New legislation has given consumers more protection, and has created higher risks for businesses that flout the rules.
The consumer law provisions of the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 came into effect on 6 April 2025. As well as new rules on pricing, fake reviews and subscription contracts, B2C businesses will face a much tougher enforcement regime – with the prospect of fines of up to 10% of global turnover.
The changes outlined
The Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 (DMCC) makes a number of changes to UK consumer law:
- Tougher enforcement regime
Under the DMCC Act, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) gained a range of game-changing enforcement powers, including the ability to impose fines of up to 10% of a business’s global annual turnover for infringements of consumer law. However, it’s important to recognise that fines are not the only risks facing B2C businesses. - Renewed focus on pricing
The DMCC Act tightens up the law on misleading pricing practices, particularly around headline prices which do not reflect the true cost of products or services and “drip pricing.” This is where a lower price is used to get consumers interested, only to discover that it doesn’t take account of unavoidable further charges, which are typically only disclosed later on in the purchase process. - New rules on fake or misleading reviews
The DMCC Act effectively prohibits the submission or commissioning of fake reviews. It also requires businesses to ensure that they do not publish consumer reviews in a misleading manner. Further, they must take “reasonable and proportionate steps” to prevent fake reviews and avoid misleading presentation of reviews more generally. - New rules on contracts
Businesses will be required to provide more information to consumers before entering into a contract, send reminders before a contract “rolls over” into a new term (auto-renewal), and allow “cooling off” periods. Whilst these provisions are not expected to come into effect until 2026, they may require significant changes to internal processes and systems.
Businesses need to change
In the past, infringing consumer law has often been seen primarily as a reputational risk for businesses – especially as most CMA investigations resulted in voluntary undertakings not to repeat the conduct in future and nothing by way of sanction. However, in the post-DMCC Act world, B2C businesses face a much higher risk of a substantial financial hit from serious non-compliance.
Fines for past conduct
Previously, regulators have had very little scope to impose meaningful sanctions for past conduct. However, the DMCC Act will give the CMA the power to impose fines of up to 10% of global turnover. This is higher than in most EU countries.
Redress orders
The CMA will also be able to impose “enhanced consumer measures”, which could require compensation to be paid to consumers, or the early termination of contracts. Even where it’s willing to close a case based on voluntary undertakings, the CMA is likely to expect businesses to make an offer to “right past wrongs” as part of any deal to avoid a formal decision and imposition of fines.
Private enforcement
Consumers have always had rights to seek redress privately, through the courts, for infringements of consumer law. A more recent development is the rise of law firms specialising in bringing group litigation on behalf of consumers, most notably in the competition law field but also in the consumer law space – such as the group litigation being brought against various vehicle manufacturers over the diesel emissions scandal. The DMCC Act is likely to encourage claimant law firms to explore more opportunities to bring claims in this area.
General background risk
The risk for all business-to-consumer organisations is on the rise. Consider a business which has a product which is priced very simply and is well understood by consumers, but when it comes to handling defective product claims, consumers often get frustrated and feel they are being given the “brush-off”.
The CMA may well view such conduct as making it unnecessarily difficult for consumers to exercise their statutory rights to obtain a refund, repair or replacement for defective products – and, therefore, a serious breach of consumer law. Indeed, previous cases have shown that all it takes is one bad actor for an entire sector – including businesses which are broadly compliant – to come under scrutiny from regulators.
Under the DMCC Act, the CMA can impose significant fines for failure to respond to information requests or provision of misleading information.
Steps to take now
Given the new landscape, businesses need to consider a number of key issues. In particular, they need to consider if they are in a higher risk category and whether they are sitting on any “ticking time bombs” in terms of any existing practices and processes involving consumers.
Next, they need to examine existing processes – such as customer sign-up – and whether they are likely to remain compliant. If they are not, businesses need to think about how easy it would be to upgrade them to, for example, meet the new rules on subscription contracts or misleading/fake reviews.
At the same time, thought needs to be given to whether relevant staff – particularly those in sales roles – are aware of the risks that infringing consumer law poses to the business. It may help to give staff a refresher course on what types of behaviour or practices are likely to be problematic.
The business also ought to have a plan for how it would respond if investigated by the CMA for breaches of consumer law. As noted above, the DMCC Act also significantly strengthens the CMA’s investigatory powers and fines can be imposed for non-compliance.
Lastly, the legislation could and should be looked at in the light of understanding how a business may be able to use it for commercial advantage in certain situations. This may apply where, for example, it plays by the rules, but competitors don’t; in this instance, it may be worth considering making a complaint to the CMA or Trading Standards.
Summary
Now that the rules have changed, it’s essential that businesses take the time to understand how the legal landscape has evolved and make adjustments to comply with the law accordingly. While some may not be concerned about the regulator’s powers, it will undoubtedly be keen to demonstrate that it now has teeth and is ready to use them.