{"id":743353,"date":"2026-08-19T21:38:13","date_gmt":"2026-08-19T21:38:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/743353\/"},"modified":"2026-08-19T21:38:13","modified_gmt":"2026-08-19T21:38:13","slug":"all-power-to-the-uk-competition-watchdogs-war-on-drip-pricing-nils-pratley","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/743353\/","title":{"rendered":"All power to the UK competition watchdog\u2019s war on \u2018drip pricing\u2019 | Nils Pratley"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) is on-message with Andy Burnham\u2019s declaration of war<\/a> on the small \u2013 and sometimes not-so-small \u2013 hassles and expenses of everyday consumer life created by companies\u2019 underhand and misleading pricing tactics. Trainline, Virgin Atlantic<\/a> and Red Driving School found themselves under investigation<\/a> on Wednesday for various forms of alleged \u201cdrip pricing\u201d<\/a> \u2013 not being upfront about mandatory add-on charges, in other words.<\/p>\n

The prime minister had nothing to do with the CMA\u2019s pursuit, it should be said. The watchdog\u2019s \u201cconsumer protection drive\u201d<\/a> pre-dates his arrival and was encouraged by legislation under the last Tory government \u2013 the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act of 2024, which gave the regulator \u201cdirect enforcement\u201d powers, meaning it no longer had to go to court under consumer protection laws. And it is using those powers: eight cases were opened last November and driving schools AA and BSM plus the ticketing site StubHub UK have already been fined<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This is very welcome. Putting a few household names in the spotlight sends a usefully strong message. By way of boosting that signal, shares in Trainline, the only quoted company on Wednesday\u2019s list, plunged by 14%.<\/p>\n

Virgin Atlantic has been placed under investigation by the UK\u2019s consumer watchdog. Photograph: Trevisan Aviation Images\/Alamy<\/p>\n

It\u2019s merely an investigation at this stage, so one can\u2019t draw conclusions, but there was a curious line in Trainline\u2019s statement. \u201cTrainline has proactively engaged with the CMA over several months and is taking steps to enhance the presentation of certain fees,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n

The obvious question is why, if the regulator has been on the warpath for months, Trainline didn\u2019t just give it everything it wanted on day one. Regular users of the slick app know there can be a fee at the end of the booking process (for about 30% of journeys), so they are unlikely to be deterred by a message to that effect displayed prominently at the outset.<\/p>\n

There may be complicating details. Trainline adds its value for consumers by navigating the hellishly complicated fare structures on Britain\u2019s railways by, for example, identifying so-called \u201csplit tickets\u201d (multiple tickets covering legs of a single journey) or cases where an obscure railcard will almost pay for itself. If Trainline\u2019s fee depends on the type of ticket, perhaps it\u2019s not possible to state the fee precisely until the punter has chosen.<\/p>\n

But such dry technicalities were, presumably, mentioned in the months of engagement with the CMA. So it would be fair for Trainline shareholders to ask how this affair has even reached the stage of a formal investigation by a regulator with the power to order refunds and fine 10% of turnover. It\u2019s not as if large sums are involved \u2013 the CMA said it observed transactions with additional fees ranging from 50p to \u00a32.79.<\/p>\n

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To repeat, no wrongdoing has been found. But the investigation comes at a bad moment as Trainline waits to see if the state, in the form of the new Great British Railways<\/a>, gets round to launching a rival fee-free ticketing app. A regulatory quarrel over transparency is the last thing it needs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) is on-message with Andy Burnham\u2019s declaration of war on the small \u2013…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":743354,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[84,59,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-743353","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-gb","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/743353","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=743353"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/743353\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/743354"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=743353"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=743353"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=743353"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}