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On July 22, 2026, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) updated its guidance on unfair contract terms. The guidance, originally published on July 31, 2015, provides businesses with advice on ensuring their contract terms and notices are fair and transparent to consumers under the Consumer Rights Act 2015. The updated guidance clarifies what makes terms and notices unfair under consumer contract law and outlines the risks associated with using unfair terms. The CMA's guidance helps businesses understand their obligations and provides practical advice on drafting fair and transparent contract terms and notice, it covers the following areas: Scope of Key Concepts: The guidance outlines the foundational definitions of the Act, detailing who qualifies as a consumer, an "average consumer," and a trader, while explaining the threshold for what constitutes an unfair term or notice. Scope of Prohibited Terms: The document details the specific types of terms that are strictly banned from contracts, such as clauses that attempt to override consumers' statutory rights or exclude a trader's liability for death or personal injury resulting from negligence. Scope of Fairness and Transparency Assessments: It explains the criteria used by authorities to evaluate contracts, detailing how terms must be assessed for fairness based on the contract's context, and outlining the transparency requirement for terms to be legible and written in plain, intelligible language. Scope of Exemptions: The guidance clarifies which terms are excluded from the fairness assessment, specifically covering "core" terms related to the main subject matter or price (provided they are prominent and transparent) and terms that reflect mandatory legal provisions. Scope of the "Grey List": It explores the Act's illustrative, non-exhaustive list of potentially unfair terms, providing examples of problematic practices like binding consumers to hidden clauses, allowing unilateral price variations, or imposing disproportionate termination fees. Scope of Enforcement and Penalties: Finally, the document covers the legal and practical consequences of non-compliance, explaining that unfair terms are unenforceable and detailing the enforcement powers of the CMA and other bodies to impose injunctions or financial penalties under the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers (DMCC) Act 2024 . The guidance applies to all businesses operating in the United Kingdom that enter into consumer contracts. The CMA's updated guidance document includes a technical note, alongside examples from historic Office of Fair Trading (OFT) unfair contract terms enforcement cases.