UK’S SUNAK HINTS FURTHER ACTION AGAINST HIDDEN ONLINE CHARGES

Sat 10 June 2023:

UK prime minister, Rishi Sunak, has made hints that additional steps could be carried out to crack down on hidden charges used to increase prices paid by online customers.

The Department for Business and Trade is looking at the issue of “drip pricing” to “get a sense of how widespread and how damaging it might be”, the Prime Minister said.

He said he wanted to ensure there was transparency over the price a customer would actually pay for goods.

“You just get more and more things added on to the cost of something as you move through a process and there’s just not the kind of price transparency that you’d expect,” the Prime Minister said.

“So we’re concerned about that. We want to make sure that we keep helping people with the cost of living.

“And this is a practice that we want to make sure that we’re across, looking at, to see how harmful it is and if we need to take further action.

“And that’s the work that we’ll be doing.”

Rocio Concha, Which? Director of Policy and Advocacy, said that drip pricing “is an underhanded way of squeezing extra cash out of consumers and is particularly concerning during a cost of living crisis, when it’s more important than ever for shoppers to be able to stick to a budget”.

“It is positive that the government is reviewing these misleading practices but it must go further by explicitly banning drip pricing in its Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Bill to put a stop to this behaviour.”

According to the survey of 3,700 UK adults* shows that 67% say the cost-of-living pressures have made them more desperate to find the best deals, while 71% believe they are ‘saving money’ by purchasing deals that are on offer – some of which may not be genuine,

Angellica Bell, consumer champion and co-presenter of The Martin Lewis Money Show, who is supporting the ‘Online Rip-Off Tip-Off’ campaign, said in March this year, that, “We know that the rising cost-of-living is putting a strain on shoppers across the UK. Some online businesses are using sneaky sales tactics to make us part with our money when household budgets are already stretched. We all feel the pressure of securing bargains, making us more susceptible to being ripped off. It’s frustrating when this happens and it’s time we call out these online retailers and report them to the CMA”.

SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES

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