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Andy Burnham brings forward ban on 'subscription traps'

ended 10. August 2026

Subscriptions will be easier to cancel and companies will be compelled to make it clear when contracts auto-renew at a higher price, Andy Burnham has announced.

The prime minister is also planning to outlaw shops from falsely claiming products previously retailed at much lower prices to advertise supposed deals, which he said tricks shoppers into thinking they are getting better value on purchases.

On top of the already planned changes, Burnham is also vowing to end shops' use of "pretend prices". This will stop retailers using "was" prices, made-up discounts or misleading recommended retail prices (RRPs) to highlight deals.

The plans were announced under Sir Keir in April, but are being brought forward by Burnham's government in a bid to give families "room to breathe" amid the high cost of living.

  • What is your reaction to Burnham's announcement?
  • How important is it to stop shops using "pretend prices"?
  • Other thoughts?

Responses asap.

4 responses from the Newspage community

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Harry Goodliffe
Director at HTG Mortgages
Companies didn't come up with sneaky price rises; the Government did. Every household already knows what a subscription trap feels like; they've been living with one since income tax thresholds were frozen and inflation quietly dragged more of their income into higher tax bands. So it's a bit different watching ministers crack down on gyms and streaming services for the same trick they're pulling themselves. That said, banning fake 'was' prices and confusing renewals is straightforward and overdue; shoppers have been getting hit by hidden discounts for years.
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Darryl Dhoffer
Founder at The Mortgage Geezer
Ah, the thrilling mystery of the endless "Closing Down Sale", the timeless sofa shop illusion where everything is always 70% off, provided you ignore that it was listed at a fictional £3,000 for five minutes in a dark warehouse last Tuesday. Retailers love a fake "was" price, anchoring our gullible brains into thinking a mediocre bed frame is a genuine bargain.

Burnham’s big crusade to ban "pretend prices" and subscription traps? Truly revolutionary. It only took us decades to decide that tricking shoppers and holding credit cards hostage isn't stellar business ethics.

So instead of sprinting to the retail park before Sunday's "final" deadline, just look at the actual frame, ignore the shiny discount tag, and assume the sale price is the real price. Because it normally is.
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Kate Underwood
Founder & Chief People Strategist at Kate Underwood HR and Training
Good news for workers? Bigger than it looks. A sneaky subscription isn't an annoyance. It's a pay cut nobody agreed to. I work in HR. Money worries don't stay at home. They walk in every Monday, sit at the desk and never shut up. When someone's pay is already stretched, a subscription they can't cancel, or a "deal" that was never a deal, quietly robs them. That's a skipped meal. A cold house. A parent lying awake doing sums at 3am. Then it shows up as sick days, mistakes and people quietly checking out. People aren't begging. They just want to keep the money they already earned. If a business needs a hidden trap to hold onto you, it never deserved you. Bring it in, and bring it in now. Guard people's pay from the tricks built to drain it.
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Editor
Harvey Dhillon
Founder & CEO at Zmartly
The shop that never faked a "was" price has spent years losing to the one that did. That is the half of this story nobody tells. My reaction is that the crackdown is welcome, but watch the date. These subscription rules were expected in spring 2026, slipped to autumn 2026, and are now expected in 2027. Stopping pretend prices is the more important half, and part of it is already law. Drip pricing, the fee that appears at checkout, has been banned since April 2025, and the CMA issued its first fines, of £4.2 million, in April 2026. A made-up RRP is the same trick at the other end of the sale. One more thing nobody has said. None of this protects a business. That same shopkeeper, buying an auto-renewing card terminal contract, gets no easy-cancel right and no cooling-off period, because this law protects consumers, not firms. Price honestly, and read what you have signed up to.