CMA opens consultation on draft revised unfair contract terms guidance

The Competition and Markets Authority opened a consultation on draft revised guidance on unfair contract terms on 22 January 2026¹. The consultation ran from 11am that day to 11:59pm on 19 March 2026, and the CMA has since published the responses and its final outcome¹.

The CMA produced two documents: draft revised guidance and a draft technical note on the unfair contract terms provisions in Part 2 of the Consumer Rights Act 2015¹. Once finalised, they will replace the existing guidance on unfair contract terms, known as CMA37¹. The CMA states that the law itself has not changed since 2015, so businesses' obligations remain unchanged¹.

The CMA said it was updating the guidance to do two things¹:

The second stated aim was to "reflect other relevant developments, including direct consumer enforcement powers for the CMA under the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumer (DMCC) Act 2024"¹. The CMA also sought views on how it had "simplified, streamlined and improved its presentation" of the guidance¹.

The consultation documents were published alongside the consultation: a nine page consultation document, a 126 page draft revised guidance document and a 14 page technical note¹. The CMA has published a summary of responses, 44 pages long, together with the individual responses it received¹. Those responses came from Amplified Global, the Business Consumer Co-ordination Group, the British Retail Consortium, the Chartered Trading Standards Institute, Mitsubishi HC Capital UK, Shepherd and Wedderburn LLP, the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders, Which?, and two individuals¹.

Why it matters for households

Unfair contract terms are the terms in a consumer contract that a court or regulator can decide are not binding on the consumer. The unfair contract terms rules sit in Part 2 of the Consumer Rights Act 2015, and the CMA's guidance is the document that sets out how it reads those rules in practice. The CMA says the law has not changed since 2015 and that businesses' obligations remain unchanged¹, so the underlying protections available to consumers are not altered by this exercise. What changes is the CMA's own guidance, which is being rewritten to be easier for businesses to follow and to take account of the CMA's direct consumer enforcement powers under the DMCC Act 2024¹. Those enforcement powers are the part with the clearest practical effect for households: they concern how the CMA can act against businesses itself, rather than only through the courts. The CMA has not reported, in the material published on this consultation, any change to which terms are or are not enforceable, or any change to the rights a consumer can rely on. The revised guidance and technical note take effect only once finalised, at which point they replace CMA37¹.

What happens next

The consultation has concluded and the CMA has published the responses and the final outcome¹. The CMA has updated its guidance on unfair contract terms (CMA37)¹. The published page does not set out, in the text available, a separate commencement date for the revised documents beyond their replacement of the current guidance once finalised¹. How the new rules that sit behind this guidance are made, and how consultations of this kind work, is covered in consultations and discussion papers.