The CMA’s Big Bang: First Investigations Under New Consumer Law Powers

These powers allow the CMA to determine breaches of consumer law and impose significant penalties - up to 10% of global group turnover - without going through the courts (see our briefing here).

On 18 November 2025, the CMA announced its first investigations under this regime, marking a major escalation in consumer protection enforcement now that businesses have had time to revise their pricing practices.

In this briefing, we outline the CMA’s first enforcement actions under its new consumer law powers and explain what these developments mean for businesses.

What has happened?

CMA opens eight formal investigations

The CMA opened investigations into eight companies suspected of infringing consumer law through online pricing and sales practices, across sectors including live event tickets, driving schools, fitness and gyms, and homeware retailers. The alleged conduct includes:

• how mandatory additional charges are presented and whether these fees are included upfront in the advertised price;
• introducing a joining fee part-way through the sign-up process and failing to include this cost in the advertised membership price;
• whether advertised time-limited sale periods are genuine; and
• automatically opting consumers into additional paid services during the purchase process.

These cases follow a cross-economy review of over 400 businesses in 19 sectors, which identified widespread concerns about drip pricing and pressure selling tactics such as misleading countdown timers.

If breaches are confirmed, the CMA can order compensation for affected consumers and impose fines of up to 10% of global turnover.

CMA sends advisory letters to 100 businesses

Alongside enforcement, the CMA has issued advisory letters to 100 businesses across 14 sectors:

1. Holidays (including package travel)
2. Driving schools
3. Homeware retailers
4. Rail travel
5. Parking and airport parking
6. Bus and coach travel
7. Luggage storage providers
8. Cinemas
9. Live event tickets
10. Gyms and fitness
11. Fashion
12. Food and drink delivery companies
13. Parcel and letter delivery
14. Online vouchers

These letters put businesses on notice that the CMA has concerns their practices may breach consumer law, and that it requires them to review their practices, take remedial steps and confirm compliance. Failure to act could lead to enforcement.

New CMA guidance

The CMA has also published finalised price transparency guidance to help businesses comply with the law. This guidance clarifies obligations under the DMCCA and existing consumer protection rules, including:

• Mandatory charges must be included upfront.
• Misleading headline prices and countdown timers are prohibited.
• Optional charges must not be pre-selected without clear consent.

Why does this matter?

This is a watershed moment for consumer law enforcement in the UK. The CMA has made clear it will act swiftly against egregious practices that harm consumers, particularly where household budgets are under pressure.

The conduct being investigated is likely to be the clearest breaches of consumer law, which will set an example for other businesses.

We expect the CMA to actively monitor the sectors now under review for further breaches going forwards with the possibility of the scale of actions taken expanding. Other sectors could also be investigated – the initial 14 sectors impact a significant portion of UK consumers, and may use banned practices more than others, but as the CMA gains consumer enforcement experience it may branch out further. Businesses should therefore be on notice that further enforcement or more advisory letters is a real possibility.

With that risk in mind, companies should proactively review their customer journey and implement changes to make sure it complies with the new consumer regulations. This includes mandatory charges, misleading sales tactics, and opt-in services, as set out above, but also other practices including fake reviews and specific regulations for subscription contracts.

How we can help

Our unique offering combines our consumer law experts, who have an in-depth understanding of the underlying consumer law, with our competition team’s extensive experience of CMA enforcement processes, as well as responding to advisory letters and conducting internal investigations to identify and rectify breaches.