The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has ordered electrical retailer Marks Electrical to compensate customers around £15 per affected household after determining that the company pre-selected and charged customers for extra services without their express agreement.
According to a press release from the CMA, this impacted customers that bought a range of essential household items – including washing machines, dishwashers and cookers – through the Marks Electrical website.
Those customers were automatically opted into one or both of the following services:
- ‘Recycle Old Appliance’ service: removing the customer’s old appliance at the time of delivery, which is then recycled
- ‘Unwrap & Recycle Packaging’ service: unwrapping and removing packaging for the newly purchased product or products at the time of delivery, which is then recycled
The CMA states that, under consumer law, consumers must have genuine choice over whether to pay for an extra product or service which they may or may not wish to choose. Businesses are not allowed to use pre-ticked boxes or other forms of automatic opt-in for optional extras which cost money – as was the case with Marks Electrical. As a result, the CMA has fined the company £720,000 and ordered it to refund around £600,000 in total.
The CMA’s investigation looked at conduct from April 2025 – when its new consumer powers came into force – to November 2025. Marks Electrical stopped the conduct immediately after the CMA opened an investigation and engaged constructively. Having admitted to breaking the law and agreeing to settle the case early with the CMA, the company received a 40% reduction to its financial penalty, in line with CMA guidance.
Affected customers do not need to take any action. Marks Electrical will contact affected customers about their refund, which will be automatically refunded to the method they used to pay for their appliance. If that is not possible, the customer will be sent a cheque. The amount repaid to individuals will vary depending on how much they paid-for extra services, but the average payout will be around £15.
Emma Cochrane, Executive Director of Consumer Protection at the CMA, said: “The law is absolutely clear that automatically opting customers into extra charges is never ok.
“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.”
When the CMA’s strengthened consumer powers came into force, it committed to tackling unlawful online pricing practices to ensure shoppers were not left out of pocket.
Under these new powers, the CMA has so far secured over £1.3 million in refunds for customers and levied fines totaling nearly £5 million.
Further details about the investigation can be found on the Marks Electrical consumer protection enforcement case page.
A statement on Mark Electricals website stated:
Following constructive engagement throughout this process with the CMA, the Group has agreed to resolve the matter by way of settlement. In connection with this, the CMA has issued a Final Infringement Notice imposing a financial penalty of £1.2m which is reduced to £0.7m following the application of the maximum available settlement discount. The penalty is payable within six months of the date of the Final Infringement Notice with the ability to apply to the CMA for a revised payment schedule within 14 days of the notice. The Group has also agreed to provide consumer redress of approximately £0.6 million to affected customers in accordance with directions issued by the CMA.
The Group immediately ceased the relevant conduct following the initial CMA investigation and implemented changes to its checkout processes. It has also put in place further compliance measures in accordance with the CMA’s directions to ensure full compliance with current consumer protection requirements under the DMCC Act.
The financial penalty will be met from existing cash resources, the Company reported a cash balance of £4.4m as of 31st March 2026 and will be treated as an exceptional item for accounting purposes.
Marks Electrical takes its obligations under consumer and competition law seriously and remains committed to maintaining high standards of transparency and full compliance for the benefit of its customers.
Read that statement in full, here
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