Burnham Accelerates Crackdown on Subscription Traps

Andy Burnham has vowed to tackle “rip-off” subscription traps as part of his blitz of policies to tackle the cost of living crisis and provide “everyday fixes” for rising bills. Mr Burnham will travel the country during August where he will ask the public how the government can improve their lives, with officials insisting the PM will be in “listening mode” as he vowed to “pull every single lever we can to provide people with some room to breathe on the cost of living”. The changes to subscriptions, announced in April under Sir Keir Starmer’s government, had been expected to come into force next spring, but Mr Burnham will bring their introduction forward to January.

He will also launch a consultation on adding deceptive discount offers to the Competition and Markets Authority’s list of banned practices. This would make it easier for the watchdog to punish firms that artificially inflate prices and then immediately offer a “discount” to make a product look much better value than it is.