CMA launches first investigations into drip pricing under new consumer law
12 January 2026
The Competition and Markets Authority (‘CMA’) has recently announced its first investigations under the enhanced consumer protection regime introduced in April 2025. The investigations primarily focus on drip pricing and pressure selling practices.
What is drip pricing?
Drip pricing is a deceptive tactic where businesses show a low initial price for a service and then add mandatory fees incrementally as the customer proceeds to checkout, making the final cost of the service much higher than what was initially advertised.
Under the recently incorporated Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 (DMCCA), this tactic is now banned and requires businesses to clearly display all mandatory costs upfront to ensure price transparency. The supplementary guidance published by the CMA states that where a trader gives information to consumers about a product and its price, the pricing information must be provided clearly, in a timely way and in a way the consumer is likely to see it. This provision makes it clear that consumers should be made aware of what the final cost will be and are not faced with various additional charges at the end of the transaction.
The powers granted to the CMA under the Act allows the CMA to launch their own investigations into businesses where drip pricing is suspected and impose fines of up to 10% of a business’s annual turnover without the need to bring a court claim.
Enforcement action
Since April 2025, the CMA have been conducting a cross-economy review of more than 400 businesses in 19 different sectors to assess compliance with the rules on price transparency.
The CMA has since opened investigations into 8 businesses regarding their use of fees, misleading time limited offers, and the practice of automatically opting consumers in for optional charges. Furthermore, the CMA has also written to 100 companies across 14 sectors outlining concerns regarding their use of additional fees and online sales tactics.
These letters have targeted a wide variety of businesses, however, more specifically include the bus and coach travel industry.
These letters are intended at putting businesses on notice that they must review their practices and ensure they are in line with the law as well as CMA’s pricing transparency and unfair commercial practices guidance to mitigate the risk of enforcement action.
Therefore, if your business does sell directly to consumers, for example selling coach tickets to individuals, then it is important that you make sure that your pricing practices are compliant with consumer legislation and are not misleading in any way.
If you have any concerns in relation to the transparency of your pricing or how your pricing is advertised, then please contact our corporate and commercial team on 01254 828 300.
