Unfair commercial practices under the new Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024

Chapter 1 of Part 4 of the Digital Markets Competition and Consumers Act 2024 (DMCCA) has introduced updated rules for business-to-consumer transactions.

The DMCCA revokes and replaces the Consumer Protection from Unfair Training Regulations (CPUT) from 6 April 2025 so that:

• The DMCCA rules apply to conduct that takes place on or after 6 April 2025.
• The CPUT apply to conduct that took place before 6 April 2025.

The DMCCA is a large piece of legislation which also includes new legislation around subscription contracts and competition law – but this article focuses solely on the new rules concerning unfair business-to-consumer practices. Business-to-business practices with no potential to affect consumers are out of scope from this legislation.

One of the most significant and overarching changes made by the DMCCA is to the public enforcement of consumer protection law as a whole, including the enforcement of unfair commercial practices. The CMA will assume powers to directly enforce the relevant rules, without first going to court. It will be able to issue infringement notices and online interface orders and impose fines of up to £300,000 or, if higher, 10% of the total value of the trader’s turnover. This is similar to the severe penalty issues for non-compliance under the UK GDPR, so it is important that consumer-facing businesses take note of the changes.

Main changes

While the DMCCA broadly follows the regulatory regime established under the CPUT, there are some important changes to the rules concerning unfair commercial practices that traders should be aware of.  The key changes include the following:

• The DMCCA introduces more stringent rules requiring the provision of material information in any invitation to purchase. This will prohibit ‘drip-pricing’ practices – where advertised headline prices are shown upfront but where unexpected and mandatory charges only appear at the end of a customer’s purchase process by which time the consumer may feel committed to the purchase.
• A number of commercial practices are now automatically treated as being unfair – these are set out in Schedule 20. They will be considered unfair in all circumstances, without the need to show that they impact a consumer’s purchasing decision. The Secretary of State also has the power to add to the current list of automatically unfair practices, allowing the law to adapt more quickly to changes in consumer behaviour, the market and technological advances.
• Submitting fake and misleading reviews is now a banned practice, as well as commissioning or incentivising a person to write and/or submit a fake review. This change will bring the UK regime closer to that of the EU where the Enforcement and Modernisation Directive brought in similar prohibitions on fake reviews.
• The DMCCA amends and/or expands the scope of certain offences. For example, the definition of “commercial practice” has in the context of unfair commercial practices has been extended to cover commercial practices “related to” the promotion or supply of a product, rather than only practices “directly connected with” its promotion or supply.

Drip-pricing 

• The DMCCA introduces an outright ban on the practice known as ‘drip-pricing’ – where mandatory and unexpected additional charges only appear at the end of the customer’s purchase. This is a change from the previous legislation where drip-pricing was only prohibited where a trader’s deployment of the practice would have caused “the average consumer to take a transactional decision he would not have taken otherwise”.

Fake and misleading reviews, etc

The DMCCA introduces a number of prohibitions concerning fake and misleading reviews, including:

• Submitting fake or misleading reviews (or facilitating this). For example, making favourable statements about a product or trader when the person submitting the review hasn’t used the product or the trader, or the review relates to a different product or trader.
• Commissioning fake or misleading reviews (or facilitating this). For example, offering a refund or other incentive if a reviewer will amend or remove a negative review, or buying reviews written by “bots”.
• Concealed incentivized reviews are also prohibited. For example, where it isn’t disclosed that the reviewer has received free products from a trader or the consumer could only find out about the relationship between the reviewer and the trader by going to the reviewer’s profile page or bio.
• Reviews should not be published in a misleading way. For example, a trader should not suppress negative reviews or publish only positive reviews.

Traders will now have an obligation to monitor reviews to ensure they comply with the rules and to take steps to prevent fake reviews. We expect to see businesses reviewing current practices and implementing new or updated policies relating to online reviews, which should be accompanied by appropriate staff training and regular audits/assessments to make sure that the business is compliant with the rules.

The CMA recognises that businesses will need time to implement changes to their compliance regimes in light of the new prohibitions. Accordingly, the CMA has announced that during the first three months of the new rules, it will focus on supporting businesses with compliance rather than imposing heavy fines or taking other enforcement action in respect of fake reviews.

Traders – are you prepared?

The existing rules, combined with the new “unfair practices” and the increased enforcement powers and penalties, mean it is important that traders take note.

Traders should:

• Audit any commercial practices which the CMA has previously focused on via enforcement actions (for example, green claims and dark patterns) to ensure these align with the DMCCA requirements.
• Assess what changes (if any) need to be made to current practices, for example identify whether drip pricing is used in the customer’s checkout/online sales processes.
• Ensure your business has appropriate systems in place to help comply with the rules on fake and misleading reviews. For example, if consumer reviews are being deployed in marketing, then checks will need to be done to assess the authenticity of the reviews.
• Make sure staff are aware of the new rules/provide appropriate training.
• Check the extent to which vulnerable consumers are targeted.

If you have any questions or would like assistance with the above, please contact the team at [email protected]