Our guide to the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 – focusing on consumer law

Consumer protection from unfair trading

The Act repealed and (largely) reinstated the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008 (SI 2008/1277) (CPRs). There are some changes: the Act amends and supplements the list of commercial practices that are always considered unfair to reflect the fact that consumers and traders increasingly interact online. In addition, it amends some the definitions in the CPRs, such as “average consumer” “commercial practice” and “transactional decision”. Although the changes appear minor in themselves, cumulatively they enhance consumer protection. The CMA issued updated guidance on unfair commercial practices and published finalised price transparency guidance (CMA209) in November 2025 and has since published revised guidance on unfair contract terms in 2026.

Commercial practices that are always considered unfair

The Act contains a list of ‘blacklisted practices’ – these are practices that are considered unfair in all circumstances, without needing to show they affect a consumer’s purchasing decision. Many of these were largely replicated from the CPRs, but in some cases the wording has been slightly tweaked, resulting in a wider application.

For example, the banned practice of “falsely stating that a product will only be available for a very limited time, or that it will only be available on particular terms for a very limited time, in order to elicit an immediate decision and deprive consumers of sufficient opportunity or time to make an informed choice” has been amended to remove the words “very”, making this unfair practice wider in scope. This change aligns with the broader regulatory movement to crack down on “Online Choice Architecture” or so-called “dark patterns”.

Given that there are powers to amend the list of unfair commercial practices (see below), additional banned practices might follow in the future.

Power to amend the list of unfair commercial practices

The Secretary of State has the power to add to the current list of automatically unfair practices using secondary legislation. This aims to allow consumer laws to adapt more quickly than has been possible under previous legislation to changes in the market, consumer practices, and technology.

Fake reviews and drip pricing

The Act contains the following new banned practices:

• 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 remove and prevent consumers from encountering fake reviews.
  • taking reasonable and proportionate steps to 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.

These additions brought the UK position closer to that of the EU where the Enforcement and Modernisation Directive (also known as the “Omnibus Directive”) brought in similar prohibitions on fake reviews and endorsements. Although most of the “old” banned practices constitute criminal offences, the new banned practices on fake reviews are not, so the main risks for businesses are civil liability, including potentially large fines.

In March 2026, the CMA launched five new investigations into fake and misleading reviews under the DMCC Act, targeting Autotrader, Feefo, Dignity, Just Eat, and Pasta Evangelists. The investigations span a range of sectors and cover practices including incentivised reviews, suppression of negative reviews, and inflation of star ratings. In July 2025, the CMA had issued more than 50 advisory letters on fake reviews.

Drip pricing

The Act also deals with so-called “drip pricing” practices. Drip pricing is where only part of an item’s price is shown during the early part of the consumer journey, and the total amount to be paid is revealed at or near the end of the buying process, by which time the consumer may feel committed to the purchase. This is a practice the CMA had already declared potentially harmful as part of its investigations into online choice architecture. However, the Act does not cover optional fees.

These rules are dealt with by the provisions about “material information” that must be considered when assessing whether there has been a misleading action or omission. The CMA issued guidance on drip pricing and started investigating eight businesses for their pricing practices in November 2025 as well as writing to 100 others.

In April 2026, it fined the AA (owner of AA Driving School and BSM Driving School) £4.2 million – the first financial penalty under the DMCC Act’s new enforcement powers – and ordered refunds of over £760,000 to more than 80,000 customers. In June 2026, it fined Marks Electrical £720,000 for automatically opting consumers into additional charges and ordered refunds of £600,000; it also fined StubHub UK nearly £900,000 for drip pricing on ticket sales and ordered refunds of over £590,000 to more than 50,000 customers. Each of these settlements included a 40% reduction in penalty for early settlement.

In June 2026, the CMA also opened a high-profile investigation into Ryanair over mandatory family seating charges and potential drip pricing. In August 2026, three further investigations were launched into Trainline, Virgin Atlantic and RED Driving School for drip pricing. In March 2026, the CMA also opened an investigation into Adobe over concerns that early cancellation fees on subscription plans may breach consumer protection law. The CMA reported that in its first year of direct enforcement (April 2025–April 2026), it opened investigations into 14 businesses, issued 157 advisory and warning letters, sent 46 information notices, ordered £760,000 in refunds and imposed fines totalling £4.7 million.

Subscription contracts

For some time, regulators have been concerned about so-called subscription traps and estimate that they cost consumers over $1.6 billion a year. Therefore, the Act includes new rules for subscription contracts with consumers which are like the more general rules in the Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013 (CCRs).

There are various excluded contracts, including contracts for the supply of utilities, financial services, certain healthcare and medical contracts, contracts for the supply of services regulated by Ofcom, residential accommodation rental contracts, leisure activities on a specific date, package holiday and package travel contracts, and contracts for the supply of childcare and school age education.

Note also that Ofcom took enforcement action against a telecoms company regarding renewal practices during 2026 using its sectorspecific powers. As well as this, even before the specific subscriptions rules come into force, the CMA is already investigating a company about subscriptions practices following concerns that certain software customers may not have been given clear, upfront information about their subscription options at renewal, particularly where free access to new features had previously been given to the customers.

The previous government indicated in the Spring Budget 2024 that charity subscriptions which qualify for Gift Aid would be excluded. In April 2026, the government published a consultation response confirming that certain memberships of charitable, cultural and heritage organisations will be excluded from the subscription contracts regime. The secondary legislation giving effect to these exclusions is expected to be published before the regime commences.

What pre-contract information must be provided?

Reminder notices

To help reduce “zombie” subscriptions, traders must send reminder notices about renewals which state:

• The amount of the renewal payment;
• When it will be payable;
• How it differs to the last renewal payment;
• When the next renewal payment will be due; and
• How to end the contract to avoid liability for the renewal payment.

Exiting the contract

Consumers must be given a 14-day cooling off period, as well as the ability to exit the contract “easily” – ie with a single communication (so-called anti-sludge).  “Dark patterns” such as continually asking consumers if they are sure, or if they are happy to “lose their benefits” are unlikely to comply with the new requirements. Consumers will have the:

• Right to cancel at start of contract (as under the CCRs);
• Right to cancel after a free trial; and
• Right to cancel when they renew.

In April 2026, the government published its response to the consultation on the subscription contracts regime, providing detail on return and refund rules how refunds will work in practice. For goods, refunds follow the existing CCRs approach; for services, refunds must be proportionate to the part of the contract performed; for digital content, the existing waiver of the initial cooling-off right is retained but consumers will be entitled to a proportionate refund if they cancel during a renewal cooling-off period.

Other changes

The Act also reforms Christmas Club savings schemes and alternative dispute resolution schemes. The provisions on savings schemes come into force on 1 January 2026 and the UK government has issued guidance. The ADR provisions came into force in April 2026, with a temporary transition period originally due to run to 5 October 2026. The transition period has now been extended to 7 January 2027, allowing ADR providers time to apply for accreditation.

Enforcement changes

So, what happens if you don’t comply with the above? The Act substantially enhances the CMA’s role in enforcing the consumer protection regime. Before the Act, the CMA had to rely on court proceedings to enforce any breaches of consumer law, which it said caused delays and limited its impact. The Act now allows the CMA to directly investigate suspected infringements and practices that may harm the collective interests of consumers in the UK, and issue enforcement notices without going to court first. Other regulators, such as the FCA, also have enhanced rights, but must go to court first.

The CMA has powers to:

• issue provisional and final infringement notices where the respondent has engaged or is an accessory to a relevant consumer law infringement;
• take enhanced ‘consumer measures’, taking into account the likely benefit and associated costs of any issued measures;
• issue online interface notices to traders operating websites, apps or other digital content promoting the sale of services, goods or digital content which may (among other things) require the removal of certain content or the deletion of a domain name;
• seek undertakings after an investigation (instead of issuing an infringement or online interface notice) and issue enforcement notices if they are not complied with;
• enforcement directions; and
• information notices.

The CMA also has the power to impose significant fines of up to:

• £300,000 or 10% of annual global turnover (whichever is higher) in relation to final infringement notices;
• £150,000 or 5% of annual global turnover (whichever is higher), plus an additional daily penalty if breach persists thereafter of up to £15,000 or 5% daily global turnover (whichever is higher) for failure to comply with an enforcement direction or a breach of an undertaking made to the CMA under the Act; and
• £30,000 or 1% of annual global turnover (whichever is higher), plus an additional daily penalty if breach persists thereafter of up to £15,000 or 5% daily global turnover (whichever is higher) for non-compliance with an information notice or for the provision of materially false or misleading information.

Individuals may also be fined as part of this new regime. The CMA has issued various fines for substantive breaches of consumer law as mentioned above, as well as fining Euro Car Parks for failing to respond to information requests (at the time of writing, this is under appeal).

What isn’t in the Act?

Other than some changes to subscription contracts, there are other items which were anticipated to be in the Act but have been omitted. For example:

• In August 2022, the CMA had asked for new rules around secondary ticketing but the government rejected this, even when the Lords asked for changes as part of the legislative process. However, the government consulted on secondary ticketing in January 2025 and issued a response in November 2025, saying that it would take forward proposals on a price cap, volume limits and platform obligations.
• It does not cover specific rules about greenwashing, as the government has said this can be dealt with as a misleading practice. However, both the CMA and ASA have issued guidance on green claims since the Act came into force.
• There were only limited changes relating to Online Choice Architecture (OCA) or dark patterns. However, there is regulatory activity in this area and OCA is covered more generally by the rules around unfair commercial practices.

What is in force and what happens next?

The enforcement and unfair commercial practices provisions came into force in April 2025, along with consequential amendments to the CAP and BCAP Code.

The government published its response to the consultation on the subscription contracts regime in April 2026. The subscriptions provisions were originally expected to come into force in spring 2026, then delayed to spring 2027. In August 2026, the Prime Minister announced that the regime would be brought forward to January 2027. The secondary legislation and supporting CMA guidance have not yet been published.

Significantly, the Act only applies to contracts entered into after the relevant provisions are in force. 

What does this mean for businesses?

The UK is now in a new era for consumer protection. With new regulatory powers under the Act, businesses can expect more regulatory action, although it’s notable that the CMA will also have its eye on supporting the government’s growth objective, so it’s likely that any action will be proportionate. This expectation has been borne out by the CMA’s active enforcement programme, with multiple investigations, significant fines and consumer redress orders in its first year of direct enforcement powers. The government also announced in August 2026 a separate consultation, to commence in autumn 2026, on whether misleading discount practices such as invented discounts and fake “was/now” prices should be added to the list of automatically unfair practices. With potentially eyewatering fines on the table, many companies who previously took a “risk-based approach” to compliance with consumer laws need to reassess their position. Cross-border businesses will also now need to take account of the divergence in consumer law between the UK and EU.

Last updated: September 2026