On April 6 2025, the Competition Market Authority’s (CMA) new enforcement powers under the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumer Bill (DMCC) come into force, including the power to i) determine whether key consumer protection laws have been breached without court input and ii) directly issue fines and redress for breaches. The CMA have the power to issue fines of up to 10% of the offending business’ global turnover.  

Ahead of these new enforcement powers coming into effect, the CMA have provided clarification on their enforcement objectives, forthcoming guidance for consumers and businesses, and public consultations. 

Consultation and Next Steps:

Following a recent public consultation, the clear message is that businesses may face a substantial compliance burden in ensuring their practices do not fall foul of the DMCC.  The CMA have thus committed to:

Short term commitments (before 6 April 2025)

• Publish an approach document outlining the CMA’s approach and enforcement priorities
• Publish unfair commercial practices guidance
• Publish procedural guidance for the direct enforcement model (CMA200) and the consumer protection regime (CMA58)

Longer term commitments

• Streamline guidance on unfair commercial practices
• Publish business explainers for key practices covered by the guidance
• From April 2025, conduct a business outreach programme to raise awareness on the changes

Clarification on Drip Pricing and Fake Reviews:

Drip Pricing is a prohibited practice characterised by low initial prices advertised for a product, followed by a series of additional incremental fees, taxes, or charges later in the purchasing process. Under the DMCC, businesses will need to ensure, amongst other things, that the following information is presented clearly, in a timely fashion, and in a way the consumer is likely to see it:

• The total price of the product (including any mandatory fees, taxes, charges, or other payments);
• Any optional delivery or postal charges not included in the total price of the product; and
• where not possible for the above to be reasonably calculated in advance, the way the total price will be calculated.  

While seemingly straightforward, pricing is often complicated by consumer choices, interlinked or variable pricing mechanisms, and multi-factor transactions (e.g. recurring subscriptions). 

The CMA have thus committed to:

• In April 2025, publishing a framework for compliance on Drip Pricing 
• Run a further consultation on the more uncertain aspects of Drip Pricing guidance (e.g. fixed-term periodic contracts)
• Until the consultation concludes, only take enforcement action against clear cases of Drip Pricing 

Fake Reviews which are reviews that purport to be but are not based on a person’s genuine experience are also banned under the DMCC. Under the DMCC, businesses must:

• Not post or commission the posting of fake reviews
• Not offer services or products to others to publish fake or misleading reviews 
• Take reasonable and proportionate steps to prevent and remove fake reviews 

The last point creates a positive obligation on businesses to actively prevent and remove fake reviews, in addition to publishing a clear policy on their approach to this, which represents a substantial new compliance burden for businesses. As a result, the CMA have confirmed that the first three months of their new regime will be focused on assisting businesses with their compliance rather than enforcement.

Enforcement Priorities:

As a result of the CMA’s new direct enforcement powers, businesses now face a higher risk if they get their DMCC obligations wrong. These same businesses will be relying on the CMA’s final guidance (which is yet to be published) to understand their compliance obligations and will need time to update their policies. 

The CMA have thus clarified that their early enforcement action will focus on more clear and serious breaches of the DMCC as businesses get up to speed with their obligations and will consider proactive steps taken by businesses to correct infringing conduct. The extent of this “grace period” will likely be made clear in the CMA’s approach document on enforcement priorities to be published before 6 April 2025 but businesses should look to review their existing practices before the CMA comes knocking at the door.