Spring clean your online store: A stress-free guide to the transparency laws

The landscape of UK eCommerce has shifted. With the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act (DMCCA) now fully enforceable by the CMA (Competition and Markets Authority), the rules around how products are priced and sold online have tightened. 

The goal of the act is simple: Transparency.

For honest brands, this is actually good news. It levels the playing field against competitors who might use "hidden fees" to look cheaper. However, it also means you need to be rigorous about your data.

Here are the three specific areas you need to audit to ensure your store is fully compliant.

1. "Drip Pricing" is now banned

"Drip pricing" is when a customer sees one price at the start of their journey, but mandatory fees like taxes, booking fees, or standard shipping charges are only revealed at the very end of the checkout process.

Under the DMCCA, the total price must be clear from the start.

The Action Item: Review your checkout flow on both mobile and desktop. If there is a mandatory fee that every customer must pay, it needs to be included in the headline price or clearly stated upfront. You cannot wait until the payment screen to reveal the true cost.

2. Subscription cancellations must be easy

Subscription models are fantastic for retention, but the new rules mandate that leaving a subscription must be as easy as joining one.

If a customer can sign up online with two clicks, they should be able to cancel online with a similar amount of effort. Forcing customers to call a phone line or email a support team to cancel is now a compliance risk.

The Action Item: Audit your "My Account" section. Ensure that the cancellation button is accessible and functional. Additionally, ensure you are sending clear reminder notices before a renewal payment is taken.

3. Verified reviews only

Social proof helps sell products, but the new rules are strict about authenticity. The act explicitly bans hosting reviews that have not been verified.

This means you are responsible for ensuring that the reviews displayed on your site come from genuine customers who actually purchased the item.

The Action Item: Check your review collection process. Are you only soliciting reviews from verified buyers post-purchase? If you are importing reviews from other platforms, ensure you can verify the transaction data behind them.

How Technology ensures compliance

Compliance becomes difficult when you are selling on multiple channels. It is easy to update a price on Shopify but forget to update it on TikTok Shop, leading to accidental non-compliance.

This is where a Retail-First ERP like Brightpearl helps streamline the process:

• Unified Pricing: When you update a price to include a mandatory fee, Brightpearl pushes that update to Shopify, Amazon, and TikTok simultaneously. This prevents accidental drip pricing on secondary channels.
• Verified Data: By using your central order history as the source of truth, you can ensure review requests are only sent to customers with a "Shipped" status, keeping your reviews 100% verified.
• Instant Cancellations: It gives support teams a single view of the customer, allowing them to find orders and process refunds or cancellations instantly, meeting the "easy exit" requirement.

Staying compliant doesn't have to be complicated. It just requires a commitment to transparency and a system that keeps your data consistent everywhere you sell.

Is your product data accurate across every channel?