CMA fines send a clear warning on consumer law compliance

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has today (14 October 2026) imposed fines totalling more than £6 million on three businesses for breaches of consumer law, providing another stark reminder of the increased regulatory risk facing businesses selling to consumers.

Wayfair has been fined £4.8 million in relation to false time-limited offers, while Appliances Direct has been fined £1.2 million for misleading time-limited offers and automatically opting customers into paid-for extras. Gold’s Gym has also received a £45,000 fine for failing to present the total cost of memberships, including its joining fee, clearly and at the outset; a practice known as “drip pricing”. Appliances Direct and Gold’s Gym have additionally been required to provide approximately £440,000 in refunds to affected customers.

A new enforcement landscape

The significance of today’s announcement extends beyond the businesses concerned.

The CMA used its direct enforcement powers under the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 (DMCC Act). Those powers enable it to impose penalties for infringements of consumer protection law of up to 10% of a business’s global annual turnover, or £300,000 if higher.

The CMA has now imposed more than £12 million in fines and secured nearly £2.4 million in refunds during the first 18 months of the new enforcement regime.

Today’s cases also highlight the practical areas businesses should be examining. These include:

• ensuring time-limited promotions, countdowns and discount claims are genuine;
• displaying the total price, including mandatory charges, clearly from the outset; and
• obtaining consumers’ express agreement to optional extras rather than relying on pre-ticked boxes or other forms of automatic opt-in.

The CMA has made clear that its work in this area will continue. Its stated priorities include drip pricing, misleading time-limited offers and fake reviews, alongside scrutiny of pricing practices and online designs which obscure the true cost of a purchase or distort consumer choice.

What should businesses be doing?

For consumer-facing businesses, compliance should not be limited to reviewing standard terms and conditions. The regulatory focus is increasingly on the whole customer journey, including how products and prices are advertised, how promotions are presented, what information consumers see and when, how optional extras are selected and how consumers make purchasing decisions.

Today’s fines therefore provide a useful prompt for businesses to review their consumer-facing practices before they attract regulatory scrutiny.

How Cripps can help

At Cripps LLP, our consumer law specialists advise businesses on the application of consumer protection legislation to their day-to-day operations, contracts and customer journeys.

We can help businesses review their consumer terms and conditions, website and app journeys, pricing and promotional practices, subscription and cancellation arrangements, marketing claims and other consumer-facing processes. We can also work with legal, commercial, marketing and digital teams to identify areas of potential exposure and put proportionate compliance measures in place.

With the CMA now actively using its direct enforcement powers, taking a proactive approach to consumer law compliance is increasingly important. A relatively small issue within an online sales journey or marketing campaign can now carry significant financial and reputational consequences.

If you would like to discuss the impact of the DMCC Act on your business, or would like us to undertake a consumer law compliance review, please contact a member of our commercial & tech team.