The UK operates a sophisticated consumer protection regime, which is currently enforced by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) alongside local Trading Standards authorities. Other authorities, such as the Advertising Standards Authority, also work to safeguard consumer interests by ensuring that adverts across UK media do not mislead, and are legal, decent, honest and truthful.
At a broad level, this regime has been fundamentally refreshed and enhanced with the coming into force of the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act (DMCC) in April 2025. The DMCC grants the CMA direct enforcement powers, which now empower it to investigate and sanction businesses that are found to mislead customers, without having to go to court. This reform represents a considerable expansion of the CMA’s authority. Most notably, the CMA is now empowered to impose significant financial penalties on businesses that contravene the rules. Businesses could now face fines of up to 10% of annual worldwide for breaches of consumer protection law, as well as fines for non-compliance with existing undertakings or court orders. This puts the CMA’s consumer enforcement powers on equal footing with its existing competition enforcement powers. Clearly, where a business breaches either the competition or consumer law regime, it will also run the risk of reputational damage, which may weaken relationships with customers, suppliers and shareholders.
The CMA has issued a suite of guidance to help businesses navigate the new consumer regime – with more guidance to come – and has already initiated several enforcement cases for conduct which it considers to be clearly “egregious”. This is indicative of the CMA’s clear intention and appetite to use its new powers robustly to champion consumers and simultaneously safeguard robust competition across UK markets.
Direct enforcement will now also be accompanied by a more intensive and demanding investigative framework, expected to mirror many features of the CMA’s established competition enforcement processes. Companies can anticipate detailed information requests, compressed timelines and heightened procedural pressure during investigations, reflecting the CMA’s new statutory duty of expedition.
Taken together, these reforms amount to a step-change in the UK’s consumer protection landscape, significantly increasing regulatory scrutiny, exposure to risk and enforcement intensity for businesses operating in the UK.
The Euclid Law team has extensive experience advising and representing companies in UK consumer protection matters before the CMA. This includes:
- responding to complex information requests in the context of CMA reviews
- negotiating and implementing bespoke undertakings
- developing business-friendly guidance, and bespoke training and compliance solutions to cultivate a culture of compliance
- advising businesses on their customer-facing communications, such as adverts, contracts, policies and terms and conditions
- defending clients in related court proceedings
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