Consumer law | UK Regulatory Outlook for May 2024 – Osborne Clarke

DMCC Bill receives Royal Assent

The Digital Markets and Consumer Competition Act received Royal Assent and became law as the Digital Markets and Consumer Competition Act 2024 (DMCCA).

As well as introducing a new digital markets regime and changes to competition law, the new rules also significantly reform UK consumer law, introducing new requirements for paid subscription contracts and a new consumer ratings system. It also gives greater powers to the Competition and Markets Authority to investigate and enforce consumer law (including the new subscription contract regime) with the possibility of imposing significant fines.

Our study examines five key things businesses need to know about changes in consumer law, as well as five key points about the new digital markets regime and changes to competition law, respectively.

Ofcom launches consultation on protecting children from online harm under the UK Online Safety Act

Ofcom has launched its second major consultation as part of its work to implement a new online safety regime under the Online Safety Act 2023 (OSA). The first consultation focused on the obligations of in-scope services to protect users from illegal content.

The latest consultation focuses on protecting children from legal but harmful content online. This includes pornography, content relating to suicide, self-harm and eating disorders, content of an offensive nature that seeks or encourages hatred towards people based on a protected characteristic, bullying and content containing serious violence. The consultation closes on 17 July 2024 and Ofcom expects to publish its final statement and documents in spring 2025.

As part of the consultation, Ofcom has published draft guidance for service providers, as well as the codes of practice it must prepare to help service providers meet their obligations:

• Draft guidance on children’s access assessments. It is intended for regulated user-to-user and search services (Part 3 services under OSA) to help them carry out a children’s access assessment to determine whether children will be able to access their services. Ofcom predicts that children are likely to use most Part 3 services that do not yet use “highly effective” age determination techniques, meaning they will need to carry out a risk assessment for children and take steps to ensure Compliance with child safety requirements of OSA obligations.
• Draft guidance on risk assessment for children. This is intended to help services that may be used by children to comply with their obligation to carry out a risk assessment for children, which is separate and additional to the risk assessment for illegal content that all services must carry out.
• Draft code of conduct for user-to-user services and draft code of conduct for search services. These draft codes set out Ofcom’s recommended safety measures for Part 3 service providers to reduce the risk of harm to children and to comply with specific obligations. Recommended measures include robust age assurance measures, safer algorithms, effective content moderation systems and processes, strong governance and accountability, and ensuring clear and accessible information for children, as well as easy-to-use reporting and complaint procedures.

On June 20, 2024, Osborne Clarke is hosting a seminar on keeping children safe online. You can sign up here.

Regulations have been introduced to define the ‘assessment start date’ for VSP compliance with the UK Online Safety Act

Online Safety Act 2023 (existing Part 4B service assessment start date) The 2024 Regulations set the ‘assessment start date’ for video sharing platforms (VSPs) as 2 September 2024.

From that date or from the date of publication of the relevant guidance by Ofcom (whichever is the latest), VSPs, called ‘pre-existing Part 4B services’ under the OSA, will be subject to the requirement to complete assessments under the OSA on risk related to illegal content on their website, the likelihood of children accessing the website, the risk of children coming into contact with harmful content on the website, and empowering users.

VSPs will have three months from their start date (whether that is 2 September 2024 or the date Ofcom publishes the relevant guidance) to complete their assessments.

This instrument is a first step towards the transition of services that are currently regulated under the VSP regulatory regime to the new online security regulatory regime established under the OSA.