A joint Committee of Advertising Practice (CAP) and Broadcast Committee of Advertising Practice (BCAP) has launched a public consultation seeking views on proposed amendments (Amendments to the Advertising Codes following review in response to the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024) to their advertising codes arising from changes to UK consumer law in the form of the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 (DMCCA) - Part 4 being the unfair commercial practices (UCP) provisions coming into force April 2025. The UCP provisions broadly reflect the legal framework as currently stands around misleading advertising, however some amendments to wording, definition and structure are proposed, as well as the addition of some new categories to the Schedule of unfair commercial practices:

• A new unfair commercial practice on the omission of material information from a price statement (including information on mandatory and optional fees, aimed at tackling online “drip pricing”);
• A new prohibited practice on fake consumer reviews;
• Changes broadening the prohibited practice on falsely claiming to cure illness;
• Changes to the consideration of a commercial practice’s effect on vulnerable groups of consumers; and 
• Changes to the definition of the transactional decision test.

In addition, CAP and BCAP have identified some unconnected areas to changes in the DMCCA, where wording and rules could better align with pre-existing rules and laws. The consultation will be open for submissions until 5pm on 5 February 2025.