What’s new and what's next?

Retail Law Roundup: January 2025

15 January 2025

Emma Roake

Welcome to the inaugural edition of our Retail Law Roundup, where we share legal updates for retailers and brands.

2024 was a tumultuous year for retailers and brands, with large established retailers and smaller independent brands alike facing huge pressures.

Pressures came from the changing geopolitical landscape, disruptions to supply chains, inflation, weakening consumer confidence, and (in the case of independent brands) a shake-up of the wholesale market exacerbated by the collapse of Matchesfashion, the changes in ownership of other luxury online marketplaces and weakening department store performance.

What to expect in 2025

As we start 2025, brands and retailers face another year of uncertainty and regulation, coupled with steep rises in operating costs.

From April, the Competition & Markets Authority will be able to impose huge fines on retailers for consumer law breaches when parts of the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 come into force. We are in a new dawn of consumer power, and brands can expect the CMA to continue to root out greenwashing claims as a priority.

As brands seek to ensure ongoing revenue and customer loyalty with membership and subscription services, they should note new laws on subscription contracts expected in 2026.

Overall, retailers and brands will face a slew of regulation within the UK and EU, including the biggest change in employment rights for a generation, regulation on AI, modern slavery in the supply chain, packaging, product safety and sustainability.

In this edition, we look at

UK consumer law: What is changing and how might it affect retailers?
Navigating the Levelling Up and Regeneration Act 2023: Implications for retailers with vacant premises.
Balancing employer flexibility and employee rights.

We welcome your feedback and suggestions for future topics – we want to ensure our communications are valuable to you and your business.

UK consumer law: What is changing and how might it affect retailers?

Prepare for the UK's new consumer law changes in 2025.

Our guide explains what retailers should be thinking about now ahead of those powers coming into force in April 2025.

Levelling Up and Regeneration Act 2023: Implications for retailers with vacant premises

We explain how the Levelling Up and Regeneration Act 2023 will impact retailers with vacant properties, including:

How to navigate the new laws.
How to unlock the potential of vacant retail spaces whilst boosting local economies.

Balancing employer flexibility and employee rights

The recent case of Mr B Mendy v Manchester City Football Club Ltd has underscored the importance for employers to carefully assess the language used in employment contracts.

Research: Organisational approaches to ESG matters

Environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues affect all our clients.

As part of our commitment to be at the forefront of society’s biggest issues, we have partnered with the University of Nottingham to conduct research exploring how organisations manage their ESG impacts.

As part of this research, we are inviting our clients and contacts who have an interest in ESG and sustainability to participate in a brief survey.

The survey is open to anyone in the UK, Ireland, or internationally who works for or represents an organisation and has insights into its ESG practices, such as diversity and inclusion efforts or carbon reduction strategies. The survey will remain open until Friday 31 January 2025.

Find out more and take part

Food for Thought: Food and drink regulatory update, Winter 2024

The latest food and drink industry update, focusing on:

Enforcement of junk food advertising restrictions.
New DEFRA labelling requirements for meat and dairy products.
The introduction of a Regulatory Innovation Office to enhance innovation within the sector.