Virgin Atlantic faces UK Watchdog ‘price dripping’ probe

The UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) watchdog announced it has launched three new consumer protection investigations into firms over concerns that customers were not shown the “total price upfront when buying train and coach tickets, holidays or driving lessons.”

It says this is part of a wider CMA clampdown on misleading pricing practices. Under British law, headline prices must include mandatory charges; these cannot be added on later in the buying process in what is called drip pricing.

The statement says drip pricing not only deceives customers, but also impacts competition between businesses, allowing one company’s products and services to unreasonably appear cheaper than another’s.

Virgin Atlantic under price dipping investigation

The CMA has launched investigations into Trainline, RED Driving School, and Virgin Atlantic. With Virgin Atlantic, the price dripping accusation is concerned with accommodation bookings rather than the core airline business. Separately, Virgin Atlantic is moving to provide air taxi services in partnership with Joby Aviation.

For Virgin Atlantic, the press release reads that the “investigation will focus on whether mandatory resort fees and local taxes have been included in the upfront prices shown to customers buying package holidays. These fees vary but can cost hundreds of pounds and significantly increase the price of a holiday.”

The CMA has already sent Virgin Atlantic (and the other companies) ‘advisory letters’ notifying them of the CMA’s first consumer protection drive using its new enforcement powers.

The advisory letters put Virgin Atlantic on notice, reminding the company of its obligations under consumer law. It adds, “the CMA remains concerned about their pricing practices following ongoing monitoring.”

The CMA’s powers to require customer compensation and levy fines

For now, the CMA is at the beginning of the investigation process and has not reached any conclusions regarding Virgin about whether it has broken the law.

Should the CMA determine that Virgin has violated the law, it can order it to pay compensation to customers. Its ability to levy fines is also considerable, being up to 10% of global turnover. However, given the 300:1 compensation/fine ratio, it seems fines are typically not large.

Through investigations across ticketing, gyms, homeware, online reviews and air travel, the CMA claims to have secured more than £1.95 million in refunds for UK consumers and levied fines close to £6.2 million.

The CMA’s Clear Pricing campaign was launched earlier in 2026, providing businesses with a “practical 3-step checklist to make sure their prices are clear and upfront.” These efforts are part of actions to help ease the cost of living pressures for Britons.

On the government’s dedicated webpage on the investigation of Virgin Atlantic, it says, “At this initial stage, it should not be assumed that Virgin Atlantic has infringed consumer protection law, and no finding has been made.”