Consultation outcome

Draft consumer protection law compliance guidance for unregulated providers of will writing and other legal services

From:
Competition and Markets Authority
Published
30 April 2024
Last updated
9 October 2024 — See all updates
This consultation has concluded

Read the full outcome

Response to consultation

PDF, 374 KB, 35 pages

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Detail of outcome

The CMA has now published its final guidance for unregulated providers of will writing, online divorce and pre-paid probate services in the UK to help them understand and comply with their obligations under consumer law.

We have also published short guides to help consumers understand:

Original consultation

Summary

The CMA consulted on draft consumer protection law compliance guidance for unregulated businesses providing will writing, online divorce and pre-paid probate services.

This consultation ran from
to

Consultation description

The purpose of the draft guidance is to help unregulated providers of will writing, online divorce and pre-paid probate services in the UK to better understand and comply with their existing obligations under UK consumer protection law.

The CMA has produced the draft guidance as part of its investigation into will-writing and other unregulated legal services, launched in July 2023.

The CMA invites interested parties to respond in writing to the questions set out in Section 3 of the consultation document by 5pm on 13 June 2024.

The consultation may be of interest to:

  • businesses offering unregulated legal services to consumers – in particular those providing will writing, online divorce and pre-paid probate services
  • self-regulatory trade bodies who operate in the sector
  • fellow enforcers of consumer protection law within the UK (including local Trading Standards Services) and consumer advisory groups
  • regulated legal service providers active in the will writing, divorce and probate sectors (and their regulators)

The CMA plans to publish the final version of the compliance guidance, and an anonymised summary of the responses that fall within the scope of the consultation together with a list of all respondents (save for individuals), later this year.

Personal data

When handling personal data (like your contact details), we comply with data protection law, as set out in the UK Data Protection Act 2018 and other law designed to protect sensitive information.

For more information about the CMA’s statutory functions, how the CMA processes personal data and your rights relating to that personal data (including your right to complain), please see the CMA’s Personal Information Charter. Section 4 of the consultation document also provides more information.

Documents

Consultation document

PDF, 229 KB, 14 pages

Draft guidance

PDF, 503 KB, 48 pages

Updates to this page

Published 30 April 2024
Last updated 9 October 2024 + show all updates

  1. Response to consultation published.

  2. First published.

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