New era for consumer enforcement in the UK

The UK Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act (DMCC Act) received Royal Assent on 24 May 2024, introducing widespread changes to competition law and consumer law enforcement in the UK, as well as a new regime regulating designated Big Tech companies (see our May 2024 update). In this update, we focus on the consumer law changes introduced by the Act, which entered into force on 6 April 2025.

Key takeaways

• As well as implementing the Government's digital markets strategy, and introducing changes to the UK merger control regime (see our June 2024 update), the Competition and Markets Authority's (CMA) Competition Act 1998 and market study / investigation powers (see June 2024 update), the DMCC Act has introduced extensive reforms to UK consumer protection law.
• The majority of the provisions relating to consumer protection came into force on 6 April 2025.
• The DMCC Act introduces important new protections for consumers, in particular in relation to fake reviews and drip pricing, as well as amendments to existing protections. New requirements on subscription contracts are expected to come into force in Spring 2026.
• The CMA's new powers to directly enforce consumer law and impose fines of up to 10% of a company's global turnover will significantly increase enforcement risks for businesses.
• The CMA has published updated guidance on unfair commercial practices, including the new protections on fake reviews, as well as a document outlining its approach to the new regime.

New enforcement powers for the CMA

The DMCC Act introduces significant changes to the enforcement of consumer law in the UK. Significantly, the Act enables the CMA to directly enforce consumer law through administrative proceedings. This brings the CMA's consumer law powers into line with its existing competition law powers and will mark a step change in consumer law enforcement in the UK. 

The CMA now has the power to issue infringement notices (i.e. decisions) setting out why the CMA considers that conduct or terms breach consumer law, impose fines (of up to 10% of the global turnover on companies and up to £300,000 on individuals), as well as the ability to impose directions on businesses and award compensation to consumers. In addition, the CMA will be able to enforce undertakings given by companies and fine companies which breach undertakings they have given or directions that have been imposed by the CMA. 

The CMA will also be able extend the scope of infringement notices (including the obligation to pay any fine or provide redress) to other members of the company's group where it considers it is "just, reasonable and proportionate" to do so. This could enable the CMA to extend the scope of notices to include companies that become members of the group after the infringement notice has been issued, potentially extending liability to a purchaser of a company found to have breached consumer law.  

Infringement notices which impose a penalty or directions will be appealable to the High Court.  

Under the DMCC Act, only the CMA is empowered to directly enforce consumer law (and impose penalties). However, other regulators (such as Trading Standards and the Financial Conduct Authority) can apply to the court for it to impose financial penalties, including fines of up to 10% of a company's global turnover.

Direct enforcement guidance

On 14 March 2025, the CMA published guidance setting out its approach to exercising its direct enforcement powers (CMA 200) (Enforcement Guidance). 

The proposed investigation and enforcement processes mirror, to a significant extent, the CMA's approach to conducting investigations under the Competition Act 1998. The outline process for consumer enforcement investigations will include:

Investigation: the CMA has broad investigative powers, including the power to request information from parties under investigation and third parties, enter premises (both with and without a warrant), make test purchases and observe the conduct of a business. Information can be requested from persons or companies outside the UK where they have a UK connection.

Issuing a Provisional Infringement Notice: a PIN will be issued if the CMA reasonably believes that a party has breached, or is likely to breach, consumer law (or is an accessory to such conduct). The decision to issue a PIN will be taken by the Senior Responsible Officer (SRO) appointed for the investigation. In addition to explaining the basis for the alleged infringement, the PIN will set out any proposed directions or penalty that the CMA is considering imposing.

Access to file and representations on the PIN: parties will be granted access to the CMA's case file. In most cases, this will only include access to documents referred to in the PIN, with the remainder being disclosed by a schedule. Parties will then need to request access to any documents listed in the schedule which they want to review. This reflects the 'streamlined' file access procedure often adopted in competition law investigations. Parties will have the opportunity to submit written representations on a PIN and to attend an oral hearing. The CMA's guidance notes that parties will typically have 30 to 40 working days to provide written representations on the PIN.  

Supplementary PIN or letter of facts: where the CMA seeks to rely on (i) additional allegations; or (ii) new evidence in support of its existing allegations, after the parties have submitted their representations, it will issue a supplementary PIN or letter of facts, and provide an opportunity for further representations to be made, both in writing and at a further hearing.

Final decision: if the CMA considers that a party has engaged or is engaging, in a commercial practice that breaches consumer law, or is an accessory to such practice, the CMA will issue a Final Infringement Notice (FIN), setting out the relevant facts, the CMA's reasoning, and any penalties and/or directions the CMA plans to impose. The CMA will publish a press release and a non-confidential version of the FIN. A FIN can also be issued in respect of conduct that the CMA is satisfied a party is likely to engage in, but the CMA is not able to issue a penalty in respect of such conduct. 

Undertakings and settlement: the CMA may accept undertakings (i.e. a voluntary commitment to change conduct without admitting liability for an infringement) if it has not yet issued a FIN. A party can also agree to enter into settlement with the CMA, requiring it to admit the infringement in return for a reduction in the level of penalty. Settlement discussions can be commenced in advance of the issue of a PIN (when a maximum discount of 40% is available) or after the PIN has been issued (when the maximum discount falls to 25%).

Penalties: as noted above, where it finds an infringement, the CMA will be able to impose a penalty of up to £300,000 or 10% of a party's global turnover (whichever is higher). The Enforcement Guidance explains the CMA's approach to determining the level of any penalty, applying a stepped approach:

• Step 1 – calculation of the starting point having regard to the seriousness of the infringement (taking into account an assessment of both the level of harm and the party's culpability) and the party's relevant turnover. The starting point can be up to 30% of the party's UK turnover.
• Step 2 – adjustment for deterrence and to take account of the size of the party.
• Step 3 – adjustment for aggravating or mitigating factors.
• Step 4 – adjustment for proportionality and to ensure the statutory cap of 10% of worldwide turnover is not exceeded.
• Step 5 – application of a settlement discount where applicable.

Directions, including redress: the CMA will be able to impose a wide range or remedies or directions if it concludes that there has been a breach of consumer law. These can include redress measures or other Enhanced Consumer Measures (i.e. compliance and/or choice measures). Redress requirements may:

• look to compensate consumers that suffered a direct loss as a result of the party's practice, as well as those who are otherwise affected (for example by non-financial loss or instances of distress or inconvenience); and
• include contract termination, compensation or collective interest redress (where individual consumers are not identifiable).

The CMA's approach document published on 7 April 2025 confirmed that the CMA will "prioritise consumer redress and measures to secure future compliance", confirming as expected that redress will have a key role to play in the new regime. The CMA has confirmed that providing redress will not be an alternative to paying a penalty, where the CMA considers a financial penalty to be appropriate.  However, redress and other proactive steps to correct infringing conduct may be taken into account in calculating the level of penalty. 

Administrative enforcement: the CMA will have the power to impose fines for breaches of undertakings and directions, and for a failure to comply with information requests.

Enhanced court-based enforcement

Although only the CMA has the direct enforcement powers described above, it and other existing consumer enforcers will continue to have the ability to enforce consumer law through the courts. The DMCC Act enhances the court-based enforcement route by allowing enforcers to seek financial penalties (of up to 10% of worldwide turnover) through the courts, in addition to their existing power to seek directions.  

On 4 April 2025, the CMA published updated guidance (CMA 58) covering the court-based enforcement and criminal enforcement regimes.

The CMA's approach document also emphasises the need for close collaboration with other UK regulators and consumer protection enforcers, as well as international partners, both in relation to consumer enforcement and areas where sector regulation may provide a better tool to tackle consumer protection issues.

Restating the CPRs in primary legislation

The key substantive change introduced by the DMCC Act is that the rules in relation to unfair commercial practices (currently set out in the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations (CPRs)) have been restated in primary legislation, with the CPRs being revoked. The majority of the provisions and protections are unchanged but there are some noteworthy amendments to the core protections, including:

• expanding the definition of the characteristics to be taken into account in considering vulnerable persons when assessing the "average consumer". In particular, the Act recognises that vulnerability can be context dependent, meaning that vulnerability may be caused by the circumstances faced by consumers (for example, being in mourning, going through a divorce or losing a job), in addition to factors such as their age, physical or mental health, or their credulity;
• the addition of specific new protections against the omission of material information from an invitation to purchase. Relevant categories of information include: (i) the main characteristics of the product; (ii) the price; (iii) the identity and contact details of the trader; (iv) any freight, delivery or postal charges; and (v) the existence of rights of withdrawal or cancellation. Although in most cases this would previously have been caught as a misleading omission under the CPRs, adding a specific protection to the list is likely to strengthen enforcement in this area, particularly in conjunction with the new provisions to prohibit mandatory dripped fees (explained below); and
• amendments to certain banned practices set out in Schedule 20 of the DMCC Act. For example, the CPRs prohibit falsely stating that a product will only be available, or only available on particular terms, for a "very limited time". Under the Act, the scope of this prohibition has been extended to cover false statements about a product being available for a "limited time".

Importantly, the DMCC Act also gives the Government the power to add (by secondary legislation) additional practices to the list of "banned commercial practices" (that is, practices that are considered unfair in all circumstances, such that a regulator does not need to prove that consumer behaviour was affected). This delegated power will enable the Government to expand the scope of consumer law protections, with the CMA's direct enforcement powers (including the power to impose potentially significant fines) then applying to these new protections. 

The CMA published revised guidance (CMA 207) on the protection from unfair trading / unfair commercial practices provisions in the DMCC Act on 4 April 2025 (Unfair Commercial Practices Guidance). 

Fake reviews

The prevalence of fake reviews and the potential for such reviews to distort consumer purchasing decisions has been an area of focus for a number of years. The DMCC Act strengthens enforcement tools in this area by adding specific banned unfair commercial practices covering:

• submitting a fake review, or commissioning or incentivising any person to write and/or submit a fake review of products or traders;
• offering or advertising to submit, commission or facilitate a fake review; and misrepresenting reviews, or
• publishing or providing access to reviews of products and/or traders without taking reasonable and proportionate steps to: (i) remove and prevent consumers from encountering fake reviews and (ii) prevent any other information presented on the platform that is determined or influenced by reviews from being false or in any way capable of misleading consumers.

As well as fake reviews, the protections also apply to reviews which conceal that they have been incentivised (e.g. through monetary payments, commissions, discounts, free product etc).

The new provisions therefore place specific obligations on traders (including online platforms) which publish or provide access to reviews to ensure that they have taken reasonable and proportionate steps to ensure that those reviews are genuine. Alongside its Unfair  Commercial Practices Guidance, on 4 April 2025 the CMA published a specific guidance document (CMA 208) covering the new banned practices in the DMCC Act (Fake Reviews Guidance).  

In respect of the obligations on traders to ensure they have taken "reasonable and proportionate steps", the Fake Reviews Guidance acknowledges that there is unlikely to be a 'one size fits all' approach but explains that all publishers will need to: (i) have a clear policy on the prevention and removal of fake reviews; and (ii) assess the risks of such material appearing on their sites or platforms and "take such further proactive steps as are reasonable and proportionate to address the issues identified".  These may include; (i) conducting regular audits and assessments; (ii), introducing proactive measures to detect against fake reviews; (iii) implementing a process for investigating suspicious reviews; (iv) taking appropriate measures to ensure consumers are not misled, by banning reviews or imposing other sanctions; and (v) regularly reviewing the effectiveness of measures.

Unusually, the Government has excluded the new unfair commercial practices relating to fake reviews from the scope of the criminal enforcement regime. As a result, they will only be subject to civil enforcement, likely reflecting the inherent uncertainty in the scope of the new obligations, but the CMA's new direct enforcement powers, including the ability to impose significant fines, do apply to fake reviews.

The CMA has indicated that for the first three months of the new regime, it intends to focus on supporting businesses to achieve compliance in this area rather than taking enforcement action. 

The CMA has already taken enforcement action in relation to fake and misleading reviews using its previous powers. In particular, it has previously accepted undertakings from Meta, eBay and, in early 2025, Google. An investigation into Amazon is ongoing. Although there will be an initial emphasis on facilitating compliance, the new provisions, and in particular the obligations they impose on online marketplaces, suggest that the CMA will be looking to take further enforcement action in this area.

Drip pricing

As noted above, the DMCC Act introduces a new unfair commercial practice in relation to the omission of material information from invitations to purchase, including as regards the price of the product. The Act also requires the invitation to purchase to set out either:

• the "total price" of the product (including any fees, taxes, charges or other payments that the consumer will necessarily incur if the consumer purchases the product); or
• if, owing to the nature of the product, the whole or any part of the total price cannot reasonably be calculated in advance, how the price (or that part of it) will be calculated. The amendments require that the information provided in these circumstances must enable the consumer to calculate the total price, and be set out prominently.

As regards optional dripped fees, the Government has stated that it will give further consideration to whether additional regulation may be needed. There is likely to be particular focus on notionally optional fees which are in practice mandatory for certain categories of consumers.

Drip pricing and the potential consumer harm it causes is already on the CMA's radar; it has been a feature of the CMA's existing work in relation to hotel bookings and car rentals and is one of the 21 practices assessed by the CMA in its Online Choice Architecture paper. 

The new provisions (and the CMA's new powers) will make enforcement action against drip pricing practices significantly easier, in particular by removing the need to prove that the practice affected the consumer's transactional decision. The CMA is adopting a phased approach to its guidance, and enforcement, on drip pricing. The Unfair Commercial Practices Guidance provides a framework for compliance focusing on what the CMA considers to be clear breaches, with the CMA proposing to consult on more detailed guidance in Summer 2025.  Initial enforcement will focus on drip pricing covered by the April 2025 guidance, with the CMA confirming that it will not take enforcement cases on issues to be covered in its later guidance until it has been published in final form (expected to be in Autumn 2025).

Subscription contracts

The Act introduces new rules seeking to strengthen consumer protection against subscription traps. Unlike the changes to enforcement and the substantive updates discussed above, the new rules in relation to subscription traps are not currently in force and are expected to enter into force in Spring 2026.

The subscription contract provisions in the Act apply to contracts for goods, services or digital content (both entered into online and in person) which renew automatically for a fixed or indefinite period, and under which consumers automatically incur liability for the continuing supply until they terminate the contract. The Act specifies a fairly broad list of excluded contracts, including utilities, insurance and financial services, contracts regulated by Ofcom under the Communications Act 2003, residential leases and childcare. 

For contracts that are in scope, the new regime imposes a number of requirements on businesses, including in relation to: 

• The provision of pre-contract information. Schedule 23 specifies the pre-contract information that a trader must make available to a consumer when entering into a contract. This includes: (i) notification that the contract (and the consumer's liabilities) will continue (indefinitely or for a fixed term) until the consumer takes steps to terminate; (ii) any minimum period before the consumer can terminate the contract; (iii) whether future payments may be at a higher rate than the original price (and when these will be payable); (iv) the minimum total amount the consumer will be liable for; and (v) the steps that the consumer must take to terminate the contract.
• Cooling-off periods. The DMCC Act provides a 14 day "cooling-off" period both in relation to the initial subscription and, in subscriptions offering an initial concessionary period or which commit a consumer for more than a 12 month period, subsequent renewals. Traders will be required to provide a cooling-off notice for each renewal cooling-off period.
• Reminder notices. The DMCC Act requires traders to provide reminder notices prior to renewal payments being taken. Where a contract does not include an initial concessionary period, traders will need to provide reminder notices every six months. If there is an initial concessionary period, the notice must be provided before that period ends and then every six months. In each case, notices must be provided with enough time to allow the consumer to decide whether to end the subscription contract before incurring further costs. The Act also specifies the minimum content of any reminder notice.
• Cancellations. Traders will be required to ensure that customers can cancel subscription contracts in a "straightforward" way and without needing to take "any steps that are not reasonably necessary". For contracts entered into online, this must include the option to cancel the contract online and instructions on how to do so must be clearly displayed. Traders must acknowledge cancellation through an "end of contract" notice.

These new requirements will be implied terms in contracts, giving the consumer the right to cancel (without penalty) if a trader breaches the requirements.

The Government launched a consultation in November 2024 to seek views on proposals for how the regime will apply in practice, and to inform the secondary legislation and guidance required in advance of commencement (expected to be Spring 2026). 

The new rules are likely to require affected businesses to assess their customer flows, service and renewal processes, to ensure that these will be compliant. The subscription contract regime will be covered by the CMA's new direct enforcement powers.

What to expect from the new regime?

The CMA's new enforcement powers are long-awaited and are expected to lead to more frequent and higher profile enforcement of consumer protection law in the UK, as well as potentially significant consequences for businesses that fall foul of the rules. Whilst the substantive consumer protections remain largely unchanged, the new protections introduced by the DMCC Act will impose significant obligations on traders, and also indicate likely targets for enforcement.

On 7 April 2025, the CMA also published a document outlining its approach to consumer protection.  This sets out further detail on how the CMA will apply the new regime, how the 4Ps (pace, predictability, proportionality and process) framework will apply in consumer cases, and provides an update on its initial enforcement priorities. 

The CMA has emphasised that it will treat its consumer and competition law enforcement powers with equal importance, choosing the most appropriate tool on an issue-by-issue basis. This indicates that consumer law enforcement is likely to play an increasingly important role in the regulatory toolkit. In the approach document, the CMA notes that both sets of enforcement powers "play a vital, interlinked role in the relationship between growth, opportunity and prosperity for all". The approach document also confirms the CMA's intention to streamline consumer protection cases as far as possible.  During the first 12 months of the new regime, the CMA will focus on supporting compliance through engagement with business and providing further guidance materials. However it will also "target the conduct which is more harmful to consumers, and which represents clear infringements of the law". 

Initial areas of focus for enforcement will include:

• aggressive sales practices that prey on consumers in vulnerable positions and unfair online choice architecture;
• providing information to consumers that is objectively false (such as misleading information about prices);
• banned practices including the new practice relating to fake reviews;
• fees that are hidden until late in the purchase process (i.e. dripped pricing); and
• contract terms that are clearly imbalanced and unfair, including those that impose unfair exit charges or prevent switching or exercising legal rights.

The CMA's previous and ongoing casework, and the guidance it has previously published, may well provide a steer on what the CMA may consider to be an "egregious breach". 

The CMA's enforcement work is also likely to take into account the findings of the recent Consumer Detriment Survey (published in March 2025). The survey found that approximately 72% of customers experienced detriment (i.e. experiencing at least one problem with a product they bought or used during that period, which caused them stress, cost them money, or took up their time). According to the survey, more than one in three experiences of detriment occurred following purchases made online via the seller’s or trader’s website. The issues identified related to poor-quality products (35%), followed by delivery issues (20%) and the product being defective or unsafe (19%). The sectors in which issues were most commonly reported included public transport and trains, second-hand vehicles, adult care, real estate services, internet provision and clothing, footwear and accessories.

Companies should begin reviewing their commercial practices and assessing their compliance with the new rules to minimise the risk of enforcement action. At the same time, the scope for additional new rules to be added through secondary legislation means that companies will need to continue to follow policy and legislative developments closely.