Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024: What it means for consumer law

The Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 (also known as the DMCC) received Royal Assent on 24 May 2024, but certain provisions of this law are starting to come into effect as of April 2025.

The DMCC has been one of the biggest changes to consumer law since the Consumer Rights Act 2015, and it has brought in a number of important changes, including replacing Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008. There have also been changes to competition law and the way digital markets operate.

Unfair commercial practices

From 6 April 2025, several provisions of the DMCC came into effect, including changes to the unfair commercial practices’ provisions in the UK.

The previous rules about unfair commercial practices can partially be found in the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008 (“Regulations”), which sets out various activities by traders which are prohibited because they are deemed to be unfair to consumers.

Actions that may be unfair

Examples of situations where commercial practices might be unfair include: 

1. Where a trader provides false information (or omits relevant information) which would have impacted the consumer's decision making; or
2. If a trader uses aggressive commercial practices, for example, harassing customers or putting them under undue influence to make a purchase.

In order to be unfair, the trader’s actions need to have caused the consumer to make a decision about a purchase that they might not have taken without the trader’s actions – for example, if a trader advertises a car as having done only 30,000 miles but in reality, it has done 90,000 miles, this is likely to be unfair because the trader has not provided the correct information about the car and this has led to the consumer being misled. Actions that are always unfair

The Regulations also include a list of practices which are automatically unfair. This list includes:

1. Claims that a product or trader has been approved by an authority body when they are not;
2. Stating that a product is only available for a set period in order to get consumers to purchase the product quickly;
3. Making unwanted and persistent marketing calls;
4. Directly telling children to buy products or to persuade their parents to buy it for them.

There are 31 listed activities in the Regulations.

The DMCC includes all 31 listed activities and introduces a new activity – submitting fake reviews.

Fake reviews

Under the DMCC, you cannot submit or commission another person to submit a fake review.

Traders using influencers to promote their products by giving reviews will also need to make sure that those reviews explicitly state that they were incentivised to make the reviews – whether they were paid to do so or received products for free (#ad).

Traders should also use reviews in a way that won't mislead their consumers – for example, only including 5-star reviews on their website, or deleting or hiding negative reviews.

The DMCC also means it will be traders' responsibility to take steps to prevent these activities and to remove reviews that would be seen as a fake review, or which haven’t had an incentive disclosed.

Drip pricing

Drip pricing is when a trader shows you a price for a product, but as you go through the purchase process, more fees are introduced. This is a strategy that aims to hook customers into the purchase process, who then may be more likely to accept the additional charges.

Previously, it is likely this activity would have been caught by the Regulations because drip pricing is a misleading omission – not showing the true price at the point of offering the product for sale. However, consumers would have to prove that not showing the true price at the beginning impacted their decision making, and this would have made it difficult to prove.

However, under the DMCC, if traders fail to provide information about the total price of a product (subject to certain exceptions), then this is deemed to be unfair. The price can be given as a breakdown of costs, but the total price advertised should note whether there are additional prices that aren't included or which can’t be calculated yet.

The Competition and Markets Authority has provided draft guidance around unfair commercial practices, which directly address drip pricing and the circumstances in which it would be unfair. For example, if the trader is offering a service to add extras onto a product, and this is optional, then it may not be a drip pricing strategy (such as a "build your own product" offering).

If the costs are mandatory (such as administration fees, booking fees, platform charges, routine cleaning fees, delivery charges, mandatory service or cover charges at a restaurant, joining fees on top of monthly payments, etc.), these are likely to fall under drip pricing.

Pre-contract information

Along with information about the total price of the product, traders also need to provide their customers with other information before a purchase is made.

These requirements are set out under various consumer legislation in the UK, but the DMCC adds that if that information is not provided, it would be an unfair commercial practice and, therefore, subject to enforcement under the DMCC's new powers.

The information that consumers should typically receive before purchasing a product includes a description of the product, the total price, who the seller is, delivery charges, and complaints procedures, amongst others.

Greenwashing

The DMCC doesn't directly address the issue of "greenwashing", but it is likely that its provisions will help to curb this sort of behaviour.

Many companies are keen to demonstrate how they are looking at sustainability and protecting the environment. Sometimes, companies can mislead consumers about how environmentally friendly or sustainable their products are, and because many consumers are now taking steps to be more sustainable, this misleading information is likely to affect someone’s decision whether to buy a product or service.

Prior to the introduction of the DMCC, the CMA had provided guidance called the "Green Claims Code", which came out in 2021 – it set out steps that companies could take to ensure they are complying with consumer law.

With the replacement of the Regulations, the DMCC will take over as the authority when it comes to unfair commercial practices, likely including cases where a trader has provided misleading or false information.

Competition and Markets Authority

The CMA is the main body in the UK that protects consumers and encourages competition. They are responsible for enforcing relevant laws and regulations and providing guidance to companies on how to comply.

Under the DMCC, the CMA is being provided with further responsibilities and powers, which are set out below.

Subscriptions

Although not coming into effect this year, rules around how subscription contracts are being introduced through the DMCC and secondary legislation which will be passed in due course.

The new rules will include:

1. An obligation on traders to provide reminders to customers before the expiry of a free trial period (giving customers the chance to cancel the agreement before it automatically charges them);
2. Reminders about renewal every 6 months – with the aim to prevent subscriptions from continuing when a customer has forgotten about the subscription;
3. Making cancelling a subscription straightforward, and without any unnecessary steps. Subscriptions entered into online have to be capable of being terminated online; and
4. Consumers will be able to cancel a subscription during a cooling-off period, including after renewal.

Enforcement powers and sanctions 

The DMCC brings in significant reforms, which criminalise more forms of unfair commercial practices, targeting everything from misleading marketing to aggressive sales tactics.

It includes but is not limited to, increased enforcement powers for the CMA. In particular, the DMCC provides the CMA with direct consumer enforcement powers, which will exist alongside court-based sanctions held by it and other enforcement agencies in the UK (such as the local Trading Standards Officers and sector regulators). 

Moreover, and in a significant change for the enforcement and scrutiny of consumer law compliance in the UK, the CMA will gain the same enforcement powers (for example: information requests, dawn raids, requirements to take/ stop certain actions by virtue of enforceable undertakings, or alike) and correlating sanctions for consumer protection as it currently has for competition law enforcement. As part of that process, information requests can be served on parties outside of the UK, provided that there is some form of “UK connection” (which has intentionally been defined very broadly). 

The CMA (or associated regulatory authorities) will be entitled to impose financial penalties on both businesses and individuals (as well as seeking director disqualification orders) for failing to conform with the provisions of DMCC. Where the CMA concludes there has been a breach of the legislation, it will, for the first time, be able to impose very significant financial penalties, namely:

1. For substantive consumer protection infringements: The greater of 10% of your global annual turnover or £300,000.
2. For failing to comply with CMA directions (such as administrative or procedural shortcomings): The greater of 5% of turnover or £150,000 (plus daily rates for ongoing breaches). If non-compliance continues, businesses may face daily fines of up to £15,000 or 5% of daily worldwide turnover. This daily penalty applies to procedural breaches, with the exception of cases involving the provision of false or misleading information for which daily penalties are not applicable.
3. For providing false or misleading information (investigatory breaches): The greater of 1% of turnover or £30,000.

The CMA also has the authority to issue remedies to address consumer harm. Enhanced consumer measures can be imposed, which may require businesses to compensate consumers, improve compliance procedures, or provide clearer market information to help consumers make informed choices. Additionally, online interface notices can be issued, enabling the CMA to require changes to the digital content or platforms used to promote goods and services to UK consumers.

What does this mean for business?

Now is a great time to make sure that any consumer contracts that businesses have in place and websites are compliant with the relevant consumer legislation.

Given the greater and quicker enforcement power that the CMA is looking to have, making sure that you comply with consumer law is as important as ever.