DMCCA 2024 - Commencement date for the new consumer protection regime in sight

With the enactment of the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 (Commencement No. 2) Regulations 2025 (SI 2025/272), it is now confirmed that from 6^th April, the consumer law aspects of the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 will enter into force. With the commencement date in sight, we are starting to see more from the CMA in the way of guidance on how the new rules will be applied, and what more we can expect from them in the coming weeks and months to help firms get to grips with the changes.

What is changing?

New direct CMA enforcement powers

From 6 April, the CMA will have the power to directly investigate and enforce consumer laws without having to take businesses to court, and the new rules include a new power to impose fines of up to 10% of global turnover for breaches of consumer protection laws.  

It remains to be seen how the CMA will exercise these new powers – in a speech by the chief executive of the CMA earlier this week, it was announced that at the beginning of April, alongside final guidance, the CMA will publish an approach document.  This will shed light on the CMA’s enforcement priorities for the first 12 months of the new regime, bearing in mind their acknowledgment that the compliance burden must be proportionate.  What we do know now is that, acknowledging that businesses preparing to comply will be relying on the clarity and certainty provided by the CMA’s final guidance due to be published “at commencement”, the CMA's early enforcement action is likely to focus on “the most egregious breaches”.  For example:

• aggressive sales practices that prey on vulnerability
• providing information to consumers that is objectively false
• contract terms that are very obviously imbalanced and unfair
• behaviour where the CMA has already put down a clear marker through its previous enforcement work
• where the law tells us that a practice is always unfair

In the meantime, this afternoon, the CMA has published its Direct Consumer Enforcement procedural guidance setting out how a direct enforcement action will be run from start to finish, how the CMA will interact with parties, and its approach to setting penalties.

Unfair Commercial Practices regime

The DMCCA 2024 replaces and updates the current rules relating to unfair commercial practices, (the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations).  These existing rules are largely reproduced, however, there are a few material changes to watch out for, including the following:

• Vulnerable persons – the DMCCA extends the concept of vulnerability to a much wider set of consumer circumstances – which could include for example, bereavement, recent unemployment or divorce.
• Fake reviews: submitting or commissioning reviews that purport to be, but are not, based on a person’s genuine experience will be prohibited, as will the publication of reviews in a misleading way (likely to include circumstances where negative reviews are removed or not published, or where positive reviews are given greater prominence), or offering services for, or the facilitation of, the submission, commission or publication of fake reviews.  Review “publishers” will also have a positive obligation to take steps to prevent and remove fake reviews. The CMA recognise the need for firms to get their compliance efforts right, so for the first 3 months of the new regime the CMA has announced that it will focus on supporting businesses with their compliance efforts rather than enforcement. Pending publication of final guidance, for firms that use any form of review, the draft guidelines provide some helpful clarity (see annex B)
• Drip Pricing - This bans the practice of showing consumers an initial headline price for a good or service and then introducing additional mandatory charges later in the transaction journey. The CMA has noted that in this context it is taking its time in order to get the guidance right – in April the CMA will publish a clear framework for compliance with those aspects of the law which the CMA’s earlier consultations indicate are well understood (“the prohibition of genuinely unexpected and untrailed mandatory charges added on at the end of a purchasing journey”).  In Summer 2025, the CMA will consult on those aspects of the drip pricing guidance that have created more uncertainty (including fixed-term periodic contracts).  Given this staged approach, the CMA has made clear that in the early stages, they will only take enforcement action against drip pricing which clearly breaches the rules in line with the April published guidance.

How do the CMA propose to help businesses get to grips with the new regime?

There is a lot for businesses to get to grips with, and the CMA recognise that the risks of getting it wrong are changing substantially, so with this in mind, the CMA has announced that at the beginning of April we can expect publication of:

• the CMA’s final Guidance on Unfair Commercial Practices – this will be streamlined as compared to the draft guidelines to make the guidance as clear and accessible as possible, (whilst retaining the case studies and examples)
• an updated version of consumer protection regime guidance (CMA58): setting out how the regime sits in the broader landscape and when the CMA will exercise its direct enforcement powers
• the CMA’s approach document (as noted above) which will include more detail on the enforcement priorities for the first 12 months.  It will also explain more fully how the CMA plan to apply the ‘4Ps’ framework (with focus on pace, predictability, proportionality and process) to the new consumer protection regime.

This afternoon, the CMA published its procedural guidance for the direct enforcement model (CMA200): setting out how a direct enforcement action will be run from start to finish and how the CMA will interact with parties.

Get in touch

There is a lot to think about for consumer-facing businesses as you take steps towards ensuring compliance - please do not hesitate to contact us, if you would like our help navigating the new rules.