Fine print, fines, and fairness: Consumer law lessons from the private parking sector

On 16 July the UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) published a suite of actions for the private parking sector aimed at ensuring UK motorists are treated fairly when challenging parking charges. It highlights the CMA's continued focuses and serves as a reminder for all businesses of the importance of fairness when engaging with consumers. 

The actions include:

• opening an investigation into Euro Car Parks (who the CMA fined in February 2026 for failing to comply with an information notice - which you can read Bristows' analysis on here); 

• making recommendations to government; and 

• writing an open letter to private parking operators. 

Relevance for all consumer-facing businesses

The open letter is the more interesting document for businesses outside the private parking sector as it breaks down the CMA's concerns over appeals processes, customer communications and the use of terms to impose additional fees. 

While not singling out any single practice, the CMA emphasised a business' failure to meet its professional diligence obligations will still amount to an unfair practice under the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act (DMCCA). Although less commonly seen than the prohibition on misleading actions or aggressive practices, it serves as a catch-all for practices that are unfair or done in bad faith. It requires businesses to provide a reasonable standard of service and treat their customers fairly, including thinking about the consumer's legitimate interests or expectations and taking steps to protect these.

Secondly, the CMA noted that, while there is an code of practice for the private parking sector, compliance with a sectoral code of practice does not guarantee compliance with consumer law. Instead meeting the position under the code of practice can be seen as relevant to whether the business behaved diligently, but the business still needs to assess its practices more widely. A clear example of this is in fines for overdue charges, where the parking code of practice says that sums of up to £70 may be added. However the CMA pointed out that the code saying this does not provide a legal basis for binding consumers to pay this or make it automatically enforceable.

Instead the CMA reminded businesses that all consumer terms must be assessed against the fairness requirement in the Consumer Rights Act (CRA). The CMA found that some terms were hidden within small print or in detailed terms and conditions documents or signs without being suitably brought to the consumer's attention. Failing to do this can mean the terms are not incorporated into the contract, so they cannot be enforced. Even where they are incorporated, the CMA questioned whether the terms imposing extra penalties met the fairness requirement due to their being vague or giving the business too broad a discretion. None of this is new information, but it the fact that the CMA is actively looking at the terms and conditions highlights how seriously it is taking compliance.

Key Takeaways

Although only explicitly covering the private parking sector, the open letter serves as a helpful reminder for all businesses that:

• even if practices are not misleading or aggressive, they can still breach consumer law if they fail to meet the professional diligence standard set out under the DMCCA;
• complying with a sectoral code of practice will not always be sufficient to comply with consumer protection law; and
• including terms without considering whether they are fair on consumers risks their being held as unenforceable.