Last Updated on July 7, 2026
Most small business owners think consumer law is a big-company problem. Something for airlines and ticket sites, not for a plumber, a salon or a shop with one till. That assumption is now out of date, and it could cost you real money.
What has actually happened
Since 6 April 2025 the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has been able to decide that a business has broken consumer law and fine it directly. No court case first. Fines can reach 10% of global annual turnover.
This is not theory. The CMA has already handed the AA’s driving schools a £4.2m fine and ordered more than £760,000 in refunds to learner drivers, all for adding fees late in the booking. In March 2026 it opened its first investigations into fake and misleading reviews, starting with funerals, food delivery and car sales. More cases are open across retail, gyms and ticketing.
Why it matters to a small business
The tactics being targeted are not exotic. They are the small “growth hacks” that get copied around without anyone checking if they are legal. A booking fee that only appears at checkout. A card surcharge bolted on at the end. A five star review written by the owner’s cousin. A countdown timer that resets every time the page loads.
These feel like clever ways to lift conversion. They are now the exact things a regulator is looking for, and the regulator no longer needs a judge to act.
The three habits to check today
| CMA priority | What it looks like in a small business |
|---|---|
| Drip pricing | Booking fees, card fees or “admin” charges that only appear late in the process. The headline price is not the price people actually pay. |
| Fake reviews | Reviews you wrote yourself, bought, incentivised, or filtered so only the good ones show. Also failing to remove reviews you know are fake. |
| Choice architecture | Fake urgency, false stock counts, pre-ticked add-ons, and sign-up flows that are easy to enter and hard to leave. |
What to do about it
You do not need a lawyer to start. You need one honest hour with your own website and booking flow.
Show the total price up front, including every unavoidable fee. If a charge is genuine, put it where people see it first, not last. Make sure every review on your site is real, and never post one yourself or ask staff to. Turn off any countdown or “only 2 left” message that is not true. Check that cancelling or unsubscribing takes the same effort as signing up.
This sits in the Start stage of the Whito framework, the foundations. It is tempting to skip straight to more ads and more traffic, but sending more people through a flow that breaks the rules just increases your exposure. Fix the structure first, then scale.
The takeaway
Honest marketing used to be a nice-to-have that separated good businesses from pushy ones. It is now the baseline the law expects, and the regulator can fine you without a court. The good news is that clarity was always the better way to sell. The businesses people trust are the ones that tell them the real price, show them real reviews, and let them leave whenever they want. That was true before the CMA started fining people. It is just more expensive to ignore now.
