Complying with UK consumer protection rules

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The Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024

Contact our consumer team << Back to DMCC

Misleading advertising and other unfair commercial practices are high risk under the UK’s evolving consumer protection regime.

Most businesses will already have some processes in place to ensure advertising materials, consumer journeys, subscription procedures and other commercial practices are not misleading or otherwise unfair. These historically may have been ‘light touch’ given the perceived low risk of civil or criminal enforcement action under consumer protection law, and the inability of the ASA to impose serious sanctions on those who do not comply with the CAP and BCAP Code.

This has all changed under the consumer protection regime introduced by the DMCC. The risks associated with misleading advertising and other unfair commercial practices are now elevated.

We are assisting many of our clients in assessing compliance with these changes, from running audits of current practices to offering practical tips, training and advice.

Checklist to ensure your business is compliant

Ask your sales, marketing and user experience (UX) teams:

What steps are you taking to avoid publishing fake or misleading reviews?
What does your user journey look like? Is the information you provide about your products, prices, content and services accurate and is all material information provided at the start of the purchase journey?
What information do you currently provide to subscribers when they sign up, when their introductory offer ends, and when their subscriptions renew?
What information do you keep about the prices which consumers pay for your goods, and how long do you keep it for?

Amend ad clearance processes and consider restructuring teams so that legal checks take place before marketing is published or user journeys are changed.
Ensure your marketing teams hold documents to substantiate any claims they use in their marketing.
Implement processes to ensure information can be retrieved in the event of a complaint.

Consider whether commercial and marketing teams need training on the UK’s new consumer protection regime and to ensure they’re familiar with the risks.
We can provide bespoke training to legal, marketing and commercial teams on all aspects of the new regime.

Brief employees on what to do in the event of a regulatory investigation or dawn raid.
Create an internal dawn raid response team with representatives from the relevant areas of the business.
Regularly refresh training and guidance on compliance in this area.
Learn more about navigating any regulatory action here.