Online checkout did not get worse by accident, and it is no longer a matter of opinion that some of it was deliberate. Over the last two years regulators in the United States, the United Kingdom and the European Union have named the specific techniques, written them into rules and started enforcing them, which means the irritating page you last argued with has a legal description. Knowing the names is what turns a vague annoyance into something you can spot, avoid and report.
Updated October 2026. Rules and enforcement actions are quoted from the regulators listed in Sources. Requirements differ by country and this is general information, not legal advice.
The rules that now govern online checkout
In the United States, the Federal Trade Commission’s Rule on Unfair or Deceptive Fees took effect on 12 May 2025. It covers live-event ticketing and short-term lodging, and requires a business offering a price to disclose the total price inclusive of most mandatory charges and to display that total more prominently than other pricing information, other than the final amount of payment. It does not ban any particular fee, which is the point worth understanding: the obligation is about disclosure and prominence, not price.
In the United Kingdom, the unfair commercial practices provisions of the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 apply to practices from 6 April 2025, with Competition and Markets Authority guidance published alongside. Drip pricing, where an initial price is shown and mandatory charges are introduced as the buyer proceeds, is prohibited. So is falsely stating that a product will only be available for a limited time, or only on particular terms for a limited time, in order to elicit an immediate decision. Fake reviews are covered too.
In the EU, the Commission consulted between 17 July and 24 October 2025 on a forthcoming Digital Fairness Act aimed at dark patterns, addictive design, unfair personalisation and unfair practices in the marketing of price, with a proposal expected in 2026. Enforcement is not theoretical either. On 9 April 2026 the FTC announced that a major ticket reseller would refund 10 million dollars to consumers, having alleged that it advertised ticket prices without disclosing the full price people would actually pay by failing to include mandatory fees.
6 online checkout tricks to avoid now
- The price that grows. A headline figure, then a service fee, then a processing fee. In the UK this is drip pricing and prohibited; in US ticketing and lodging the total inclusive of mandatory charges must be shown prominently. Compare totals at the payment step, never the landing page.
- Countdown timers and scarcity counters. Falsely claiming limited availability to force an immediate decision is a banned practice in the UK. Reload the page before you believe a number.
- The account wall. Guest checkout quietly disappears because an account converts a transaction into a marketing relationship. Look for a guest option before filling anything in, and prefer sellers that keep one.
- Pre-ticked extras. Insurance, protection plans, faster delivery and newsletter consent arriving already selected. Read the order summary line by line, not the buttons.
- The trial that becomes a subscription. Note the renewal date in your calendar at the moment you sign up, and check whether cancellation is as easy as joining.
- The late currency or payment surcharge. Check the figure your card is actually charged, not the one the page displayed first.
Why it took regulators rather than competition to fix
An online checkout is optimised against measurable outcomes, and the usual outcome is revenue per visitor. A pattern that annoys most people while converting slightly more of them looks like a success in that measurement, because annoyance that does not show up as abandonment is invisible to it. That asymmetry is why the fix arrived as rules: a disclosure obligation changes the design question from what converts to what is permitted.
It also explains the shape of the rules. The FTC’s fees rule deliberately preserves flexibility on pricing while mandating prominence of the total, and the UK’s framework attacks specific practices rather than page layouts. The EU’s planned Digital Fairness Act takes the same approach to dark patterns and personalisation. None of that stops a seller charging what it likes, and all of it makes the number harder to hide until you have committed.
What to do when a checkout misbehaves
- Screenshot before you pay. The first price shown and the final total, on the same purchase, is the whole evidence of a drip pricing complaint, and an online checkout that changed the number is easy to demonstrate once you have both images.
- Abandon and compare. Two tabs and two totals take a minute and are the only reliable price comparison once fees are involved.
- Report it. Consumer regulators act on reported patterns, and the enforcement of 2025 and 2026 began with exactly this kind of complaint.
- Dispute what was never disclosed. An undisclosed mandatory charge is a chargeback conversation with your card provider, not a negotiation with the seller.
The same scepticism is useful either side of the payment page. Spotting fake reviews deals with the pressure applied before you reach the basket, shopping sales events with manufactured deadlines, and cutting streaming costs with the subscriptions that quietly renew afterwards.
None of this makes an online checkout honest by itself. It does mean the worst patterns now carry a cost for the seller, and that a complaint with two screenshots attached is worth more than it was three years ago.
Common questions
Which online checkout practices are now banned outright? In the UK, drip pricing and false claims of limited availability are banned practices from 6 April 2025, along with fake reviews. In the US, live-event ticketing and short-term lodging must show the total price inclusive of most mandatory charges, prominently, from 12 May 2025.
Is drip pricing illegal? In the United Kingdom it is prohibited under the unfair commercial practices provisions applying from 6 April 2025. In the United States, the FTC fees rule from 12 May 2025 requires the total price inclusive of most mandatory charges to be shown prominently in live-event ticketing and short-term lodging.
Are countdown timers allowed? Not when they are false. Falsely stating that a product is available only for a limited time, or only on particular terms for a limited time, in order to elicit an immediate decision is a banned practice in the UK framework.
Has anyone actually been penalised? Yes. On 9 April 2026 the FTC announced that a ticket reseller would refund 10 million dollars to consumers over pricing that excluded mandatory fees, with an order requiring the total price to be displayed more prominently.
What is coming next in the EU? A Digital Fairness Act. The Commission consulted from 17 July to 24 October 2025 on rules covering dark patterns, addictive design, unfair personalisation and price marketing practices, with a proposal expected in 2026.
Sources and further reading
Where the figures and rules above come from, so you can check them:
- Total price disclosure and prominence requirements, effective 12 May 2025: Federal Trade Commission
- Enforcement action and 10 million dollars in refunds, 9 April 2026: Federal Trade Commission
- Banned practices including drip pricing, false urgency and fake reviews, from 6 April 2025: Competition and Markets Authority guidance CMA207, GOV.UK
- Consultation on dark patterns, addictive design and unfair personalisation: European Commission, Digital Fairness Act
Photo credit: Shopping online with bank card by Bogdan Hoyaux / European Commission, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
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