Andy Burnham’s government is pushing the subscription traps crackdown to January 2027, several months ahead of the Spring 2027 date set by his predecessor Sir Keir Starmer, in what Downing Street frames as an immediate cost-of-living intervention.
The stakes justify the urgency. Across the UK there are Business Companion estimates of 155 million active subscriptions in total, of which nearly 10 million are believed to be unwanted. Consumers are estimated to spend around £1.6 billion annually on subscriptions they do not want, according to JDSupra reporting on the government’s April 2026 announcement.
The government says the reforms will save consumers £400 million a year, or up to £170 per person. When the plans were announced under Starmer, the Department for Business and Trade put the number of people quietly rolled from free or discounted trials into fully costed contracts at more than 3.5 million, with another 1.3 million caught out by unexpected auto-renewals.
The Subscription Traps Crackdown: What Changes and When
The new rules sit within the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 (DMCCA), which introduced mandatory cooling-off periods at the end of free trials and upon auto-renewal. The detail was left to secondary legislation, and the government consulted on implementation before publishing its response on 2 April 2026, according to White & Case.
The timeline has been stop-start. Before Burnham’s acceleration, the rules had already been pushed to autumn 2026 at the earliest, itself a delay from an earlier spring 2026 target, before the April 2026 announcement reset expectations to Spring 2027. Moving it back to January 2027 now reverses that drift.
Under the DMCCA’s cooling-off provisions, no penalty or charge may be imposed on a consumer for cancelling during a cooling-off period, and consumers may be entitled to a refund for payments made under a cancelled contract to the extent set out in regulations. Businesses will also be required to provide clearer upfront information, regular reminders, and what the government calls a much easier exit from contracts.
Burnham said: ‘I’m determined to pull every single lever we can to provide people with some room to breathe on the cost of living.’ Whether the accelerated timetable can actually be met is worth watching: the DMCCA’s subscription chapter still requires secondary legislation to be finalised and laid before Parliament.
Pretend Prices and the Bigger Consumer Picture
Beyond subscriptions, Burnham is adding a new element: a crackdown on what his government calls ‘pretend prices’. Retailers would be barred from using ‘was’ prices, fabricated discounts, or misleading recommended retail prices to advertise deals. The government will launch a consultation this autumn on implementation.
Using false ‘was’ prices is already unlawful, but it sits outside the DMCCA’s list of 32 per se banned commercial practices, which currently covers things such as operating pyramid schemes and falsely claiming a product will only be available for a limited time. Adding misleading pricing to that list would mean enforcers no longer need to prove consumer harm on a case-by-case basis.
Consumer group Which? said it has ‘repeatedly exposed businesses, including trusted household brands, ripping off customers with dodgy deals that aren’t what they seem.’ Its head of consumer rights policy, Sue Davies, welcomed the announcement and called for the rules to be brought in ‘swiftly’.
Shadow chancellor Mel Stride called the package ‘reheated’ and said Burnham ‘has already run out of ideas’, noting the underlying legislation was passed by the previous Conservative government. The Liberal Democrats, through Treasury spokesperson Daisy Cooper, urged the government to go further and tackle supermarket shrinkflation.
Industry will absorb real costs. One-off implementation costs across the approximately 236,000 affected businesses are estimated at between £281 million and £467 million, with an equivalent annual net direct cost to business of £171 million, covering staff training, legal and IT work, and updates to terms and conditions.
The Budget on 28 October, to be delivered by Chancellor John Healey, will determine whether Burnham has anything more substantive to offer beyond these consumer protection measures. Healey has already flagged ‘strong fiscal discipline,’ which narrows the options considerably. The subscription rules deadline of January 2027 now gives the government a concrete delivery date to be held to.
