Wayfair, Appliances Direct and Gold's Gym fined £6m by competition watchdog
Wayfair, Appliances Direct and Gold's Gym have been fined a combined £6m by the UK competition watchdog, with refunds due to some customers.
How it was covered
- BBC One was the only channel found covering it.
- Channel 5, BBC Two, Channel 4, GB News, ITV and Sky News: not found in tracked broadcasts.
- BBC News: covered online, not found on air.
The Full Story
A plain summary built from the channels that reported this story. Facts only one channel reported are attributed to it.
The Competition and Markets Authority has fined three companies a combined £6 million over misleading sales tactics and membership pricing. The penalties follow a review lasting more than a year into price transparency.
Wayfair, an online furniture retailer, was fined £4.8 million. Appliances Direct, an electronics retailer, was fined £1.2 million. Gold's Gym was fined £48,000. All three firms admitted breaking the law.
The CMA found problems including time-limited offers described as 'Here Today, Gone Tomorrow' or 24-hour deals that were still available after the deadline. It also found customers were automatically opted in to optional services, such as appliance recycling, which should not have been pre-ticked. Gold's Gym failed to tell customers the total price of memberships.
Wayfair and Appliances Direct said the fines were disproportionate. They accepted them as part of an early settlement to secure a lower penalty, but they are not happy about the process.
Some customers will receive refunds. Appliances Direct will pay an average of about £25 per customer. Gold's Gym refunds will be up to £50 per customer. The refunds total £440,000 overall. Customers do not need to take action. They will be contacted and paid automatically.
The fines were announced as part of the CMA's wider work on price transparency. The case covers misleading sales practices and failures to give clear prices before purchase.
Key Claims
Claims reported during this story's coverage, grouped by how many channels reported each one. Select a dot to see the source excerpt.
| Claim |  |
|---|---|
| Only on one channel | |
| Refunds will total £440,000, averaging about £25 for Appliances Direct and up to £50 for Gold's Gym. | |
| The CMA fined firms a combined £6 million over misleading sales tactics, with Wayfair fined £4.8 million and Appliances Direct £1.2 million. | |
Channel Perspectives
What each channel focused on, with key quotes.
BBC ONE West treated the fines as a consumer story, leading on the £6 million total and then asking what it means for customers. It used its cost-of-living correspondent to explain refunds, average payouts and automatic payments, while also noting that Wayfair and Appliances Direct called the fines disproportionate. The report sat within a wider lunchtime bulletin that also covered an unrelated inquest and the Russell Brand trial.
- “Well, it's certainly going to be some refunds for customers, Nina.”
- “And the CMA has been running this major review for more than a year into price transparency and today announced those three fines which totaled £6 million for those three companies.”
- “Now both firms have said that they feel those fines are disproportionate and although they accepted them for an early settlement, for a lower fine, I think it's fair to say they're not happy about the process”
Broadcast Timeline
News broadcasts tracked for this story, in time order.