Consumer vulnerability

Updated on 30/03/2021

Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), February 2019

“Supporting vulnerable consumers is an essential part of the CMA’s job. We can all be vulnerable in
certain contexts: if we need to make a purchase at a stressful time, for example, or feel under
pressure to make a choice between different options that we do not fully understand.
Some of us will experience vulnerability during particularly diffcult periods of our lives, while
for others vulnerability derives from longer term challenges, such as physical disability
or protracted periods of poor mental health.
This paper explores the different dimensions of consumer vulnerability and considers what
the CMA can do to help…” Andrew Tyrie, CMA Chairman