Consumer law | UK Regulatory Outlook January 2025

Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act: the year to comply

The Digital Markets Competition and Consumers Act 2024 (DMCCA), which became law in May 2024, is set to overhaul UK consumer law – our Insight explains the main changes. 

The government and the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) have started the implement process with consultations on paid subscription contracts, the unfair commercial practices provisions in the DMCCA, and the dual enforcement regime. In 2025, we will see secondary legislation bringing some of the new consumer protection regime into effect. 

The paid subscription regime is not expected to come into effect until spring 2026. See our Insight for more information on these consultations. 

Now is the time for businesses to start complying with the new legislation to avoid the more stringent enforcement regime as well as any reputational damage due to non-compliance.

Dynamic pricing and secondary ticketing

Following the problems that arose last year as a result of Ticketmaster's sale of Oasis tickets for the band's upcoming reunion concert, the CMA launched an investigation into Ticketmaster, as well as a separate project to consider "dynamic pricing". We can expect more on this from the CMA during 2025, including a call for evidence. See this Regulatory Outlook for details.

In the meantime, the government has begun the year by launching a consultation on the secondary ticketing market, as well as a call for evidence on "dynamic pricing" in the live events sector. Its election manifesto included a commitment to improve consumer protection in relation to ticket resales.

The government wants to ensure that fans are protected from misleading or harmful practices, have better access to live events, are not forced to buy tickets from ticket touts who purchase multiple tickets and sell them at highly inflated prices (often resulting in fans being priced out of the market entirely), and are able to resell tickets to other fans when they cannot attend an event. It also wants to protect the live events sector by ensuring that the profits that often end up in the pockets of the ticket touts go to the sector instead.

Through the consultation, the government hopes to understand better the hurdles faced by primary vendors, secondary platforms and enforcers seeking to prevent ticketing scams, as well as the extent to which online platforms are shaping consumers' ticket-buying decisions.

The government is also seeking views on various proposals, including:

• Introducing a cap on ticket resale prices, which would be no more than the original price or a certain percentage above it, and limiting the number of tickets an individual can resell to the amount they were originally allowed to purchase.
• Increasing accountability for ticket resale websites and apps, for example by requiring them to verify ticket ownership before listing it for resale and providing consumer refunds.
• Strengthening enforcement by raising the potential level of fines and introducing a licensing system for resale platforms.
• Expanding safeguards in the primary ticket market.

Some of these proposals may seem familiar as they were in fact first raised during the passage of the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers bill through Parliament last year, but rejected by the previous government.

The government currently has no preferred approach on which proposals to introduce, although it is committed to introducing new consumer protection rules in this area in some form. The outcome of the consultation will inform the measures to be adopted.

The government has also launched a call for evidence on pricing practices in the live events sector. It is seeking evidence on how ticket pricing practices, including dynamic pricing (when prices are quickly adjusted to match demand), work in the live events sector, the impact of current practices on consumers, and whether the current consumer framework needs to be modified to ensure fairness for consumers.

The consultation and the call for evidence both close on 4 April 2025.

Amendments to Price Marking Order in force from October 2025

The Price Marking (Amendment) Order 2024 will amend the UK Price Marking Order 2004, which sets out the pricing information that a trader, whether online or offline, must include on price labels for the goods it is selling. See this Regulatory Outlook for details of the changes. 

By the time the amendment order comes into force on 1 October 2025, the CMA's strengthened consumer enforcement powers under the DMCCA should be in force (see above). Businesses should therefore be prepared for the new rules to ensure compliance by October this year. 

EU Digital Fairness Act 

In October 2024, the European Commission published its long-awaited "fitness check" of EU consumer law (see our Insight), which found that the EU consumer law framework needs to be adapted if it is to provide a high level of consumer protection online. One possible outcome, which has been widely talked about, is a new Digital Fairness Act. This would in theory address some of the problematic practices identified in the fitness check, such as dark patterns, addictive design, social media influencer marketing and content personalisation issues. 

However, no proposal from the Commission has yet materialised and it has been reported that it should not be expected in 2025 either. The Commission has indicated that there will be a call for evidence or public consultation in 2025 on a potential new Act, and an impact assessment of specific policy options will be developed.