The CMA fined three firms £6 million this week, calling it proof its new consumer protection powers work. One of the eight businesses named in the same drive last year is still open, weeks past its own promised update.
Estimated reading time: 6 minutes
In short. The CMA's 14 October 2026 press release fines Wayfair (£4.8 million), Appliances Direct (£1.2 million, plus £432,000 in refunds) and Gold's Gym (£45,000, plus around £9,000 in refunds), and frames it as part of "more than £12 million" in fines and "nearly £2.4 million" in refunds secured in 18 months using the CMA's "new consumer protection enforcement powers" [[1]]. Those three businesses were among eight the CMA itself named when it launched this drive on 18 November 2025 [[2]]. Checked against the other five: four have already settled, and the eighth, viagogo, is still logged as "Investigation ongoing. Next update: Summer 2026" on its own case page, unchanged since 23 June [[9]]. A second finding: the 100 further businesses the CMA wrote to with private advisory letters in the same launch were never named, and in August it had to open full investigations into three of them, Trainline, Virgin Atlantic and RED Driving School, because the letters alone had not worked [[10]]. Two documented mistakes: four stars.
Online shopping, ticket resale, gym membership and driving lessons do not have much in common except that the Competition and Markets Authority flagged all four, among 14 sectors, when it opened its first wave of cases under the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 on 18 November 2025. The CMA said then that it had reviewed more than 400 businesses across 19 sectors since the Act commenced, found concerns in 14 of them, and was responding with two tiers: formal investigations into eight named businesses, and advisory letters to 100 more [[2]]. Eleven months on, this week's press release presents three of those eight cases closing with fines. Read next to the drive's own paper trail, the picture is a bit less tidy than the headline number.
The claims, tested
| The CMA's own words | What its own case pages and releases show | Verdict |
|---|---|---|
| "In the last 18 months, the CMA has imposed fines of more than £12 million and secured nearly £2.4 million in refunds for customers using its new consumer protection enforcement powers" [[1]] | Of the eight businesses named on 18 November 2025 [[2]], five had already settled before this week: AA Driving School and BSM Driving School (£4.2 million, 15 April 2026, the CMA's first-ever penalty under the new powers) [[3]], Marks Electrical (£720,000, 18 June 2026) [[5]] and StubHub (£889,200, 23 June 2026) [[4]]. This week added Wayfair, Appliances Direct and Gold's Gym [[1]][[6]][[7]][[8]]. The eighth, viagogo, has no Final Infringement Notice: its case page's last entry, 23 June 2026, reads "Investigation ongoing. Next update: Summer 2026" [[9]], and carries no later entry as of 15 October | Seven of the eight original cases have produced a result; the regulator's own published timetable for the eighth lapsed around six weeks before this release, and the release does not mention it |
| The same 18 November 2025 launch announced that the CMA was "writing to 100 businesses across 14 sectors outlining concerns about their use of additional fees and sales tactics," alongside the eight formal investigations, as the drive's other enforcement tier [[2]] | None of the 100 were named, and no case page, register or update has been published identifying any of them. On 19 August 2026 the CMA opened fresh formal investigations into Trainline, Virgin Atlantic and RED Driving School for drip pricing, stating plainly that "all firms under investigation were sent 'advisory letters' as part of the CMA's first consumer protection drive... but the CMA remains concerned about their pricing practices following ongoing monitoring" [[10]] | For at least three of the roughly 100 businesses given a private warning instead of a formal case, the warning did not change their pricing; the public only knows this because a second, unrelated release said so eight months later, and has no way to check the rest |
The mistakes, counted
One of the drive's original eight cases is overdue against its own published timetable, and this week's release does not say so (1). The CMA's case page for viagogo records an investigation opened 17 November 2025 into whether the ticket resale site properly displays mandatory fees, with its most recent entry, from 23 June 2026, reading "Investigation ongoing. Next update: Summer 2026" [[9]]. Fetched on 15 October 2026, the page has no entry after that date: no Final Infringement Notice, no closure, and no replacement timetable. The 14 October press release presents the same drive's progress as "more than £12 million" in fines over 18 months without noting that one of the eight businesses it began with remains open, silently, past the date its own case page promised an update [[1]].
The softer enforcement tier, 100 private advisory letters, has produced no public outcome, and where one is known, it was a failure (2). The CMA's 18 November 2025 launch described these letters as "outlining concerns" for businesses across 14 sectors, a lighter touch than the eight formal investigations announced the same day [[2]]. No subsequent release names any of the 100 or reports what they did in response. The only evidence of outcome came by accident, nine months later: the CMA's own 19 August 2026 release names Trainline, Virgin Atlantic and RED Driving School as recipients of the original advisory letters, now escalated to formal investigations because "the CMA remains concerned about their pricing practices following ongoing monitoring" [[10]]. A tier the CMA presented as part of the same enforcement drive has at least three confirmed failures and zero confirmed successes in the public record.
Credit where due
The headline figures in the 14 October release check out exactly. Wayfair's £4.8 million, Appliances Direct's £1.2 million plus £432,000 in refunds (averaging £25 per customer, for opt-ins charged between 6 April and 17 November 2025) and Gold's Gym's £45,000 plus around £9,000 in refunds all match their individual case pages precisely [[1]][[6]][[7]][[8]]. The CMA is also upfront, not evasive, about the 40 per cent reduction applied to every one of these fines: the release and every case page state plainly that it reflects "resource savings to the CMA" from each company's admissions and agreement not to appeal [[1]][[6]][[7]][[8]]. Readers are not left to discover the discount for themselves.
Verdict
Four stars, from two documented mistakes. The three fines this week are real, specific and checked out precisely against the CMA's own paper trail, refund amounts included. What the press release leaves out is the state of the drive it belongs to: one of its original eight cases is overdue against a deadline the regulator set itself, and the softer tier covering 100 more businesses has no public record of working, only a public record, found elsewhere, of it not working for at least three.
The star score counts two documented mistakes. First, viagogo, one of the eight businesses named when the CMA opened this consumer protection drive on 18 November 2025, remains at "Investigation ongoing" on its own case page, last updated 23 June 2026 with a promise of a further update by Summer 2026 that had not appeared when checked on 15 October 2026; the 14 October press release's framing of the drive's progress does not mention it. Second, none of the 100 businesses sent advisory letters in the same launch have ever been named or had an outcome published, and the only public evidence of what happened to any of them, a 19 August 2026 release naming three as needing full formal investigation after the letters failed, was not connected back to the original drive in anything the CMA has published since. Two falls in the 1 to 3 band: four stars; the bands are on the ratings page. This piece makes no finding about the competence of any named individual; the drafting of these releases and case pages is institutional, not any one official's decision. Checked directly against every case page cited, fetched 15 October 2026.
Sources
- CMA fines firms £6 million for misleading sales tactics, GOV.UK / Competition and Markets Authority, published 14 October 2026
- CMA launches major consumer protection drive focused on online pricing practices, GOV.UK / Competition and Markets Authority, published 18 November 2025
- CMA orders the AA and BSM driving schools to refund learner drivers over drip pricing, GOV.UK / Competition and Markets Authority, published 15 April 2026
- StubHub UK: consumer protection enforcement case, GOV.UK / Competition and Markets Authority, last updated 23 June 2026
- Marks Electrical: consumer protection enforcement case, GOV.UK / Competition and Markets Authority, last updated 2 July 2026
- Wayfair: consumer protection enforcement case, GOV.UK / Competition and Markets Authority, last updated 14 October 2026
- Appliances Direct: consumer protection enforcement case, GOV.UK / Competition and Markets Authority, last updated 14 October 2026
- Gold's Gym (UK) Limited: consumer protection enforcement case, GOV.UK / Competition and Markets Authority, last updated 14 October 2026
- viagogo: consumer protection enforcement case, GOV.UK / Competition and Markets Authority, last updated 23 June 2026
- Trainline, Virgin Atlantic and RED Driving School investigated for drip pricing, GOV.UK / Competition and Markets Authority, published 19 August 2026