Modernising Consumer Markets – White Paper expected

19 February 2020

In April 2018, BEIS published a Green Paper, “Modernising Consumer Markets”, consulting on a review of competition and consumer regulation.

The Green Paper focused on:

The need to protect vulnerable consumers in regulated markets.

• Securing the benefits of open portable personal data to assist consumer switching.
• Strengthening the regulation of consumer-to-consumer transactions.
• The need to understand how personalised pricing is being used and whether it can harm consumers
• Improving businesses’ presentation of terms and conditions and privacy notices, and the possible of introducing comprehension testing in some sectors.
• Introducing further measures to tackle consumer subscription traps.
• Improving business awareness of the need to minimise use of unfair terms in consumer markets.
• Improving consumer awareness of and access to alternative dispute resolution (ADR), and expanding the mandatory use of ADR to certain sectors.
• Establishing a national body with statutory powers and duties to enforce consumer law.
• Introducing civil fining powers for breaches of consumer protection legislation, with such fines capped at 10% of the firm’s worldwide turnover.

We understand that BEIS will publish a White Paper on consumer policy in the first half of 2020.