CMA writes open letter to online businesses in second phase of online consumer rights campaign

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has written an open letter to online businesses, setting out its compliance advice in relation to “urgency claims” and “price reduction claims” in digital retail spaces. This coincides with the launch of the second phase of its “Online Rip-off Tip-off” consumer-awareness campaign, which began in February 2022.

The open letter relates to two types of practice which the CMA describes as “pressure selling”, which is one of the new online practices referenced in the second phase of the CMA’s campaign. The CMA describes “pressure selling” as “a sales tactic used to give a misleading impression of the limited availability, popularity or usual selling price of a product or service”.

The letter explains what the CMA means by “urgency claims” and “price reduction claims” on webpages or in apps, the CMA’s interpretation of regulation in this context, and the position which the CMA states it is likely to adopt in the event that it decides to take enforcement action. The letter encloses a list of examples of practices which it considers to be non-compliant with existing consumer protection regulation.

Meanwhile, as part of this second phase of its consumer campaign, the CMA have introduced an online form through which consumers can report alleged instances of the online practices targeted by the campaign.

The letter and the consumer-awareness campaign are the latest steps in the CMA’s programme of work focusing on how consumer decision-making may be affected by webpage and app design (sometimes termed “online choice architecture”), as part of the CMA’s focus on digital markets in its annual plan for this year (please see our previous blog post for more on this).