Consultation outcome

Smarter regulation: improving price transparency and product information for consumers

• From: Department for Business and Trade
• Published: 4 September 2023
• Last updated: 24 January 2024 — See all updates

This was published under the 2022 to 2024 Sunak Conservative government

This consultation has concluded

Read the full outcome

Government response to consultation on 'Smarter Regulation: Improving consumer price transparency and product information for consumers'

HTML

Government response: unit pricing research

PDF, 680 KB, 55 pages

Detail of outcome

We published the government’s response to the consultation ‘Smarter regulation: Improving consumer price transparency and product information for consumers’ on 19 January 2024. The response sets out the proposed next steps.

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Original consultation

Summary

We are seeking views from anyone who has an interest, expertise, or experience in any or all of the consumer transparency proposals contained in this consultation document.

This consultation was held on another website.

This consultation ran from
10am on 4 September 2023 to 11:59pm on 15 October 2023

Consultation description

We are consulting on proposals on 5 key areas of consumer information transparency, with the aim of improving the quality and accessibility of information. This is so consumers can make informed choices about the products they purchase, whether it is their weekly shopping or booking a hotel room online.

The 5 areas we are consulting on are the:

• display of pricing information
• hidden fees and drip pricing
• fake and misleading reviews
• online platforms
• online interface orders

Alongside this consultation, we are publishing the research on drip pricing – estimating the prevalence and impact on drip pricing.

Documents

Improving price transparency and product information for consumers: consultation

PDF, 400 KB, 41 pages

Measures to address drip pricing: impact assessment

PDF, 766 KB, 42 pages

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Measures to improve the price marking order: impact assessment

PDF, 534 KB, 44 pages

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Measures to address fake online reviews: impact assessment

PDF, 783 KB, 54 pages

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If you use assistive technology (such as a screen reader) and need a version of this document in a more accessible format, please email [email protected]. Please tell us what format you need. It will help us if you say what assistive technology you use.

Published 4 September 2023
Last updated 24 January 2024 + show all updates

1. 24 January 2024

   Added response to the consultation.

2. 21 September 2023

   Added impact assessments for 'Measures to address fake online reviews', 'Measures to address drip pricing' and 'Measures to improve the price marking order'.

3. 4 September 2023

   First published.