Consumer Rights Act 2015: what your terms and conditions must include

If you sell goods, services or digital content to consumers, your terms and conditions have to work within the Consumer Rights Act 2015. Wording that tries to cut down a consumer's statutory rights won't bind them, unfair terms can be ignored, and since April 2025 the Competition and Markets Authority has been able to fine businesses directly for breaking consumer law.

The Act isn't the only source of rules. The information you must give before a sale, and the 14-day right to cancel for online and phone sales, come from the Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013. This guide covers both.

What is the Consumer Rights Act 2015?

The Act brought most consumer contract law into one place. Part 1 sets out consumers' rights when they buy goods, digital content and services, and the remedies when those rights are breached. Part 2 deals with unfair terms and replaced the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations 1999. For consumer contracts, it also took over from the Sale of Goods Act 1979 and the Supply of Goods and Services Act 1982, which now apply only between businesses.

Who counts as a consumer?

A consumer is an individual acting for purposes wholly or mainly outside their trade, business, craft or profession. A company is never a consumer. A sole trader buying for their business usually isn't one either, although someone who buys something mainly for personal use can still be a consumer. If you sell to both businesses and consumers, it is usually cleaner to have separate terms for each.

Statutory rights you can't exclude: goods

Goods must be of satisfactory quality, fit for any particular purpose the consumer made known to you, and match any description, sample or model. A term that tries to exclude or restrict those rights isn't binding on the consumer. So “no refunds”, “sold as seen” or “all sales final” can't take them away, and using wording like that is a problem in itself because it misleads consumers about their rights.

The remedies come in a set order. For the first 30 days, the consumer has a short-term right to reject faulty goods and get a full refund. They can instead ask for a repair or replacement, and that remedy remains available after the 30 days. If a repair or replacement is impossible, isn't carried out within a reasonable time and without significant inconvenience, or doesn't fix the problem, the consumer can then ask for a price reduction or use the final right to reject. For repair, replacement and those later remedies, a fault that appears within six months of delivery is presumed to have been there at delivery unless you can show otherwise.

Statutory rights you can't exclude: services and digital content

Services must be performed with reasonable care and skill, and that term can't be excluded. Where nothing is agreed about price or timing, the service must be provided for a reasonable price and within a reasonable time. What you say about a service, if the consumer takes it into account when deciding to buy, can also become a binding term.

If a service falls short, the consumer can require you to perform it again properly. If that isn't possible, or isn't done within a reasonable time and without significant inconvenience, they can claim a price reduction, which may be up to the full price. Digital content has its own parallel set of quality, fitness and description rights and remedies.

Separately, a consumer contract can't exclude or restrict liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence.

The unfair terms test

Under Part 2, an unfair term isn't binding on the consumer. A term is unfair if, contrary to the requirement of good faith, it causes a significant imbalance in the parties' rights and obligations to the detriment of the consumer. Fairness is judged by looking at what is being supplied, the circumstances when the contract was made and the rest of the contract.

Schedule 2 to the Act contains an indicative list of terms that may be regarded as unfair. A term on the list isn't automatically unfair, but these are the terms regulators look at first. They include terms that:

• let you change the terms, or what you supply, without a valid reason, or increase the price without giving the consumer the right to cancel
• let you cancel the contract at your discretion when the consumer has no equivalent right
• let you keep money the consumer has paid if they cancel, without giving them equivalent compensation if you are the one who cancels
• require a consumer who fails to perform to pay a disproportionately high sum in compensation
• inappropriately exclude or limit the consumer's rights if you fail to perform
• bind the consumer to terms they had no real opportunity to read before the contract was made

Imagine a gym that charges £30 a month and £500 to cancel. If that charge is far above any loss the gym would actually suffer, it is exactly the kind of term the test is aimed at.

Price and main subject matter

A term can't be assessed for fairness in so far as it sets out the main subject matter of the contract, or in so far as the assessment would be about whether the price is appropriate for what is supplied. That exemption only applies if the term is transparent and prominent. Prominent means brought to the consumer's attention in a way that an average consumer would be aware of it. A significant charge that only appears in the small print loses that protection and can be challenged.

Transparency and plain language

Written terms must be transparent, meaning expressed in plain and intelligible language and legible. Where a term could mean different things, the meaning most favourable to the consumer applies. Obscure wording doesn't make a term automatically unenforceable, but it weakens any argument that the term is fair and it will be read against you.

Short sentences, clear headings and putting the terms that cost consumers money (charges, cancellation, automatic renewal) where they'll see them all help. If a term would surprise a reasonable customer, it needs to be prominent.

Online and phone sales: information and cancellation

The Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013 require you to give consumers certain information before they are bound. It includes the main characteristics of what you're selling, your identity and contact details, the total price including taxes and delivery charges, the arrangements for payment and delivery, and, where it applies, how the right to cancel works. For distance and off-premises contracts you must also confirm the contract on a durable medium, such as an email.

For most distance and off-premises contracts the consumer has a 14-day cancellation period. For goods it generally runs from the day the goods are delivered, and for services from the day the contract is made. If you don't give the required information about cancellation, the period is extended by up to 12 months. There are exceptions, including goods made to the consumer's specifications and goods that deteriorate quickly, and special rules where a consumer asks for a service to start within the cancellation period. Refunds generally have to be made within 14 days.

Enforcement and penalties

Consumers can rely on the Act in any dispute, and a court must consider whether a term is fair even if the consumer doesn't raise it, provided it has enough information to do so. Trading Standards and the Competition and Markets Authority can take enforcement action, including going to court to stop a business using unfair terms.

Since 6 April 2025, under the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024, the CMA has been able to decide for itself that consumer law has been broken and impose fines of up to 10% of a business's global turnover, without first going to court. That makes a set of non-compliant consumer terms a much more serious risk than it used to be.

Checking your own terms

Read your terms as a customer would. Look for anything suggesting statutory rights don't apply (“no refunds”, “we are not liable for faulty goods”, “our only obligation is to replace the item”), rights you keep for yourself that the customer doesn't get, cancellation charges that go beyond your likely loss, price or service changes you can make without a stated reason, and important charges or renewal terms that only appear in the small print. If you want a structured check, you can upload your consumer terms to QuickLegalCheck for a review against these rules.