. 30"
    },
    {
      "type": "F",
      "label": "F6",
      "text": "Words added (22.6.1980) by S.I. 1980/704 (N.I. 6), Sch. 1 Pt. II para. 70"
    },
    {
      "type": "F",
      "label": "F7",
      "text": "Words in s. 129(4) repealed (20.6.2003 for specified purposes, 29.12.2004 in so far as not already in force) by Enterprise Act 2002 (c. 40), s. 279, Sch. 26 (with Sch. 24); S.I. 2003/1397, art. 2(1), Sch. (with arts. 3(1), 6, 8); S.I. 2004/3233, art. 2, Sch. (with arts. 3-5)"
    }
  ],
  "outstanding_effects": [],
  "provenance": {
    "source": "legislation.gov.uk",
    "source_url": "https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1973/41/section/129",
    "retrieved_at": "2026-10-29T10:47:02.300806+00:00"
  },
  "licence": "Open Government Licence v3.0",
  "licence_url": "https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/",
  "attribution": "Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Source: legislation.gov.uk, The National Archives."
}