The Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 (DMCCA) came into force last year, which replaced the Advertising Codes’ previous underpinning legislation. It currence-ly appears that the ASA’s previous pricing rulings are sound, but it’s worth cheque-ing in on the change. In November 2025, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) published guidance for businesses on the price transparency provisions of the DMCCA. We will draw down some of this guidance here, but you may want to check out the full account as well.
Get Your Money’s Worth
The CMA’s guidance states that prices must be realistic, meaningful, and attainable.
While it might seem like an obvious place to start, the price shown must relate to the product featured in the ad. For example, if an ad shows a high-end model, the price given must not be for the basic version.
Indicative prices, such as “From £X”, must not exaggerate the availability of a product or the amount of benefit likely to be obtained by a consumer. For example, a hotel claiming that prices “start at £X per night”, when this price is only applicable to one room, midweek, in the hotel’s off-season. The ASA would expect to see evidence that there was a significant proportion of rooms available at this “from” price, across a range of dates. There have been various hotel examples, which the ASA has upheld and not upheld, where the ads were seen after the DMCCA came into force.
Coming up Short
Additionally, ads that quote a price for a featured product must disclose if the marketer has any reasonable grounds for believing that it will not be possible to supply that product (or an equivalent) at that price within a reasonable period and in reasonable quantities. The CMA sets out, in its guidance on unfair commercial practices, the following factors in deciding what counts as “reasonable” in terms of the time period and quantities:
- the nature of the product itself,
- the extent of the advertising, and
- the price.
Long before the DMCCA, the ASA ruled that an advertiser had estimated reasonable quantities for a product based on past sales data. However, the ASA has also upheld complaints about a promotion, even though the advertiser had made a reasonable estimate of demand. In that case, once the advertiser had reasonable grounds to believe that they might not have enough stock, they did not do enough to communicate this to consumers in comparison to the extent of the promotion’s advertising.
What will be considered reasonable after the introduction of the DMCCA remains to be seen.
Show Me the Money! Show Me the Total Price Upfront!
Money doesn’t grow on trees, so consumers must be told the price that they will be paying in full as soon as possible. Sometimes, this is very straightforward, but consumers often find themselves sur-priced by surcharges, asking them to dig deeper in their pockets.
If a consumer must pay a fee in addition to the cost of the item they are buying (e.g. mandatory delivery fee, call-out charge, local taxes), this must be included in the price they are shown upfront. According to the CMA’s price transparency guidance, the prices for the item and delivery can be shown separately, but the total price must be given, e.g. Price: £110 (£100 item + £10 delivery).
Load 16 Pages. What Do You Get?
If a fee cannot be calculated until you have further information about the consumer, you must include the minimum they will pay. For example, if an item has no free delivery option, the price shown must include the cheapest delivery fee.
If it is not possible to calculate a fee, the ad must make clear that the fee is excluded from the advertised price and state how it will be calculated. The CMA’s price transparency guidance states that this information should be presented with the same prominence as the headline price. And, as soon as the fee can be reasonably calculated, it must be included in the total price.
Money Multipliers
In some cases, time is money. When it comes to periodic pricing, that’s roughly half true. Some products require customers to make regular payments in exchange for ongoing services. This could be a rolling contract, or a minimum term contract. Common examples include gym memberships and broadband contracts. While the arrangement is not as simple as a one-off cost, the total price must still be made clear upfront.
For a rolling contract, where the consumer is free to cancel at any time, the total price is what the consumer has to pay for each period of the contract, inclusive of all mandatory charges.
For a minimum term contract, the CMA’s pricing guidance gives two options for advertising the total price. The total price can be shown as either:
- The cumulative price for the whole contract (which may include a breakdown by payment period and any mandatory fees), or
- The total price the consumer pays for each period of the contract, alongside a prominent statement of the number of months the consumer is committed to pay that price for.
- If there are one-off fees at the start of the contract (e.g. a set-up fee, delivery charge for a piece of equipment), the advertised pricing must set out a total monthly price for the first month which includes those fees, as well as a statement of how much the subsequent monthly payments will be.
They give the following example of a lawfully presented monthly price:
- A gym offers an annual membership for £70 a month with a £30 one-off joining fee. The price of this membership is advertised as ‘£70 per month for 12 months, plus a £30 joining fee (Total annual membership: £870).
This could also be shown as “£100 for the first month, £70 for the next 11 months”. More examples are available in the CMA pricing guidance on page 51.
The ASA has upheld against an ad which offered a satellite internet kit for free with a 12-month service plan. The ASA upheld against the ad for several reasons, which included omitting the cost of the 12-month service plan entirely.
Time to Settle Up
Hopefully the penny has dropped for you now, but if you’re not buying it, the CAP Copy Advice team can help you ensure that your prices are on the money.
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