Major UK appliance retailer Marks Electrical has been fined £720k by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), as well as ordered to refund an additional £600k, after it emerged it had been charging customers for extra services without their agreement.
The decision follows an inquiry into the retailer’s conduct that was launched in November, as part of the CMA’s crackdown on companies breaking consumer law regulations.
The investigation was launched following the introduction of the new Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024, which brought in new rules to combat things like fake reviews, drip pricing and misleading time-limited offers.
When the inquiry was launched, the CMA said it had concerns that Marks Electrical may have misled customers by automatically making them opt-in to buy additional services.
Announcing its decision on June 18, the CMA has ruled that customers that bought a range of appliances such as washing machines, dishwashers and cookers were impacted by the retailer’s opt-in model According to the CMA, the impacted customers were automatically opted-in to either the company’s “Recycle old appliance” or “unwrap & recycle packaging” services, both of which cost an additional fee on top of the cost of the products.
Legally, consumers must have “genuine choice” over their decision to pay for extra products or services such as these, and businesses explicitly cannot sign customers up for paid optional extras automatically. However, the CMA has found that Marks Electrical broke this rule.
Marks Electrical will now contact impacted customers who are owed refunds. The CMA says that the amount for each customer will vary depending on which services they were opted-in for, but the average payout will be around £15 each.
The CMA looked into Marks Electrical’s conduct between April 2025 (when its new consumer powers came into force) and November 2025. The organisation says Marks Electrical “stopped the conduct immediately” after the CMA opened its investigation, and “engaged constructively”.
Because the company freely admitted it had broken the law and agreed to settle its case with the CMA, Marks Electrical received a 40% reduction to its financial penalty, which would have otherwise been £1.2m.
“The law is absolutely clear that automatically opting customers into extra charges is never ok,” said Emma Cochrane, executive director of consumer protection at the CMA. “Buying a new washing machine, dishwasher or cooker is expensive and people should have the right to decide if they want optional extras – not be landed with costs that they did not agree to.
“All businesses need to check their policy on automatic opt-ins – the bottom line is that they should not be used. If businesses break the law, we’ll continue to issue fines and secure refunds for people.”
In a statement, Marks Electrical confirmed the ruling, and said it had also “put in place further compliance measures in accordance with the CMA’s directions to ensure full compliance with current consumer protection requirements”.
