Whether you operate a luxury fashion house, prestige beauty brand, fine jewellery business, premium hospitality offering or other consumer brands, understanding the latest developments in UK consumer law has never been more important.
The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) is using its powers to fine companies up to 10% of global turnover if they breach consumer protection law, and the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) is using AI to identify advertising that breaks the rules.
Fake reviews: avoid CMA scrutiny
Trust and authenticity are fundamental to luxury purchasing decisions. New rules governing fake and incentivised reviews came into force in 2025, and the CMA is now tackling some of the most harmful practices head-on with active, ongoing investigations into five different businesses.
As a result, brands should have a fake reviews policy in place (brands can request a copy of Freeths’ compliance checklist by contacting the author).
Understand how to advertise ‘less-healthy’ foods
Businesses operating in the food, drink and hospitality sectors should understand the latest restrictions.
Since new regulations came into force in late 2025 restricting promotions and advertising of less healthy foods (LHFs), the UK government has published guidance on them. Enforcement activity from the ASA has also started to pick up. The ASA has confirmed that businesses with fewer than 250 employees are exempt and that incidental or background food imagery is unlikely to trigger the restrictions.
Brands should ensure they have nutrient profiling modelling data for all food and drink in their portfolios, highlighting products classified as less healthy foods. Train brand influencers and consider focusing on promoting the brand, heritage and customer experience rather than individual products.
Take care with wellness claims
The prestige wellness market continues to grow, with consumers seeking premium cosmetics, supplements, sleep products and self-care experiences.
Brands naturally want to tell consumers how effective their wellness products are, but need to be careful not to make medicinal claims about non-medicinal products. Unless it is regulated, avoid implying that any product can cure or treat symptoms of, for example, acne, the menopause, hair loss or anxiety.
Substantiated sensory claims are allowed, such as ‘skin feels smoother’ types of claims. General health claims about foods and supplements are permitted as long as they include a specific authorised health claim.
Check that wellness claims stay firmly in the wellness space and don’t stray into the medicinal. Specifically, don’t claim to treat or cure.
Get competitions and promotions right
Prize draws, VIP experiences, exclusive launches and customer reward campaigns can be effective marketing tools, but they need to be carefully managed.
Each brand’s goal as an advertiser and promoter is to ensure that promotions are legal, fair, transparent and not misleading. Think about how customers will understand the promotion. Obligations as an advertiser continue after the initial ad, so look at the entire operation of the promotion.
All significant terms and conditions (T&Cs) must be clearly communicated up front and can’t be changed partway through a promotion. Ensure competitions are free to enter and/or that skill is involved. Check your T&Cs carefully.
Use reference pricing and unit prices correctly
Pricing plays a significant role in brand positioning, making compliance particularly important.
To use a recommended retail price (RRP) in a savings claim, brands must demonstrate that the RRP represents the product’s actual sale price. If the business is the only brand selling a particular product – such as an own-brand or exclusive product – use was/now pricing instead.
Since April 2026, if the product’s price is in an advert, brands must also provide the unit price in specified units, in proximity to a visual or written description of the product.
Scrutinise subscriptions and consumer journeys
Many luxury brands now offer memberships, product subscriptions and premium customer programmes.
Subscription rules come into force in Spring 2027. Ensure that customers can easily see how much it costs to subscribe as well as how to unsubscribe. Give them warnings when their auto-renewal is coming up and provide clear opt-outs.
The CMA is also scrutinising online customer journeys. Avoid misleading buttons, pre-ticked boxes and artificial urgency messaging or countdown clocks that pressure consumers into buying. Premium customer experiences should feel seamless and transparent, not manipulative.
Check flows, upsells and cancellation processes and make sure there’s nothing that could trip up a consumer.
Use AI safely in marketing
Premium and heritage brands increasingly use AI to support creative development, content generation and marketing campaigns.
It’s easy to use AI to generate marketing concepts and materials, but using prompts that are potentially infringing could be very damaging. Confirm that marketing teams are trained to use prompts and always get a human to check any output, particularly where brand reputation and originality are key differentiators.
Train your influencers
Influencer partnerships remain a powerful tool for aspirational brands. For example, the Kardashian and Jenner family’s work with luxury brands, including Balenciaga, Jean Paul Gaultier, Givenchy and Versace highlights the significant role influencers play in shaping consumer behaviour and brand perception. As influencer-led campaigns continue to drive sales across the fashion, beauty and wellness sectors, businesses should ensure influencers understand the rules around advertising disclosures, AI-generated content and product claims.
Brand influencers need to know the latest consumer laws. Be very clear with them on what they can and can’t do. Put a policy in place that they can refer back to.
Influencers should also understand how they can use AI (and whether they are required to disclose use of AI to the brand), not to include less healthy foods in their content and to be really clear in relation to any green claims they might be making.
Don’t overstate green claims
Sustainability remains an important issue for luxury consumers, particularly in sectors such as fashion, beauty, travel and interiors.
Greenwashing is a priority area for the CMA. Many UK companies are required to report on sustainability, but need to ensure that the green claims they make in consumer-facing reports are accurate and balanced.
The ASA’s recent decisions relating to claims that fashion products were made of recycled materials show how narrowly regulators are enforcing the rules. A premium market position does not reduce regulatory scrutiny, and claims about craftsmanship, sourcing and sustainability should be carefully substantiated.
Stay ahead of regulatory change
Consumer law is changing quickly. Don’t make assumptions: check that your marketing is up to speed and get help where you need it.
For luxury brands, compliance is about more than avoiding fines. It is also about protecting reputation, preserving consumer trust and maintaining the premium customer experience that sets brands apart.
Iona Silverman is a partner in Freeths’ intellectual property and media practice. She advises on all aspects of advertising, marketing and consumer law in the UK. Iona also advises on working with influencers, product design and product packaging claims, with a particular interest in health and wellness claims, as well as in environmental claims and greenwashing. She can be reached at [email protected].
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