Now, all mandatory fees are required to be included in the headline price and cannot be added once a consumer is in the checkout process.
Fake reviews and sneaky hidden fees on online platforms, which have cost UK consumers £2.2bn annually, have been banned in the country.
“Dripped” fees, or fees that are added on to the initially advertised price, can often cost UK consumers more than 25pc of the product price, a government report found in 2023.
With the fresh ban announced yesterday (6 April), all mandatory fees, such as admin fees or ticket booking fees, are now required to be included in the headline price and cannot be added once a consumer is in the checkout process.
However, the ban only consolidates unavoidable hidden fees. Optional fees, such as airline seats and luggage upgrades for flights, are not included.
“From today, consumers can confidently make purchases knowing they are protected against fake reviews and dripped pricing,” said Justin Madders, the UK minister for employment rights, competition and markets.
“These changes will give consumers more power and control over their hard-earned cash, as well as help to establish a level playing field by deterring bad actors that undercut compliant businesses, helping to deliver economic stability as part of our Plan for Change.”
Reforms under the UK’s 2024 Digital Markets, Competition and Consumer Act banned hidden fee charging. Moreover, the new laws also ban the use or commissioning of fake reviews.
In 2023, the country’s business and trade department found that 11-15pc of all reviews on e-commerce products under the consumer electronics, home and kitchen, and sports and outdoors categories are fake.
Fake review text on products alone caused an estimated £50m to £312m in total annual harm to UK consumers.
Moreover, reviews were found to be used by 90pc of consumers, the government said, contributing to the £217bn spent in online retail markets in 2023.
With the ban enforcement, website hosts will now be held accountable for the reviews on their page. While businesses and online platforms will be legally required to prevent and remove fake reviews from their websites.
This might include forcing businesses to have adequate detection and removal procedures in place to prevent fake reviews from being published.
The new consumer protection regime will be implemented by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA).
“We will use these new provisions to safeguard people from harmful and unfair treatment, and to foster the level-playing field for the vast majority of businesses who want to do the right thing for their customers,” the CMA’s CEO Sarah Cardell said.
“We will be tackling the more egregious practices first and working hard to support businesses with compliance, conscious that – especially for small businesses – the burden of following the rules must be proportionate.”
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