Citizens Advice responds to the government's plans to end rip-off discounts and subscription traps
Dame Clare Moriarty, Chief Executive of Citizens Advice, said:
“For too long consumers have been tricked into paying for products or services they don’t use - or didn’t even want to begin with - costing millions of pounds each year. So we really welcome the government’s move to speed up action on subscription traps and look at banning other tactics firms use to catch consumers out.
“At Citizens Advice, we’ve sounded the alarm on this for years, because we know subscription traps and sneaky online practices that hit consumers’ pockets hard are a widespread problem. We previously found that over 13 million people (26% of UK adults) accidentally took out a subscription in a year.
“People shouldn’t have to waste their time and effort avoiding dubious online tactics and fixing unwanted purchases and sign-ups. Today’s announcement is an important move, but it can’t be the end of the story. We look forward to seeing the detail in the consultation on deceptive online pricing and how it will ensure consumers are protected and treated fairly.”
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We are the people's champion. We give people the knowledge and confidence they need to find their way forward - whoever they are, and whatever their problem.
Notes to editors:
Citizens Advice is the people’s champion - supporting people across England, Wales and the Channel Islands through: the national charity Citizens Advice; the network of independent local Citizens Advice charities; and the Citizens Advice consumer service.
Our network of charities offers impartial advice online, over the phone, and in person, for free. Citizens Advice helped 2.71 million people face to face, over the phone, by email and webchat in 2024-25. And we had 44 million visits to our website. For full service statistics see our monthly publication Advice trends.
Citizens Advice service staff are supported by more than 19,500 trained volunteers, working at over 1,900 locations across England, Wales and the Channel Islands.
Citizens Advice is the statutory consumer advocate for energy and postal markets. We provide supplier performance information to consumers and policy analysis to decision makers.
Citizens Advice consumer service can help with consumer issues like broken or faulty goods, or problems with energy, heat networks or post. You can get advice from the Citizens Advice consumer service on 0808 223 1133 or 0808 223 1144 for Welsh language speakers.