Can I still ask for reviews?

Yes. You cannot incentivise them, or select who you ask and present the result as representative.

What about old reviews?

Take advice on anything that would breach the current rules.

Is £300,000 realistic for a small business?

The cap is the greater of 10% of turnover or £300,000. Take it seriously.

The DMCC Act: What Changed for Trades

Written by James Walker · Last reviewed 16 August 2026

James Walker has 2 degrees in construction (BSc (Hons) Building Surveying · MSc Environmental Design of Buildings) and an extensive background in issue resolution, resolving over £4 billion of consumer issues.

The short answer

Since April 2025, fake and incentivised reviews have been an unfair commercial practice.
The CMA can fine up to 10% of global turnover, or £300,000, without going to court first.
In its first sweep, the CMA found 54 of just over 100 businesses potentially non-compliant.
It covers pricing claims, urgency tactics and unclear terms as well as reviews.
The areas it enforces are the ones an approved code already requires you to get right.

On this page

What actually changed
Reviews
It isn't only reviews
What to actually do
Why an approved code helps here

What actually changed

The Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 brought unfair commercial practices provisions into force on 6 April 2025, and gave the CMA direct enforcement powers. It can now act without taking a case to court first.

Penalties run to 10% of global turnover or £300,000, whichever is greater.

Reviews

The headline change. Fake reviews, and incentivised reviews presented as genuine, are now explicitly unfair commercial practices.

This catches practices a lot of trades considered normal:

Asking friends or family to leave reviews
Offering a discount in exchange for a review
Writing reviews for your own business
Only inviting reviews from customers you know were happy, while presenting the result as representative

The CMA's July 2025 website sweep looked at more than 100 businesses and found 54 potentially non-compliant. That's over half.

It isn't only reviews

Also in scope: misleading pricing, false urgency ("this price ends today" when it doesn't), pressure selling, unclear terms, and drip pricing where the real total appears late.

Several of those describe standard practice in parts of home improvement, particularly the doorstep and in-home selling that windows, solar and driveways have been criticised for.

What to actually do

Stop incentivising reviews. Ask everyone or ask nobody, and don't offer anything in return.

Make your pricing complete. The figure a customer sees first should be the figure they pay, or the extras should be visible at the same time.

Drop artificial urgency. A discount that expires this evening is a practice the CMA has named.

Get your terms clear and available before the customer commits.

Keep your complaints handling honest. Suppressing complaints to protect a rating is exactly the pattern the Act targets.

Trusted Payments

We help every project succeed

Trusted Payments sits alongside you for the whole project, not just the payments.
Checked trades. Every tradesperson is vetted before they can be paid through the platform.
Payments tied to real work. You agree the stages before anything starts, and money is only released once you've signed a stage off.
The last payment comes at the end. 10% of the price isn't paid until the whole job is finished properly, snagging included.
A warranty behind the work. Three months while the work is going on, and 24 months after it finishes, underwritten by a fully authorised, A-rated insurer.
An independent ombudsman. If something goes wrong, you have 45 days to sort it out directly — then an independent decision that binds both sides.

See how it works What happens if there's a dispute?

Why an approved code helps here

The areas the CMA now enforces, clear terms, honest marketing, deposit protection, cancellation rights, are the same areas an approved code already requires and audits.

That turns compliance from an annual scramble into a maintained system. You're not doing two things; the audit is the compliance work.

Related guides

Common questions

Can I still ask for reviews?: Yes. You cannot incentivise them, or select who you ask and present the result as representative.
What about old reviews?: Take advice on anything that would breach the current rules.
Does it apply to sole traders?: Yes.
Is £300,000 realistic for a small business?: The cap is the greater of 10% of turnover or £300,000. Take it seriously.