The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has issued an important decision emphasising that businesses must not charge consumers for optional extras unless the consumer has expressly agreed to the additional payment. 

The rule itself is not new, it is contained in the Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013. However, the decision is a clear indication of how the CMA is prepared to use its new direct consumer enforcement powers where online customer journeys fall short.

Unboxing the decision

The CMA found that appliances retailer Marks Electrical pre-selected and charged customers for additional services without their express agreement. The CMA opened its investigation in November 2025 and has now issued a Final Infringement Notice following settlement of the case.

The conduct affected customers who bought a range of household appliances, including washing machines, dishwashers and cookers, through the Marks Electrical website.

Those customers were automatically opted into one or both of the following paid services:

• 'Recycle Old Appliance': removing and recycling the customer's old appliance at the time of delivery.
• 'Unwrap & Recycle Packaging': unwrapping the newly purchased product or products and removing the packaging for recycling at the time of delivery.

Opting consumers into additional payments under a contract without obtaining their express consent is prohibited by the Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013. 

The CMA's guidance also makes clear that consumers must have a genuine choice: they cannot be treated as having consented simply because they failed to untick a box or opt out of an additional charge.

Penalty: The CMA imposed a £1.2 million penalty, reduced by 40% to £720,000 to reflect Marks Electrical's cooperation and early settlement. It also ordered the company to refund around £600,000 to nearly 40,000 customers. 

The investigation covered conduct from April 2025, when the CMA's new consumer enforcement powers came into force, to November 2025. Marks Electrical stopped the conduct immediately after the CMA opened its investigation, admitted the infringement, agreed to settle and accepted the other conditions of settlement, including not appealing the decision.  Which shows that you can negotiate down a large fine, but it's hard to escape one altogether simply by complying after the CMA comes knocking.

Like the recent AA decision, affected customers will not need to take any action. Marks Electrical will need to do the work of contacting them and refudning them. It will contact affected customers and refund the relevant amount to the payment method used for the original purchase where possible. If that is not possible, customers will be sent a cheque. Individual refunds will vary depending on the extra services purchased, but the average refund is expected to be around £15.

The CMA has highlighted that, since the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 came into force, it has used its new powers to secure more than £1.3 million in refunds for consumers and to impose fines (after discounts) totalling nearly £5 million.

Thinking outside the box

The case is a reminder that checkout design is now a live consumer enforcement risk. This is a relatively straightforward area for the CMA to police: pre-selected paid extras can often be identified by reviewing an online customer journey, without first needing extensive information from the business. The Regulations also provide for reimbursement where consumers have not expressly agreed to additional payments, making these cases attractive candidates for redress as well as penalties. Although individual refund amounts may be modest, aggregate exposure can quickly become material when a practice affects large numbers of customers.

The period of infringing conduct in this case was relatively short. As more time passes since April 2025, however, businesses should expect the potential financial consequences to increase: longer periods of non-compliance may mean more affected customers, higher redress costs and, depending on the circumstances, more significant penalties.

Ticking all the boxes?

Businesses should therefore review their websites, apps and other digital sales journeys to confirm that optional extras are not pre-selected and that consumers actively choose any additional paid services before being charged. In-house teams may also want to check that product, marketing, UX and e-commerce colleagues understand the distinction between optional and mandatory charges, and that any future checkout changes are reviewed for consumer law compliance before launch. For more information, see our Consumer Law hub.