CMA Publishes Final Guidance on Price Transparency

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has published guidance for businesses in relation to the new price transparency provisions within the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024.

The guidance is aimed at all traders that advertise or sell products to consumers and sets out what businesses should and shouldn’t do when inviting consumers to purchase goods or services. Emphasising that when a price is advertised, this is an invitation to purchase and therefore the total price should be clear to the consumer to allow them to make an informed purchasing decision.

Key requirements include ensuring that headline prices are not misleading and that all mandatory fees, taxes and charges are included upfront wherever possible. The guidance highlights two prohibited practices:

• Drip pricing, where compulsory charges are added later in the purchase journey; and
• Partitioned pricing, where only component costs are shown without providing the total price, unless the total cannot reasonably be calculated in advance.

The guidance also establishes how additional charges, such as booking or processing fees, should be presented to consumers to ensure pricing transparency and prevent consumers from being misled.