The Competition and Markets Authority has published a provisional decision to strip out a large chunk of the consumer protections it imposed on industries over the past two decades.
Following a strategic review of 33 CMA market remedies, it’s consulting on removing 23 of them, keeping 6 in full and partially removing 4. Those 33 amount to 60% of all CMA market remedies currently in place.
What is going?
The 23 the CMA calls redundant include measures governing how extended warranties on domestic electrical goods are sold, measures relating to package holidays and tour operators, and rules on the BBC promoting its own magazines on air.
Four more are partially removed: retail banking, home credit, private motor insurance and certain soft drinks. The redundant parts stripped out and requirements that still protect consumers kept. Six stay in full: current account switching, local bus services, two on liquefied petroleum gas used for domestic heating, and two on soft drinks.
The CMA’s reasoning is that these measures may have been overtaken by new laws and regulations, or by technological changes in how people buy things. Juliette Enser, its executive director of enforcement and markets, said remedies should only stay where they are needed, and that removing them reduces the burden on businesses and lets the CMA focus on the protections that matter most.
What does this not do?
Worth being precise here, because “watchdog scraps consumer protections” invites more alarm than the facts support.
Market remedies are measures designed to fix competition problems found during market investigations. They sit on top of ordinary consumer law so they aren’t the source of it. Your statutory rights when something you bought is faulty, or when a package holiday goes wrong, come from legislation, and this review isn’t changing that.
What it does mean is that some industry-specific obligations such as the extra requirements a sector had to follow because the CMA once found a competition problem there, are being lifted. Whether that’s tidying up or a loss depends on the remedy, and the CMA has published its reasoning for each one.
If you want a say
Responses go to the CMA by 5pm on 11 September 2026, with a final decision expected in autumn 2026. Consultations of this kind are usually answered by trade bodies and lawyers; individual consumers rarely respond, which is part of why the business-burden case tends to be the loudest one in the room.
If you’ve got a live complaint, nothing here changes it. Our guide to writing a complaint letter covers what to send, and what to do when they don’t reply covers the silence.
Common questions
What is a market remedy?
A measure the CMA imposes on an industry to fix a competition problem found during a market investigation. Remedies sit on top of ordinary consumer law rather than being the source of it.
Which protections is the CMA proposing to remove?
Of 33 remedies reviewed, it proposes removing 23 in full u2014 including measures on how extended warranties on domestic electrical goods are sold and on package holidays and tour operators u2014 partially removing 4 and keeping 6.
Does this change my statutory consumer rights?
No. This review concerns CMA market remedies, not the consumer legislation that gives you rights when something you buy is faulty.