Guide
Avoid unfair trading practices
Your legal obligations to trade fairly with consumers. Covers prohibited misleading actions and omissions, aggressive commercial practices, and the 31 practices that are always unlawful. Includes the due diligence defence and consumer redress rights.
UK law prohibits unfair commercial practices - business conduct that misleads consumers, pressures them unfairly, or otherwise distorts their purchasing decisions. These rules apply to all businesses selling to consumers.
From 6 April 2025, the rules formerly in the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008 are now in the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 (DMCCA). The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) can now impose fines up to 10% of global turnover or GBP 300,000 (whichever is higher) without going to court.
This guide explains what practices are prohibited and how to ensure your business complies.
What counts as an unfair commercial practice?
A commercial practice is unfair if it falls into one of these categories:
- Breaches professional diligence AND materially distorts consumer behaviour
- Misleading actions - false or deceptive information
- Misleading omissions - hiding material information
- Aggressive practices - harassment, coercion, or undue influence
- Banned practices - 31 specific practices that are always unfair
The key question is whether your practice causes (or is likely to cause) the average consumer to make a different purchasing decision than they would have made otherwise.
Who is the 'average consumer'?
The law uses the test of a reasonably well-informed, reasonably observant and circumspect consumer. This is not a gullible consumer, but someone who pays reasonable attention.
However, if your marketing targets a particular group (such as elderly people or children), the test is the average member of that group. You must also consider vulnerable consumers if their vulnerability is reasonably foreseeable.
Misleading actions
A commercial practice is a misleading action if it:
- Contains false information and is therefore untruthful, OR
- Deceives or is likely to deceive the average consumer (even if factually correct), AND
- Causes or is likely to cause the consumer to make a different transactional decision
This covers information about:
- Existence or nature of product
- Claiming a product exists when it does not, or misrepresenting what it actually is
- Main characteristics
- Availability, benefits, risks, composition, origin, fitness for purpose, quantity, specification, test results
- Price
- The price or manner in which price is calculated, including claims about special offers or discounts
- Trader identity and status
- Qualifications, accreditations, endorsements, awards, affiliations, or ownership of intellectual property
- Consumer rights
- Misrepresenting what rights consumers have, including statutory rights under Consumer Rights Act 2015
- Servicing and complaints
- After-sales customer assistance, complaint handling, need for repairs or parts
Examples of misleading actions
- False availability: Advertising goods at a price you know you cannot supply
- Fake scarcity: Claiming 'limited edition' when unlimited quantities are available
- False reviews: Displaying reviews or testimonials that are fabricated or paid for without disclosure
- Brand confusion: Using logos or packaging similar to a well-known brand to create confusion
- Fake credentials: Displaying trust marks or accreditations you have not obtained
- Price manipulation: Inflating a 'was' price to make a discount appear larger than it is
Note: Even accurate information can be misleading if presented in a deceptive way - for example, using small print to hide important qualifications.
Misleading omissions
A commercial practice is a misleading omission if it:
- Omits material information the average consumer needs to make an informed decision, OR
- Hides or provides information unclearly - in a manner that is unclear, unintelligible, ambiguous, or untimely, OR
- Fails to identify commercial intent when this is not already apparent
What is 'material information'?
Material information is what the average consumer needs, in the context, to make an informed purchasing decision. When you make an invitation to purchase (showing a product with its price), you must provide:
- Main characteristics
- Key features of the product, appropriate to the medium
- Trader identity
- Your trading name and geographic address
- Total price
- Price inclusive of taxes. If the price cannot be calculated in advance, the manner in which it is calculated
- Delivery and other costs
- Delivery charges, booking fees, and any other costs the consumer will incur
- Payment arrangements
- If different from your normal practice
- Cancellation rights
- For products with a right to cancel (distance and off-premises sales)
Examples of misleading omissions
- Hidden costs: Advertising a price then adding unavoidable fees at checkout ('drip pricing' - now specifically prohibited under DMCCA 2024)
- Undisclosed conditions: Claiming something is 'free' when a paid subscription is required to access it
- Refurbished goods: Selling a refurbished phone without disclosing it is not new
- Undisclosed advertising: Publishing advertorial content without making clear it is paid promotion
- Language changes: Promising after-sales service in English, then only providing it in another language
The law recognises that space or time limitations (such as a short advertisement) may prevent you from including all information. But you must then make the information available through other means - for example, linking to a webpage with full details.
Aggressive commercial practices
A commercial practice is aggressive if it uses harassment, coercion, or undue influence to significantly impair the consumer's freedom of choice, causing them to make a different decision.
The three mechanisms
- Harassment: Persistent unwanted approaches or communications
- Coercion: Including the use of physical force or threats
- Undue influence: Exploiting a position of power to pressure the consumer, even without physical force
Factors the law considers
When assessing whether a practice is aggressive, enforcers look at:
- Timing, location, nature, or persistence
- Late-night calls, visiting homes repeatedly, high-pressure sales at inappropriate times or places
- Threatening or abusive behaviour
- Raising voice, intimidating body language, making threats
- Exploiting misfortune
- Targeting recently bereaved people, exploiting financial desperation or mental health difficulties
- Onerous barriers to rights
- Making cancellation extremely difficult, requiring excessive documentation to exercise contractual rights
- Threats of illegal action
- Threatening court action when there is no legal basis, or threatening to report to authorities without grounds
Examples of aggressive practices
- Physical coercion: Posting intimidating staff at exits during sales presentations
- Refusal to leave: Staying in a consumer's home until they sign a contract
- Persistent calling: Making repeated telephone calls after the consumer has said no
- Exploitation: Targeting recently bereaved people with funeral services at inflated prices
- Obstruction: Requiring 50 pages of documentation to cancel a subscription
- False threats: Telling a consumer they will be reported to credit agencies for disputing a charge
The 31 banned practices
Schedule 1 of the regulations lists 31 commercial practices that are always unfair - regardless of whether they actually affected any individual consumer. No proof of consumer impact is needed.
These are divided into misleading practices (23) and aggressive practices (8). Most are criminal offences.
Misleading practices (always unlawful)
- 1. False code signatory
- Claiming to be a signatory to a code of conduct when you are not
- 2. Unauthorised trust marks
- Displaying a trust mark, quality mark, or equivalent without authorisation
- 3. False code endorsement
- Claiming a code of conduct has an endorsement from a public body when it does not
- 4. False approval claims
- Claiming products or business practices have been approved or endorsed when they have not
- 5. Bait advertising
- Advertising at a price without reasonable expectation of being able to supply at that price
- 6. Bait and switch
- Advertising at a price then refusing to take orders, or demonstrating a defective sample to promote a different product
- 7. False urgency or scarcity
- Falsely claiming products are only available for a limited time to pressure quick decisions
- 8. After-sales language switch
- Promising after-sales service in one language then only providing it in another
- 9. Illegal product claims
- Stating or implying a product can legally be sold when it cannot
- 10. Rights as special features
- Presenting statutory consumer rights as if they were a distinctive feature of your offer
- 11. Undisclosed advertorial
- Using editorial content to promote a product without disclosing it is paid promotion
- 12. False security claims
- Making inaccurate claims about risks to personal security if the consumer does not purchase
- 13. False manufacturer origin
- Promoting a product to deliberately mislead consumers about who manufactured it
- 14. Pyramid schemes
- Promoting schemes where compensation comes primarily from recruiting others, not selling products
- 15. False closing down sales
- Claiming you are about to cease trading or move premises when you are not
- 16. False gambling aids
- Claiming products can help win games of chance
- 17. False cure claims
- Falsely claiming a product can cure illnesses or medical conditions
- 18. False market conditions
- Giving inaccurate information about market conditions to induce purchase at unfavourable terms
- 19. False prize promotions
- Offering competitions or prizes without awarding the prizes described
- 20. Misleading 'free' claims
- Describing products as 'free' when the consumer must pay more than the cost of delivery
- 21. False invoice marketing
- Sending invoices or payment demands for products the consumer has not ordered
- 22. False non-trader status
- Pretending to be a private seller when you are actually a business
- 23. False after-sales availability
- Creating false impression that after-sales service is available in countries where it is not
Aggressive practices (always unlawful)
- 24. False imprisonment impression
- Creating the impression that consumers cannot leave premises until a contract is signed
- 25. Doorstep harassment
- Ignoring requests to leave or not return when conducting personal visits to homes
- 26. Persistent unwanted contact
- Making persistent and unwanted solicitations by phone, email, or other media
- 27. Insurance claim obstruction
- Requiring irrelevant documents or failing to respond to correspondence to deter insurance claims
- 28. Direct child advertising
- Directly exhorting children to buy products or to persuade parents to buy for them
- 29. Inertia selling
- Demanding payment for products supplied but not requested by the consumer
- 30. Job threat manipulation
- Telling consumers that if they do not buy, your job or livelihood is at stake
- 31. Fake prize scams
- Creating false impressions about winning prizes, especially where claiming requires payment
Note: Practices 11 (undisclosed advertorial) and 28 (direct child advertising) are unlawful but are not criminal offences. All other banned practices can result in criminal prosecution.
Criminal offences and penalties
Breaching the unfair trading rules is a criminal offence. Most offences are strict liability - the prosecution does not need to prove you intended to mislead or acted recklessly.
Penalties
- Summary conviction (magistrates' court)
- Unlimited fine
- Conviction on indictment (Crown Court)
- Unlimited fine and/or up to 2 years' imprisonment
- Corporate liability
- Directors, managers, and company officers can be personally prosecuted if offence committed with their consent, connivance, or neglect
- Compensation orders
- Courts can order convicted traders to pay up to GBP 5,000 compensation per offence
- CMA direct fines (from 6 April 2025)
- Up to GBP 300,000 or 10% of global turnover (whichever is higher), without court proceedings
Prosecution time limits
Criminal proceedings must be brought within 12 months of the date of the offence. Under the DMCCA 2024, this extends to 3 years from the offence or 1 year from discovery (whichever is earlier).
The due diligence defence
For strict liability offences (misleading actions, misleading omissions, aggressive practices, and banned practices), you have a defence if you can prove:
- The offence was caused by one of the following:
- A mistake
- Reliance on information supplied to you
- The act or default of another person
- An accident
- Another cause beyond your control
- AND you took all reasonable precautions and exercised all due diligence to avoid the offence
Important: If you are relying on information from another person or blaming another person's actions, you must give written notice to the prosecutor identifying that person at least 7 clear days before the hearing.
What 'due diligence' means in practice
To establish due diligence, you should be able to show:
- Written policies: Clear procedures for advertising, pricing, and customer communications
- Staff training: Regular training on consumer protection law and your compliance procedures
- Checking systems: Processes to verify claims before making them (such as checking stock availability before advertising)
- Supplier verification: Checks on supplier claims before relying on them in your own marketing
- Complaint monitoring: Systems to identify and address consumer complaints that might indicate unfair practices
- Audit trail: Records showing you followed your procedures
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Establish advertising approval procedures
Create a process where all advertising claims are checked for accuracy before publication. Require evidence to support factual claims.
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Train staff on prohibited practices
Ensure all customer-facing and marketing staff understand what constitutes misleading or aggressive conduct. Include the 31 banned practices.
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Verify supplier claims
Before relying on supplier information in your own marketing, verify its accuracy. Keep records of verification checks.
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Review pricing practices
Ensure total prices are clear upfront. Avoid drip pricing. Check that 'was/now' comparisons are genuine and can be justified.
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Monitor customer complaints
Track complaints that might indicate unfair trading practices. Address patterns promptly.
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Document compliance procedures
Keep records of policies, training, and checks. These are essential evidence for the due diligence defence.
Consumer rights to redress
Consumers who are victims of misleading actions or aggressive practices have civil remedies. These are currently under transitional provisions pending new regulations under DMCCA 2024.
Note: Misleading omissions do not currently give rise to consumer redress rights - only misleading actions and aggressive practices.
Consumer remedies
- Right to unwind (within 90 days)
- Consumer can cancel the contract and receive a full refund. Applies if product can still be rejected (not fully consumed).
- Right to discount (after 90 days)
- Consumer can claim 25%, 50%, 75%, or 100% price reduction depending on severity of the breach.
- Right to damages
- Consumer can claim compensation for financial loss and for distress, alarm, or inconvenience caused.
Discount bands
When the right to unwind has expired, consumers can claim a percentage discount based on the severity of the prohibited practice:
- More than minor: 25% discount
- Significant: 50% discount
- Serious: 75% discount
- Very serious: 100% discount (full refund)
For high-value contracts (over GBP 5,000), the discount may instead be calculated as the difference between the market price and what the consumer paid.
Enforcement
Unfair trading rules are enforced by:
- Trading Standards (local authority) - primary enforcer for local trading issues
- Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) - UK-wide and market-wide issues
- Department for the Economy (Northern Ireland)
Enforcement powers
Enforcement officers can:
- Enter and inspect business premises (at reasonable hours)
- Inspect products and take samples
- Inspect and require production of documents
- Seize and detain goods and documents as evidence
- Obtain warrants to enter premises using reasonable force
Intentionally obstructing an officer or failing to produce required documents is a criminal offence (fine up to level 3 on the standard scale).
CMA direct enforcement (from 6 April 2025)
The Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 gives the CMA power to:
- Investigate consumer law breaches without going to court
- Impose fines up to GBP 300,000 or 10% of global turnover (whichever is higher)
- Impose daily fines for continuing breaches
- Issue enforcement orders requiring businesses to change practices
- Order compensation for affected consumers
New prohibited practices from 6 April 2025
The Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 adds new practices to the prohibited list:
Fake reviews
It is now a criminal offence to:
- Submit, commission, or incentivise fake consumer reviews
- Pay for positive reviews without disclosure
- Offer incentives for reviews without clear disclosure
- Impersonate consumers in reviews
- Selectively publish only positive reviews while suppressing negative ones
Drip pricing
Hiding unavoidable fees until late in the purchase process is now specifically prohibited. You must display the total price (including all mandatory fees) upfront. This includes:
- Booking fees
- Service charges (where mandatory)
- Payment processing fees
- Delivery charges (where only one option exists)
Penalties: CMA fines up to GBP 300,000 or 10% of global turnover. Criminal prosecution remains possible.
Enforced by:
- Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) - enhanced direct enforcement powers
- Trading Standards - local enforcement
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Audit marketing materials for the 31 banned practices
Review all current advertising, website content, and sales materials against the list of banned practices. Remove or correct any problematic content immediately.
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Implement price transparency
Display total prices upfront including all mandatory fees. Eliminate drip pricing from your checkout process.
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Review customer review practices
Ensure all reviews are genuine. Never pay for, commission, or incentivise fake reviews. Disclose any incentivised reviews clearly.
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Train sales staff on aggressive practices
Ensure staff understand the line between persuasive selling and aggressive practices. Prohibit high-pressure tactics.
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Establish a due diligence system
Create documented procedures, train staff, verify claims, and keep records. This is your defence if enforcement action is taken.
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Handle consumer complaints promptly
When consumers claim they were misled or pressured, address the complaint seriously. Remember they may have redress rights.