On 14 October 2026 the Competition and Markets Authority fined three businesses about £6 million between them. One was a furniture giant. One was an electricals retailer. And one was a franchise running four gyms in London, fined £45,000. If you assumed the CMA's new consumer powers were only a worry for household names, that last figure is worth a second look.
The practices being punished are not exotic. They are countdown timers, pre-ticked boxes and a joining fee left out of the headline price: the kind of thing that sits on thousands of ordinary business websites, often added by a plugin or a booking tool without anyone deciding it should.
What the CMA fined, and for what
All three cases were settled under the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024, and each firm received a 40% discount for admitting the breach and settling early.
- Wayfair – £4.8 million. Its “Daily Deals” and 24-hour “Flash Deals” used countdown timers and urgent messaging such as “Here Today, Gone Tomorrow”. The problem: many of those products stayed at the same price, or dropped lower, after the timer ran out. The urgency was invented.
- Appliances Direct – £1.2 million, plus about £432,000 in refunds. Two issues. Customers were automatically opted in to paid extras such as old-appliance removal or installation, without actively agreeing. And pop-up countdown banners advertised “limited-time” discount codes that kept reappearing for days.
- Gold's Gym (UK) – £45,000, plus about £9,220 in refunds to 726 customers. The franchise left a mandatory joining fee out of the total price shown for annual and Direct Debit memberships.
In the CMA's framing, since its new powers took effect about 18 months ago it has now issued more than £12 million in fines and secured nearly £2.4 million in refunds. The maximum penalty is 10% of global turnover, or £300,000 if that is higher.
Why this matters to directors, not just marketers
Two things make this a board-level issue rather than a marketing detail. First, the CMA can now fine businesses directly, without going to court first. Second, the Gold's Gym fine shows it will act against smaller operators, not only the names that make headlines. The commercial risk sits with the business, and the fix sits in the website and the sales process.
The fixable part is good news. None of these cases involved a clever loophole. They involved everyday tactics that cross a line the CMA has now drawn clearly: offers must be genuinely time-limited, extras must be actively chosen, and the first price a customer sees should include every unavoidable fee.
A 20-minute check on your own site
You do not need a lawyer to catch the obvious problems. Go through your own buying or booking journey as a customer would.
- Countdown timers and “deals”. If a page says an offer ends at midnight, does the price actually change at midnight? If not, remove the timer or make it real.
- “Limited-time” discount codes. If the same code reappears week after week, stop describing it as limited.
- Pre-ticked boxes. Any paid extra – insurance, installation, recycling, priority support – must start unticked, so the customer actively opts in.
- Hidden mandatory fees. Booking fees, joining fees, admin fees and compulsory delivery that everyone pays must be built into the headline price, not added at the end.
- Check every channel. Adverts, Google Shopping feeds, emails and social posts all count as invitations to purchase and must show the honest price.
Our guide to drip pricing and the DMCC Act covers the hidden-fee side in more detail, and our free UK website compliance checklist for 2026 brings pricing together with cookies, reviews and accessibility so you can work through everything in one go.
Frequently asked questions
Are countdown timers against the law now?
Not in themselves. A countdown timer is fine if the offer genuinely ends when the timer does. The breach is manufacturing urgency – implying an offer is about to disappear when the price stays the same or falls afterwards.
Can I still offer paid add-ons at checkout?
Yes. The requirement is that the customer actively chooses them. Pre-ticked boxes and other automatic opt-ins are not allowed; the box must start empty.
We mostly sell B2B. Does this still apply to us?
The DMCC consumer rules protect individual consumers. But if any part of your site takes bookings or payments from individuals, those pages are in scope, so it is worth checking them even if most of your work is with other businesses.
Get a second pair of eyes on your checkout
If you would rather not audit your own pricing journey, we will. Request a free website audit and we will flag pricing, compliance and conversion issues in plain English, with clear next steps.
Sources
- CMA fines firms £6 million for misleading sales tactics (GOV.UK, 14 October 2026)
- Lewis Silkin: CMA fines three more companies using its new consumer powers (16 October 2026)
This article is general information, not legal advice.
