Which? Impact 2024 - 2025

Introduction

At Which? we achieve impact for consumers when we reduce consumer harm and in 2024/25 we focused our efforts on five priorities.

Tackling scams and fraud:

Our long-running fight for better scam prevention activity from government and businesses continued as we saw significant increases in scams originating online.

Challenging rip-off business practices:

A big focus of our work this year was pricing rip-offs, challenging dodgy practices in retail, hotels, travel and ticketing sectors in particular.

Driving fairer financial services:

We focused on insurance, launching our “End the Insurance Rip-Off” campaign and using new data and consumer horror stories to draw attention to the huge financial and emotional impact of poorly handled and rejected claims

Making sustainable choices easier:

We believe it remains simply too hard for those who want to reduce their environmental footprint to do so with confidence - with many at risk of being conned by greenwashing claims, and the low carbon home heating market still feeling too complex for most to engage with.

Modernising consumer rights and protections:

We are on a long-term mission to improve consumer protections and to have stronger regulators’ enforcement powers that are fit-for-purpose for today’s world. This year we’ve worked on issues including: online safety regulation; unsafe products on online marketplaces; problems in the veterinary services market; and the UK Trading  Standards system.

In 2024-25, focused on these priorities, we made change happen that benefited millions of consumers within the year. We estimate that the value of all our impact for consumers this year could be as much as £550 million - in time and money saved; payouts of refunds/compensation; reduced losses, worry or upset from consumer problems; and rip-offs and scams prevented. 

We also drove change that will benefit millions more in the near future – helping to drive the introduction of new laws and regulations that will strengthen consumer protections for the digital age.

Our impact headlines

• We positively influenced major businesses on more than 40 occasions to describe items honestly or price them fairly; stop selling unsafe items; improve customer service; or respect consumer rights.
• We took steps to secure £millions in compensation owed to consumers by market-dominant businesses we believe have over-charged them: launching a £3bn legal claim against Apple and seeking regulator action in response to Ticketmaster’s dodgy ticket pricing for Oasis concerts.
• We supported regulators’ work to tackle business rip-offs and improve consumer outcomes in eight different markets; using our evidence and ideas to help shape and inform major investigations and business guidance in insurance, retail, telecommunications, energy, veterinary services, the hotel sector, smart technology, and event ticketing.
• We helped shape new legislation and new regulatory powers on product safety and scam prevention (in both cases addressing the responsibilities of online marketplaces) and also saw our influence on a number of key measures proposed within the government’s new draft Pension Schemes Bill.
• We recognised and encouraged good businesses and helped consumers find companies they could trust thanks to our rigorous endorsement schemes. We also engaged in partnerships with responsible businesses to help us deliver more for consumers with new partnership projects this year including our popular new Home Energy Planning Service.
• Our advice empowered millions of consumers to make easier, more informed choices, save money, and stand up for their rights. This year we estimate our advice helped consumers make more than six million purchasing and ‘life admin’ decisions; helped around 40,000 switch to save or simply choose a provider or a deal that better met their needs; and around 33,000 to make redress claims worth an estimated £19 million against companies who had let them down.
• Our advice this year also helped consumers stay safe with regular advice on unsafe products revealed by our testing as well as accessible scams advice. This year we helped around half-a-million consumers become more scam aware and better able to take preventive action to avoid falling prey to scammers.

What our impact has meant for consumers

Our priorities for tackling consumer harm in 2025-26

For 2025/26 we will continue to focus on the same priorities, though with several new objectives.

1. scams and fraud, data and privacy: We will continue to seek better scam prevention and intelligence-sharing across government and businesses, and to monitor and support progress in tackling scam adverts via the Online Safety Act. We will also continue our work on emerging technologies and the security of consumers’ personal information - still focusing on smart products but also exploring other important areas including the effects of AI.
2. rip-off business practices: We will continue to focus on pricing practices and build on work already started on events ticketing with a new “Stop Fleecing Fans” campaign. This will seek to ensure the government delivers on its promise to tackle the problem of inflated pricing in the secondary ticketing market.
3. financial services: We will continue our work on pensions reform and launch a new phase of our insurance campaign to press for more decisive FCA action on poor claims handling. We will also focus on consumer credit reform and the future of digital payments, including the rules surrounding Buy Now Pay Later.
4. sustainable choices: We will advocate for better advice, financial support, and mandatory certification of installers (e.g. solar panel and heat pump installers) in the Government’s Warm Homes Plan, while directly addressing the need for better consumer advice with a new public awareness campaign about the planned switch from boilers to lower-carbon heating options.
5. protections and enforcement: We will continue our product safety campaigning. We will focus on ensuring that the recent DMCC Act delivers as intended for consumers including via a new digital competition regime. We will also push forward with our calls for reform of Trading Standards, including by identifying opportunities for ‘quick win’ improvements.

Download our 2024/25 Impact Report 

For previous reports see below