Reforms to Consumer Law
Future changes to consumer law are heading this way.
The government consultation proposes changes to consumer law and the CMA’s powers to enforce consumer law directly through the courts with the ability to impose fines of up to 10 per cent of worldwide turnover on companies that are found to have breached consumer law.
Subscriptions and reviews
There is a growing concern that consumers are inadvertently tied in to subscriptions which automatically renew. Companies may be expected to introduce products that do not auto renew and re-design their websites to take account of this.
The prevalence of consumers reviewing products online is currently unpoliced and as a result reviews can be fake or misleading potentially damaging business.
Enforcement of consumer law
Consumer law is strong in the UK but the enforcement of it is largely unrecorded and usually down to Trading Standards to make decisions on consumer outcomes. The reforms proposed include giving the CMA powers to enforce consumer law and issue fines.
The level of fines has attracted debate and is unwelcome by businesses particularly as the proposals do not take account of the issues faced by smaller businesses with lower budgets and the potential to wipe them out.
Further details will emerge as we enter an era of digitalisation on a large scale and see the regulatory landscape continue to change.
