Drip pricing ban: what online businesses need to know
A customer books a hotel online. The headline price looks great, £120 for two nights in London. They add it to their basket, enter their details, and head to checkout. Then the extras appear: a “weekend surcharge”, a service fee, and a compulsory delivery charge for booking confirmation. By the time they click “pay”, the bill has climbed to nearly £200. Multiply that experience across thousands of transactions, and it’s easy to see why regulators are now stepping in.
UK’s Online Safety: Ofcom Fines OnlyFans Provider £1.05 Million
The UK’s Online Safety Act 2023 (OSA) introduces a new legal framework to make the internet safer, especially for children. It places firm duties on online service providers to prevent and remove harmful or illegal content. A recent case involving OnlyFans demonstrates that Ofcom takes the enforcement of the OSA and other online safety regulations seriously. Fenix International Limited, the company behind OnlyFans, was fined £1.05 million for providing inaccurate information about its age verification processes.
Ofcom Initiates First Investigation into Individual Service Provider Under Online Safety Act
Ofcom has opened its first formal investigation into an online service provider under the Online Safety Act (OSA). The regulator is looking into whether the operator of an online forum has failed to meet its legal duties under the new law. Specifically, Ofcom is examining whether the provider has:
DMA in Action: Apple and Meta Fined for Anti-Steering & Pay-or-Consent
On April 23, 2025, the European Commission wrapped up investigations into Apple and Meta (Facebook) for breaking rules under the Digital Markets Act (DMA). Apple was fined €500 million for limiting how app developers can guide users to pay outside the App Store (a practice called “anti-steering”), and Meta was fined €200 million for giving users a “pay-or-consent” choice — either allow their data to be used for personalized ads or pay for an ad-free version.
UK Online Safety Act: A Guide to Children’s Access Assessments for Service Providers
The UK’s Online Safety Act (OSA) introduces new rules for online platforms that allow users to interact or provide search services. If your business offers online services in the UK, you need to understand these changes and how they affect you.
Understanding the DMCCA: What It Means for Your Business
On 1 January 2025, the UK’s new regime for regulating digital markets, set out in the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumer Act 2024 (DMCCA), came into effect, bringing major changes to consumer protection law. The DMCCA gives the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) strong enforcement powers, including the ability to impose fines based on a business’s global turnover. If your business deals with UK consumers, it’s essential to understand the impact of these changes and prepare for compliance.
How to Conduct an Illegal Content Risk Assessment for the Online Safety Act
The Online Safety Act (OSA) places legal responsibility on businesses operating a wide range of online services to keep UK users safe online. All in-scope services (see more information below) with a significant number of UK users or targeting the UK market are covered by the OSA, regardless of where they are based. One of the first deadlines is for online service providers to complete an illegal content risk assessment by 16 March 2025. In this article, we’ll explain what this means and how your business can comply.
Legal Implications of the UK’s Online Safety Act on Age Verification for Online Service Providers
The UK’s Online Safety Act introduces new rules for implementing online age checks. It requires service providers offering pornography or other harmful content to implement ‘age assurance’ to prevent children from accessing it. If your service falls within this scope in the UK, there are specific rules you need to follow, which we’ll explain in today’s article.
Digital Services Act (DSA): Implications for Swiss Companies
The way businesses work and connect with customers has changed a lot in the digital age. To adapt to this changing landscape, the European Union (EU) has introduced the Digital Services Act (DSA), a ground-breaking regulatory framework designed to govern digital platforms and services and established a new set of rules to regulate these service providers.