The Act stopped foreign manufacturers from falsely claiming that their goods were British-made and selling them in Britain and Europe on that pretence.

[1] It also makes it illegal for companies to falsely claim that they have a royal warrant.

[2] Swiss watch cases imported to Britain before this date were of 875 millesimal fineness standard.

[i] This did not meet the 925 standard for sterling silver and so could not be hallmarked, as the new Act required.

This has sometimes been claimed to have arisen as a Swiss misunderstanding of the standard required for British Sterling.