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EasyJet loses trademark battle against Easy Bathrooms
FOLLOWING EASYJET’S PARENT company bringing a trademark infringement case against Easy Bathrooms, the Intellectual Property Enterprise Court (IPEC) has ruled in favour of the bathroom retailer, dismissing the claims. In 2024, EasyGroup first filed a claim against
Easy Bathrooms, alleging that the bathroom retailer was illegally trying to benefit from EasyGroup’s intellectual property through its name. Specifically, EasyGroup accused Easy Bathrooms of trying to “pass off” its trademark, and argued it should be banned entirely from using the word “easy” in its business name and logo. However, the Court has now dismissed
EasyGroup’s claims in full and confirmed that Easy Bathrooms’ key trademarks remain valid. This means the retailer can continue trading under the name it has built over more than a decade. Originally founded in in 2013, Easy Bathrooms
has grown from a single showroom business into one of the UK’s biggest bathroom and tile retailers, owning more than 150 showrooms nationwide. In recent years, and throughout the legal
proceedings, Easy Bathrooms says it has continued to open new locations, while consistently maintaining the defence that its brand had been built independently through its own vision and commercial success.
“We’re naturally delighted with the Court’s decision,” explained Craig Waddington, founder and chairman of Easy Bathrooms. “Throughout these proceedings our focus never changed, we carried on growing the business, opening new showrooms and supporting customers across the UK. “We can now look to the future and carry on
doing what we’ve always done: helping customers create beautiful bathrooms.”
Marks Electrical fined £720k for breaking consumer law
A P P L IA NC E RE T AILER MARK S Electrical has been fined £720k by the
Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), as well as ordered to
refund £600k, after it
emerged it had been charging customers for extra services without their agreement.
Announcing its decision on June 18, the CMA officially ruled that customers that bought appliances such as washing machines, dishwashers and cookers were misled by the retailer. According to the CMA, impacted
customers were automatically opted-in to either the company’s “recycle old appliance” or “unwrap & recycle packaging” services, both of which cost an additional fee on top of the cost of the products. Legally, consumers must have
genuine choice over their decision to pay for extra products or services such as these, and businesses explicitly cannot automatically sign customers up for paid optional extras. However, the CMA has found that Marks Electrical broke this rule. Marks Electrical will now contact
impacted customers who are owed refunds. The CMA says that the amount for each customer will vary depending on which services they were opted-in for, but the average payout will be around £15 each.
As part of its investigation, the CMA says it looked into conduct spanning from April 2025 (when its new consumer powers came into force) until November 2025. The organisation says Marks Electrical “stopped the conduct immediately” after the CMA opened its investigation, and “engaged constructively”. Because the company freely
admitted it had broken the law and agreed to settle its case early with the CMA, Marks Electrical received a 40% reduction to its penalty.
Average renovation budgets down around 30%, Houzz says
DESPITE THE NUMBER of renovating UK homeowners remaining broadly consistent, their average planned spend has dropped by almost 30%, according to the latest research by online design platform Houzz. In its 2026 UK Houzz & Home Report, the design platform found that the average renovation budget has declined to £10,000 in 2026, down from £14,000 in 2025. This is a reduction of around 28%. However, despite this drop in budgets, Houzz
also found that roughly two-in-five homeowners (38%) actually exceeded their initial home renovation budgets, while roughly a third (33%) completed their project “on budget”. Just 3% of renovators completed their project
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upgrade their homes, more than a third of homeowners (36%) said that it was because they felt like they finally had the financial means to renovate. A similar 34% also said they now felt like they had the time to do so, too. Nearly a third of renovators said they were
driven by a recent home purchase (31%), which is up by 4% from last year. A change in life events accounted for 20% of
under budget, and around a quarter (26%) embarked on home renovation projects without setting any kind of budget at all. Across renovations, the average spend fell slightly (around 6%) in 2025 to £20,000, down from £21,440 in 2024. When asked what had motivated them to
kbbreview
renovations. Within this polling group, roughly three-in-ten (27%) said this was because they were making adjustments to their space due to working from home. 22% said they were renovating due to a change in income or employment, while 14% renovated as a result of health or accessibility needs.
August 2026
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