When it came into force on 1 January 2025 the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act (DMCCA) introduced significant reform to UK consumer protection law, yet many businesses even a year later seem unaware of its impact. Notably, the Act provides the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) with enhanced direct enforcement powers. The Act also provides for substantial changes across a wide range of consumer-facing practices. Set out below are some of the key areas which should not be overlooked:
The DMCCA provides that advertisements are misleading if they are likely to deceive consumers and are likely to cause consumers to take transactional decisions that they would not otherwise have taken.
It will be widely understood that an advertisement which contains misinformation will be misleading. However, under the DMCCA the following are also likely to render an advertisement misleading:
Moving forwards it is essential that businesses ensure that both the substance and presentation of information contained within any advertisement, no matter the form, is fair and transparent.
‘Drip pricing’ refers to practices where an initial price for a good or service is shown to the customer and additional fees are ‘dripped’ in later in the purchasing process. Drip pricing is a banned practice under the DMCCA, regardless of any impact on the consumer.
Businesses must therefore ensure that:
As general guidance, the headline price of a product, including the ‘from’ price, is likely to be misleading if it is not “realistic, meaningful and attainable” for the consumer or if it excludes elements that a consumer would reasonably expect to be included.
The DMCCA sets out behaviour, relating to reviews, that is automatically unfair and illegal. This covers fake reviews, concealed incentivised reviews and requires traders not to publish consumer reviews in a misleading way.
Reviews are unlawful when they are fake or conceal the fact they have been incentivised. Many publication media do not allow incentivised reviews, but where it is permissible to post an incentivised review, it must be clearly identifiable as incentivised, to anyone engaging with the review.
‘Incentivise’ can take many forms and is not limited to making monetary payments and would include, for example, offering discounts, ‘freebies’ or invitations to events.
The DMCCA also provides the CMA with enhanced enforcement powers in relation to ‘environmental marketing claims’. In instances of misleading messaging, the CMA can act based on reasonable suspicion alone, without the need for a court order. The powers of the CMA extend to issuing a public provisional infringement notice prior to the conclusion of their investigation, requiring updates to staff training, requiring the removal of misleading claims and imposing (sometimes severe) financial penalties.
As broad guidance, to avoid falling foul of the DMCCA and other regulations, businesses should:
Although not effective yet the DMCCA also brings in new rules for consumer subscription contracts which will apply to any contract that automatically renews (for a fixed or indefinite period) and will require that businesses give the consumer the right to cancel, including where the contracts included a free/discounted trial period. These provisions are unlikely to come into force before Autumn 2026 pending secondary legislation and further CMA guidance but are something to be aware of.
The expected headline changes are:
If you would like to discuss the DMCCA and how it impacts on your business, the Howes Percival Commercial, Technology IP and IT team has solicitors in Leicester, Milton Keynes, Northampton and Oxford who would be happy to help. For further information or to discuss how we can assist you, please contact Hannah Steggles.
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