The fair necessities: DMCC Act and unfair commercial practices under the microscope

Earlier this year, the majority of the unfair commercial practices (“UCPs”) provisions in the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 (the “DMCC Act”) came into force and the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) published guidance explaining its priorities and how the UCP provisions apply in practice. 

As businesses find themselves under increasing pressure to ensure that their customer journey, systems and compliance programmes are in line with the DMCC Act, with a (possible) looming threat of enforcement, in our latest blog series we will take a closer look at the key changes made under the Act, the CMA’s latest guidance, and some of the steps that businesses should be taking now to comply with the rules on fake reviews, pricing transparency and subscription contracts.

However, before we dive into the detail, let’s take a step back to remind ourselves of the broader purpose behind these changes, the CMA’s role and intentions in enforcing the new rules and why businesses should care. 

Background

The main consumer protection aspects of the DMCC Act came into force on 6 April 2025 and introduced a number of changes to enhance consumer protection and promote fair competition in the UK. Hailed as a “watershed moment” by Sarah Cardell, Chief Executive of the CMA, it is aimed at modernising the UK’s consumer protection regime and making it fit for the digital age. This is in line with trends we are seeing in the EU and other jurisdictions (see our recent blog).

In order to achieve this, the Act introduces (amongst other things) new obligations on organisations to take steps to address certain unfair practices that are becoming more prevalent in our online-focussed world, including fake reviews, drip pricing, and so-called ‘subscription traps’. 

To help businesses comply, the CMA has published a number of pieces of guidance, including: 

• general guidance on unfair commercial practices, which provides clarity, scoping and practical context to the text of the DMCC Act, including through use of illustrative examples; 
• specific guidance on certain key topics, such as fake reviews; 
• consumer protection enforcement guidance, which focuses on the CMA’s role, functions and powers in a consumer protection context; 
• a policy update on dynamic pricing; and
• a document setting out the CMA’s approach to applying and enforcing the new rules. 

While certain points (e.g. on pricing transparency and subscription contracts) still require further clarity and guidance, businesses need to make sure they are familiar with the guidance that has been published to date and are putting it into practice. 

How has the role of the CMA changed? 

Alongside the substantive changes to UK consumer protection rules, the DMCC Act radically alters the CMA’s role as enforcer of these rules, with it now being able to directly enforce UK consumer protection law. Non-compliant businesses can then face fines of up to 10% of their annual global turnover and additional daily fines for continued non-compliance, as well as financial measures via redress (see our briefing for further detail). 

The magnitude of the fines that will be issued in practice remains to be seen, but the introduction of these fine powers is expected to act as a significant deterrent for non-compliance. In its Approach Document, however, the CMA recognises that fines are likely to be lower in the early days given it can only impose a penalty for acts after 6 April 2025. 

To date, businesses have not yet seen any enforcement action under these new powers. However, following a brief adjustment period, we are now starting to see the CMA take its first active steps, with an announcement on 25 July, that – having completed a review of over 100 businesses – it has sent letters to 54 (unnamed) companies that it considers may not be complying with the laws on fake and misleading reviews. The CMA has advised these businesses to review their practices and has asked for further details of the steps they are taking to comply with the law.  

Alongside fake reviews, we also expect drip pricing to be an area of priority for the CMA – although the Approach Document says that the CMA will delay enforcement action on those parts of the drip pricing provisions it is currently consulting on until final guidance has been published.

More generally, in the first year of enforcement, the CMA has made clear that it will target “the most egregious harms”, focussing on breaches “where the law is clear”, including enforcement action against aggressive sales practices targeting vulnerable consumers, the provision of information to consumers that is objectively false, and prioritising “areas of essential spend to help people struggling with pressure on household budgets”. This suggests that the CMA will initially steer away from pursuing more contentious cases, and the Approach Document encourages businesses to seek support from and constructively engage with the CMA. 

That said, it’s clear that the CMA intends to bring enforcement cases under this new regime and we expect them to be active in this area. Given the CMA’s new powers to directly impose substantial fines and order consumer redress, now is the time for businesses to make sure they are on top of the new rules.

Stay tuned…

In the following blogs in this series, we’ll take a deeper dive into the new rules and guidance on fake reviews, pricing transparency and subscription contracts; and examine the impact of these changes on consumer-facing businesses and their online customer journey.