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Businesses have a legal duty to treat customers fairly and trade honestly. From 2008 until 2025 the controlled unfair practices used by traders when dealing with consumers. As of 6 April 2025, controls over unfair practices will now be found in Part 4 of the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 (DMCCA).

The DMCCA sets out broad rules outlining when practices are unfair. These fall into five main categories.

1. Unfair trading laws and misleading claims

Any description of products or services you sell or hire to customers must be accurate and not mislead them. You must provide consumers with the correct information and not omit details about the products and services, so they are fully informed about whether to buy them.

2. What information must not be omitted from invitations to purchase

An invitation to purchase involves providing information to consumers during the promotion, sale or hire of a product. This includes information on the characteristics of the product and the price (or starting from price), which helps customers decide whether to go ahead with a purchase or take a different transactional decision. For example, they may decide to visit a shop, click on a website, view a property or seek their right to return a faulty product.

Examples of an invitation to purchase include:

• a menu in a restaurant
• an advertisement on television or in a newspaper
• items listed on a website, including online marketplaces
• goods on display in shops

When making an invitation to purchase, there is certain information you must include:

• Main characteristics of a product, such as what it is and what it does.
• The total price, including all non-optional charges eg VAT, admin fees or other charges, the customer will have to pay if they purchase the product. If the total price cannot be reasonably calculated in advance, you must provide information on how the price will be calculated.
• Your identity and the identity of any other person you may be acting on behalf of.
• Your contact details, including your geographical address and email address. If you are acting on behalf of someone else, you must provide their address or if you have an alternative address for serving documents, you must include it.
• Any optional charges - eg delivery or postal charges. If these can’t be calculated in advance, then you must state that they may be payable.
• Information on the right to withdraw or cancel the order if applicable.
• Information on alternative arrangements you may be using for payment, delivery, performance or complaint handling that are different to any information you have already published. For example, if a delivery is going to take longer than the time you have specified on your website, you must state this.
• Any information you are required to provide under other legislation, eg .

If you fail to provide the information listed above in a way that is unclear, untimely or provide it in a way that customers are unlikely to see it, then you could be committing a criminal offence.

You won’t have to provide information that is already evident - eg you won’t need to provide your address if the customer is already standing in your shop.

3. Unfair trading laws and aggressive selling practices

To comply with the law, you must not put unfair pressure on customers to purchase goods or services. Such selling methods are known as aggressive practices.

A practice is aggressive if it is likely to cause a consumer to take a transactional decision they would not have taken otherwise, and it uses any of the following:

• harassment
• coercion - including the threat or use of violence
• undue influence – for example, using a position of power to put pressure on a consumer to make a decision

There are a range of factors that are considered when deciding whether a trader has used an aggressive practice, including:

• The timing and location of the practice. For example, putting pressure on a customer to sign a contract in their home at 9pm.
• The nature or persistence of the practice. For example, staying in a customer’s home for an excessively long period of time to make a sale.
• The use of threatening or abusive language or behaviour.
• A threat to take an action that cannot legally be taken.
• Taking advantage of any vulnerability of a consumer. This can include the consumer’s circumstances as well as their age, health or credulity.

4. Unfair trading laws and banned practices

The DMCCA lists 32 banned trading practices which are considered unfair in all circumstances.

Examples of banned practices would be if your business displays a trust mark or quality mark without having received the necessary authorisation or your business writes or commissions others to write or publishes fake reviews.

A full list of the 32 banned practices can be found in the .

5. Unfair trading laws and the duty to trade fairly

To comply with the law, it is your duty as a business to trade fairly and honestly with your customers. This practice is known as acting with professional diligence, which means carrying out work with the appropriate skill and care expected in the trader’s area of activity.

An example of acting with professional diligence is ensuring you provide consumers with a refund for goods that are of unsatisfactory quality. Another example is ensuring that you carry out pre-sale checks including the mechanical condition, history and mileage of a vehicle before you advertise, market or sell.

Unfair trading laws and a consumer’s right to redress

If a consumer has been the victim of misleading actions or aggressive selling practices affecting their decision to buy, they may have the right to redress through a civil court order if they meet certain conditions. The rights of redress for affected consumers have not yet transferred to the DMCCA, therefore the provision for consumer’s rights to redress under the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008 (CPRs) will still apply.

For a consumer to be entitled to legal redress, they must have entered a contract with a trader to:

• buy a product
• sell goods
• buying or selling a service
• make a payment for the supply of a product

The rights a consumer is entitled to fall into one of these three areas:

1. A right to undo the contract

When it’s still possible to undo the transaction and place the consumer back in the original position before the contract was made. The consumer has 90 days to end the contract and get a refund and must not have already accepted a discount relating to the product and the illegal practice.

2. A right to a price reduction

This applies when the right to undo has been lost. The consumer may also claim a price reduction when the right to undo has not been lost but they do not wish to end the contract.

3. Entitled to claim compensation

Consumers may be entitled to claim compensation in addition to the right to undo or the right to a price reduction. Compensation can be claimed for alarm, distress, physical inconvenience, or discomfort, as well as economic losses suffered because of the illegal practice.

These rights do not apply to misleading omissions.

Additional responsibility of the trader

A trader also has a legal responsibility to ensure misleading actions or aggressive practices are not carried out by the producers of goods or digital content they sell if they have reasonable knowledge of an illegal practice. For example, you could be held legally responsible for a manufacturer’s misleading advertisement.