The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has released a guidance for the online mattress sector following an agreement with the mattress firm Simba Sleep to protect UK shoppers against possible misleading claims and pressure selling tactics. It follows an investigation by the CMA which opened in December 2023 as part of the CMA’s ongoing programme of consumer enforcement work focused on ‘Online Choice Architecture’ which is aimed at tackling potentially harmful online selling practices. The investigation raised concerns that Simba Sleep may have misled customers about price reductions and put unfair pressure on them to make quick purchases. Simba Sleep has agreed to change its online sales practices and has signed formal undertakings.

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has published an overview of how it provisionally intends to operate the new digital markets competition regime, under Part 1 of the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Bill. The overview is a response to a request from ministers from the Department for Business and Trade and the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology and includes principles that the CMA will use as guidance for its approach in its new role.

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has released an update paper, highlighting three key risks to effective competition on artificial intelligence (AI) Foundation Models (FM), which includes risks to fair, open and effective competition. The paper also includes an overview and notes the key changes in the FM sector following the release of the CMA’s prior report, lays out the risks to competition and consumer protection, examines how they would be mitigated by the CMA’s principles and identifies the actions the CMA is taking to address these risks and also outlines CMA’s next steps for the AI FM programme of work, among other things.

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has reported on the outcome of judicial review proceedings brought after the Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT) refused to grant a domestic search warrant. The CMA applied for warrants to search businesses and domestic premises regarding suspected anti-competitive conduct in respect of the supply of chemical admixtures used in the construction industry. The CAT granted the CMA search warrants but refused to grant the warrant to search the domestic property. The High Court found that the CAT had made an error in its application of the law and 'exceeded its powers'. The CMA succeeded in its application on all grounds.

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has responded to Ofcom's consultation on prohibiting inflation-linked price rises, which ran from 12 December 2023 to 13 February 2024. The CMA considers mid-contract price rises in the telecoms sector as principally a matter for Ofcom. The CMA agrees that inflation-linked price variation terms plus an additional percentage is likely to cause consumer harm. The CMA welcomes the improvements Ofcom’s proposals would make and believes they will remove financial uncertainty for consumers and make it possible to calculate the total cost of a contract when deciding between options which will in turn promote more effective competition between providers. The CMA also recommended to keep taking further action under consideration.

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has responded to the Scottish Government’s consultation on the Scottish Law Commission’s contract law review report. In the response, the CMA provides an update on developments in consumer protection law, in particular the new enforcement powers the CMA will have under the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 (DMCCA 2024) from Spring 2025. The response states that two changes made by the DMCCA 2024 will have some indirect impact on the enforcement of contract law in Scotland, namely the changes to the existing court-based consumer enforcement model, and amendments to the UK’s implementation of Directive 93/13/EEC (the Unfair Contract Terms Directive), including the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008, SI 2008/1277.

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has given evidence to the House of Lords Industry and Regulators Committee for their Inquiry into UK Regulators and published its response to the call for evidence on smarter regulation and the regulatory landscape and on the consultation on smarter regulation to strengthen the economic regulation of the energy, water and telecoms sectors.

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has published its response on 24 March 2025 to the UK government's consultation on live events ticket resale. The CMA supports implementing a resale price cap while recommending a new licensing regime for secondary ticketing platforms to ensure effective enforcement. The response outlines requirements for both resellers and platforms to comply with the cap, and proposes mandatory price verification mechanisms. The CMA suggests platforms should be licensed before hosting ticket resales to enable swift enforcement against non-compliant websites.

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has published its response to the government’s latest consultation on public procurement reform: Public Procurement: Growing British industry, jobs and skills. The Cabinet Office has been consulting on further changes to the public procurement regime, building on the reforms introduced by the Procurement Act 2023 (PA 2023). The consultation opened on 26 June and closed on 5 September 2025. The feedback is being analysed. The CMA’s response outlines the role of market shaping in public procurement and explains how government can use proactive market shaping to support broader economic objectives. It considers the practical methods for achieving this, based on CMA experience and casework. It also addresses questions regarding the proposed public interest test for sourcing decisions and the use of social value criteria in public tenders.

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has revoked the Directions issued to Cardif Pinnacle on 31 January 2025, following confirmation that the company had departed from the industry. The Directions (originally issued on 8 July 2020) were formulated to safeguard Cardif Pinnacle's compliance with the Payment Protection Insurance (PPI) Market Investigation Order 2011, which directed providers to send annual reminders to customers detailing PPI expenses and cancellation rights.

The Competition and Markets Authority has secured formal undertakings from Amazon to strengthen its systems against fake reviews and catalogue abuse on its UK online store. Amazon has committed to implementing robust detection mechanisms, introducing clearer reporting tools for consumers and businesses, and applying sanctions—including banning sellers and reviewers—for misconduct involving manipulated star ratings or hijacked reviews. The CMA launched its investigation following concerns that Amazon was breaching consumer law by failing to protect users from misleading reviews, which influence an estimated £23bn of annual UK consumer spending. The authority previously obtained similar commitments from Google and published guidance for review platforms. This latest action marks a further step in the CMA’s wider strategy to enforce consumer protection under the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024, which took effect in April and allows the regulator to impose fines and redress directly.

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has announced that Google has agreed to implement significant changes to its processes for tackling fake reviews. The undertakings include sanctioning UK businesses that boost ratings with fake reviews, adding warning alerts to their profiles, and banning individuals who write fake reviews. Google has committed to enhanced detection and removal processes, as well as implementing an easier reporting function for consumers. The agreement follows a CMA investigation into Google's practices and is part of broader efforts to combat fake reviews, with the CMA set to gain stronger consumer powers in April 2025 under new legislation.