Insights for In-house Counsel Spring 2026 - Consumer protection

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CMA gets tough on consumer law enforcement

Why it matters:

After a relatively slow start, the UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) is now building up a head of steam on consumer enforcement – with 14 business-to-consumer (B2C) investigations underway using the much tougher powers that it acquired in April 2025. It has already used those powers to fine one business over £470,000 (for failure to respond to an information notice) and has written to over 100 businesses drawing attention to potential breaches of UK consumer law. We recently saw the opening of an investigation into Adobe's use of early cancellation fees for software products. Meanwhile in November 2025, the CMA launched formal investigations into eight businesses over a variety of practices relating to alleged misleading pricing.

Our view:

The new consumer law enforcement regime introduced by the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 (DMCCA) in April 2025 has significantly increased the risk for B2C businesses of failing to comply. Whilst the CMA's initial "softly softly" approach may have lulled some into a false security, there is now no doubt that the regulator means business. The key difference compared with the pre-DMCCA position is that a finding of infringement is likely to have a significant financial impact – not just through fines but also through redress orders, requiring e.g. compensation to be paid to consumers.

Do you have a plan for how you would respond if investigated by the CMA for breaches of consumer law? The DMCCA also significantly strengthens the CMA's investigatory powers and fines can be imposed for non-compliance with e.g. information requests – as has already happened to one business (a £473K fine on Euro Car Parks).
Are you sitting on any "ticking time bombs" in terms of your existing practices and processes involving consumers? Our experience is that there are often areas where B2C businesses could relatively easily take action to make themselves less of an obvious target for regulators.
Are relevant staff – particularly those in sales roles – aware of the risks that infringing consumer law poses to the business? Do staff need a refresher on what types of behaviour or practices are likely to be problematic?

DON'T ADOPT A "WAIT AND SEE" APPROACH:

Whilst it may be tempting to hold off taking action, the CMA appears to be casting the net quite widely in terms of enforcement – in particular, past experience has demonstrated that it only takes one or two "bad actors" to result in a whole sector coming under scrutiny over particular practices. As the fine on Euro Car Parks shows, even failure to respond promptly to CMA information requests carries risks.

Consumer subscription contracts: what, when and why?

Why it matters:

Complex new rules governing consumer subscription contracts in the UK are expected to come into force in Autumn 2026. These are designed to ensure consumers are given clearer information when they first sign up, benefit from a cooling-off period and get periodic reminders before subscriptions are due to renew. Failure to comply carries a number of risks, including the prospect of substantial fines from the CMA (see above). For more detail, read The UK's new subscription contracts regime: what, when and why?

Our view:

Although we are still awaiting some detail of how the regime will operate, businesses need to start preparing now – for example, some changes may require modifications to CRM systems that will take time to implement. Although there are still areas of uncertainty, the legislation and the Government's consultation on the detail provide enough of a steer to enable meaningful planning to take place now.

Start planning now - in particular, consider which aspects of implementation need to be initiated sooner than later. Whilst the CMA may allow an informal grace period, it probably won't be much more than 3 months.
Think about what you can do to minimise the risk of losing "dormant" customers who may be prompted to cancel their subscriptions when they start to receive reminders. Can they be encouraged to start making better use of the subscription so that they will be less likely to cancel?

DO YOU CHARGE EARLY TERMINATION FEES?

As noted above, the CMA has recently launched a formal investigation into the use by Adobe of early cancellation fees for consumer software subscriptions. Whilst this action is separate from the new subscriptions regulatory regime, it highlights how some businesses using a subscription model may need to review some of their existing practices.

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