RETAIL & CONSUMER
RISK RADAR 2026

Retailers face tighter consumer protection and marketing rules in 2026. Key developments include:

• Consumer enforcement – tougher penalties and scrutiny for non-compliance with protection rules.
• Digital transparency – stricter controls on online design, subscriptions, and product safety.
• Green claims – higher standards for environmental marketing and sustainability disclosures.
• Advertising restrictions – HFSS and health-related marketing bans now fully in force, increasing scrutiny.
• Brand and IP litigation – significant new case law for brand owners wishing to protect their products from lookalikes and their trade marks from misuse.

Significant updates in AI, data, and cybersecurity compliance. Key developments include:

• AI – evolving approach to AI regulation and to tackling the challenges of promoting innovation while continuing to protect IP rights.
• Cybersecurity standards – higher resilience and reporting expectations and broader regulatory scope.
• Online safety – tighter obligations and liability for digital platforms and content providers.
• Digital and data regulation – regulator and legislator focus on modernisation and simplification of digital and data regulation.
• Payments innovation – regulatory and industry focus on a shift away from cards to A2A based payments and ongoing regulatory consultations around digital currencies. 

• ESG due diligence – importance of supply chain due diligence post-Omnibus (amendments to CSDDD and CSRD).
• Deforestation and traceability – EUDR reforms and updated deadlines require robust sourcing controls.
• Product liability – expanded rules for software, AI, and digital products increase litigation risk.
• Modern slavery compliance – proposed mandatory due diligence and tougher penalties for supply chains.
• Packaging and waste – new obligations for reporting, tracking and recycling, and reforms to the waste carrier, broker, dealer system.
• Late payments – government crackdown on late payments, including proposals to make statutory rate of interest mandatory. 

• Employment reforms – sweeping changes affecting workforce management and business costs.
• Market oversight – enhanced CMA powers and digital market regulation increase compliance risk.
• Fraud prevention – “Failure to Prevent Fraud” remains a top legal and reputational concern.
• Property sustainability – stricter energy and environmental standards for business premises.
• Retail crime – increasingly a boardroom issue, new legislation increasing the onus on large venue safety impacting retailers.
• ESG in M&A – due diligence on sustainability and human rights central to deal-making.