Retail

Recent Articles

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  07/07/2025

  United Kingdom

  Draft price transparency guidance for con­sumer-fa­cing businesses: is it clearer how to comply?

  On 3 July 2025, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) published a consultation on draft guidance which is intended to assist consumer-facing businesses to comply with provisions in the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 (DMCC Act) that aim to achieve price transparency and prohibit drip pricing. For more about these provisions, see our previous article here.This consultation may rightly cause some readers to have strong feelings of déjà vu: in December 2024, the CMA published draft guidance in relation to the unfair commercial practices (UCP) provisions of the...

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  30/05/2025

  England and Wales

  Delays to crunch time: The UK Government postpones new Advertising Regulations on "Less Healthy Foods"

  In a further update to the ongoing saga, the UK government has announced that the long-awaited Advertising (Less Healthy Food Definitions and Exemptions) Regulations 2024 (the “Advertising Regulations”), which place tighter controls on the advertising of less healthy foods, will now come into force on 5 January 2026 instead of 1 October 2025. This is to allow for the introduction of an exemption for brand advertisements under secondary legislation.  The UK Government has consistently claimed that brand advertising should not be caught by the new rules, however the CAP and BCAP...

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  17/04/2025

  United Kingdom

  No more faux five-stars: The DMCC Act bans fake reviews

  New rules banning fake online reviews came into force on 6 April, breach of which could lead to hefty penalties of up to 10% of annual global turnover.Most of the consumer law provisions of the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act (the “DMCC Act”) are now in force, and on 4 April 2025 the CMA published guidance on many of the provisions, including those relating to fake reviews: Fake reviews: CMA208 - GOV.UKA key change that the DMCC Act makes to the previous legislation (the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations) is that the DMCC Act includes  prohibitions...

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  08/04/2025

  United Kingdom

  New legislation to protect certain larger premises and events from terrorist attacks

  This article contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.SummaryThe Terrorism (Protection of Premises) Act 2025, also known as “Martyn’s Law”, gained Royal Assent on 3 April 2025. This is intended to protect certain larger premises and events in the UK from terrorist attacks. It will impact on premises with a capacity of 200 or more people and there will be additional measures for premises or events with a capacity of 800 or more people. This could affect a variety of larger premises including shopping centres, hotels, schools and stadiums...

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  19/03/2025

  United Kingdom

  Tangled web: UK regulators crack down on harmful Online Choice Architecture

  Harmful online choice architecture (‘OCA’), sometimes inappropriately referred to as “dark patterns”, is a hot consumer protection topic that is increasingly under regulatory scrutiny. In this update, we summarise the latest developments in this area in the UK, and we explain what may change in the future.What is harmful OCA?OCA refers to how the design of the online environment (such as websites and apps) can affect a consumer’s decision-making and actions. OCA can be harmful (and illegal) where the online environment deceives, manipulates or misleads consumers in...

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  18/03/2025

  United Kingdom

  Judge, Jury and Executioner: the CMA publishes its final consumer enforcement guidance

  With the consumer law provisions of the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act (“DMCC Act”) coming into force on 6 April 2025 (see here), the CMA has now published its final guidance on direct enforcement, setting out the framework and process for imposing fines of up to 10% of global turnover on businesses.Following a seven week consultation on the draft direct consumer enforcement guidance and rules, the Competition and Markets Authority’s (“CMA”) final guidance is available here (the “Guidance”).The Guidance covers, amongst other things,...

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