BUSINESS NEWS terms with changes to employment law, consumer law and the package regulations. Ian Taylor reports


CMA ‘enforcing rules by naming and shaming’


The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) is using negative PR “as an enforcement tool”, according to industry lawyer Rhys Griffiths, partner at Fox Williams. The CMA has new powers to


rule on breaches of competition or consumer law, including price transparency, and Griffiths suggested the CMA is also using ‘soft’ tools to do this – issuing warning letters to tell people they may be non-compliant, “then announcing this publicly”, saying: “They know consumer-facing businesses don’t want negative publicity, so they name and shame.”


Rhys Griffiths


DBT ‘open to consulting more’ with industry on revised PTRs


He told the seminar: “PR is being


used as an enforcement tool. The CMA uses adverse publicity very effectively and it can be painful for travel companies. It’s a reputational event as well as a regulatory issue.” If the CMA opens an


investigation, Griffths noted: “It will want a lot of information and want it quickly. Try not to create a suspicion that you’re being unhelpful.” Abta director of legal affairs


Simon Bunce said: “Naming and shaming is a pretty blunt weapon.”


The Department for Business and Trade (DBT) will issue guidance on the revised Package Travel Regulations (PTRs) this summer ahead of these coming into force next April. Willa Huang, head of core


consumer rights at the DBT, promised “guidance on the specific changes at a minimum” but said “we’re open to consulting on more” when she addressed the Abta Travel Law Seminar last week. The core change in the


revised regulations, signed off in December, is the removal of Linked Travel Arrangements (LTAs)


from the package travel regime, with the reclassification of the main ‘type A’ LTA as a package. Huang said the DBT would


maintain a “dialogue with the sector” on issues related to the regulations but not covered by the reform, noting: “There were limitations to the [legislative] instrument we used to make these changes.” She also confirmed officials


would consult informally on the guidance, saying: “We’ll initially go out to key stakeholder groups. [But] we’re open to speaking to everyone who is interested to scope out the guidance.”


‘Beware new employment rules’


The government’s broadening of unfair dismissal rights will apply to anyone employed from July 1 and compensation will no longer be capped, meaning “a lot more litigation”, a leading employment lawyer has warned. Rebecca Thornley-Gibson,


partner at law firm DMH Stallard, spelled out the changes under the Employment Rights Act 2025 following “quite a few U-turns and postponements” by ministers in the past year, describing the new unfair dismissal rights as “a showstopper” and the removal of the cap on compensation as “a game-changer”. She told the Abta Travel Law


Seminar: “This will affect pretty much all businesses. The qualifying period [for an employee to bring an unfair dismissal claim] has been reduced from two years to six months, with this coming into force from January 1.” Thornley-Gibson noted the


travelweekly.co.uk


government had dropped its plan to make unfair dismissal a day-one right and “canned” a proposal for a statutory probation period. But she said, “this will apply to


anyone appointed from July 1 this year” and warned removal of the current compensation cap, based on a claimant’s salary up to a maximum £123,543, “is going to lead to a lot more litigation because it will be worth having a go”. She suggested: “We’ll see a lot of


dismissals in November-December before this comes in. It’s going to make redundancy agreements much more difficult to negotiate.” Thornley-Gibson added: “Most


employers are giving themselves a buffer of a five-month probation period to avoid an unfair dismissal claim [if they dismiss a new employee].” The time limit for bringing an


unfair dismissal claim will also increase, from three to six months, from October.


She noted a dismissal related to


pregnancy, maternity, any form of discrimination or trade union activity would be automatically unfair and subject to no qualification period and warned: “You need to be really careful about dismissals.” The act also toughens the law on


sexual harassment at work. Thornley-Gibson noted: “An obligation to take all reasonable


steps to prevent harassment comes into force in October, although the government won’t issue guidance until 2027.” At the moment, she suggested “not many employers are ticking all the boxes on this”. She also noted the number


of tribunal claims “has increased massively” recently, with “AI creating a perfect storm, drafting claims with no application of facts to legal claims”.


21 MAY 2026 47


Rebecca Thornley-Gibson


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