The new Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 (DMCCA) has reformed consumer rights and protection. As of 6 April 2025, the DMCCA has updated the unfair commercial practices rules (previously governed by the Unfair Trading Regulations 2008) and regulates unfair commercial practices carried out by traders towards consumers in areas such as advertising, marketing, pricing and entering into and terminating contracts.
Key points to note are:
- The DMCCA contains a ban on submitting or commissioning fake customer reviews and on publishing consumer reviews in a misleading way or without having taken reasonable and proportionate steps to verify them. These practices are automatically unfair as per the DMCCA.
- The practice of adding further non-optional charges to the initial price during the purchase process, also known as “drip-pricing”, has been reviewed. Any invitation to purchase must include a “total price” which includes any non-optional costs/charges. If any non-optional charges cannot be calculated in advance, information about them and how they are calculated must be as equally clear as the total price.
- An invitation to purchase must include any freight, delivery postal or tax charges which the customer may incur. If these cannot be calculated in advance, the consumer must be informed that they may be payable.
- The DMCCA considers that businesses must consider consumers who may be vulnerable due to their circumstances, age, physical or mental health and/or credulity. This has been further expanded, and examples of relevant circumstances now includes mourning or going through a divorce.
- There is a new regime for subscription contracts. Traders must:
- give consumers pre-contract information about a subscription and confirm it on a durable medium post-contract;
- send consumers renewal reminders at specified intervals;
- provide easy mechanisms for termination, and give consumers an ‘end of contract notice’ on termination; and
- give consumers cooling off rights on entry into the contract, expiry of any introductory period and on any renewal which commits the consumer to a further period of 12 months or more, and alert consumers to their rights by sending them cooling-off notices.
The DMCCA gives the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) new, direct enforcement powers.
The CMA are able to impose fines, which are calculated as a percentage of a business’s global turnover (or group global turnover). The CMA’s new powers, which came into force on 6 April 2025, include:
- The power to investigate and take action, including requiring traders to provide information and substantiate claims
- The power to issue provisional and final infringement notices
- The power to impose penalties for failings, withholding information, providing false information or non-compliance with undertakings
- The power to require traders to compensate consumers
- The power to issue online interface notices
- The power to enforce against directors and other accessories
Be aware that as a trader, you must always act fairly and diligently in any dealings with consumers. You may be in breach of the DMCCA if you act unfairly, mislead or behave aggressively towards customers. If your business does not comply with the law, you may face action by enforcement authorities, such as the CMA. The CMA and the courts can fine traders in breach of the law up to 10% of their global turnover. Your business may also have to compensate affected customers.