Competition and Markets Authority
Consumer protection law — hidden advertising, fake and incentivised reviews, and misleading pricing — with fines set as a share of global turnover.
Every business selling to UK consumers, and anyone who publishes reviews, including a brand hosting reviews on its own website.
6 rules · last verified 2 October 2026 · see changes
The rules
Number of automatically unfair practices
32. Schedule 20 to the DMCC Act lists practices that are unfair in all circumstances — no need to show any consumer was actually misled.
Verified 22 Sept 2026 · Read the source
Maximum CMA penalty for a consumer law infringement
Up to 10% of global annual turnover, or £300,000 — whichever is greater.
Verified 2 Oct 2026 · Read the source
Date the DMCC unfair commercial practices rules applied from
6 April 2025. The DMCC Act 2024 replaced the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008 from that date.
Verified 22 Sept 2026 · Read the source
Whether incentivised reviews are lawful
Not banned outright. Lawful only if the consumer is told the review was incentivised and the review still reflects their genuine experience. A concealed incentivised review is a banned practice.
Verified 22 Sept 2026 · Read the source
The duty on anyone publishing consumer reviews
A positive, preventive duty to take reasonable and proportionate steps to prevent and remove banned reviews and false or misleading review information — not merely to act on complaints.
Verified 22 Sept 2026 · Read the source
What people get wrong
Not hypotheticals — these are the three failure modes that recur, and what follows from them.
A concealed incentivised review is a banned practice — automatically unlawful, with fines up to 10% of global turnover, and the CMA does not have to prove anyone was misled.
Undisclosed paid content is also banned practice 12 under the DMCC Act, enforceable directly by the CMA and by Trading Standards with turnover-based fines. A far heavier tail risk than an ASA ruling.
The duty is preventive: policies, risk assessment, detection and periodic review. Investigations have centred on how reviews are moderated and displayed, not on reviews the business wrote itself.
The other four
Knowing the rule is not the same as having a process
Module 22 turns these into the things you actually need: the disclosure wording, the consent flow, the review policy, the sign-off step. Take the free assessment and see where it lands on your path.
Take the free assessmentNothing here is legal advice. Every rule links to the regulator’s own words so you can read them yourself.
