The UK has a well-established consumer protection regime. Enforced by the Competition and Markets Authority and local Trading Standards, the substantive provisions of the regime remain closely aligned with EU law.
The regime is about to undergo a major reform, as in April 2025 the CMA is set to gain the power to enforce UK consumer law directly, rather than having to go to court to seek enforcement. As part of this change, the CMA will gain the power to impose substantial fines of up to 10% of a company’s worldwide turnover for infringements of consumer protection law. It will also gain a new power to fine companies for failure to adhere to previous undertakings or court orders. The CMA’s draft guidance on the new regime indicates a desire on its part to impose substantial fines on infringing companies from the start of the new regime, to ensure deterrence.
The move to direct enforcement will be accompanied by a more intensive investigation regime, which is expected to adopt many practices from the CMA’s existing competition enforcement regime. The CMA is likely to place companies under significant time pressure to respond during an investigation, as a result of its new duty of expedition.
Taken together, these developments will mark a step-change in the nature of the UK’s consumer protection regime.
The Euclid Law team have extensive experience of representing companies on UK consumer protection cases before the CMA, including dealing with information request, negotiating complex undertakings to resolve concerns, reporting on compliance and defending companies in related litigation before the courts.
CLIENTS & CASES
- Acting for online mattress retailer Emma Sleep on the CMA’s consumer enforcement investigation of its online sales practices and related High Court litigation
- Acting for StubHub on the CMA’s secondary ticketing consumer enforcement investigation and subsequent negotiation of undertakings
- Acting for a consumer cloud computing provider on a CMA investigation of its terms of use
- Acting for an online marketplace on a CMA investigation of fake reviews