The Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act has become law
after receiving Royal Assent.
The Act paves the way to give consumers rights across the UK,
with greater control and clarity over online purchases.
It does this by requiring businesses to provide clearer
information to consumers before they enter a subscription
contract, remind consumers that their free trial or low-cost
trial is coming to an end, and ensure consumers can easily exit a
contract.
Unavoidable hidden fees will also need to be included in the
initial cost or clearly illustrated at the start of the
purchasing journey. This will ensure consumers are clear from the
offset about what they're spending.
The Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act will also give
new tools to the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) to
address the challenges to competition in digital markets.
These tools will allow the competition regulator to set tailored
‘conduct requirements' which require a powerful tech company
to change the way it operates if it is not treating users fairly.
These rules could give consumers the room to freely choose the
services they use, or stop companies from withholding information
consumers need to make good decisions.
The Act also gives the regulator powers to intervene and direct a
firm to change its behaviour to boost competition – whether that
is to benefit people using smartphones or businesses dependent on
cloud services.
The Act will also give new powers to the CMA to closely monitor
road fuel prices and report any sign of malpractice to the
government.
Only a handful of the most powerful global technology companies
will be subject to these new rules if, following an
investigation, they are deemed to hold ‘strategic market
status'.
If companies fail to comply with decisions made by the CMA, they
could be subject to fines reaching tens of billions of pounds.
These fines and other measures will be balanced by rigorous
checks and balances.
