UK PM Burnham vows to end 'subscription traps' amid cost-of-living crisis

LONDON

Britain's Prime Minister Andy Burnham. (AFP)

British Prime Minister Andy Burnham has vowed to crack down on hard-to-cancel subscriptions and fake discounts as part of measures to tackle the cost-of-living crisis, Downing Street said.

The announcement came as the new Labour leader was set to return to work after a vacation and begin a tour of the country to talk to people about their financial pressures, his office said.

Burnham said in a statement that "people are sick and tired of rip-off discounts and subscription traps", where subscriptions are hard to cancel or automatically renew at a higher cost.

He said his government would be "making it as easy to leave a subscription as it is to join."

Currently British consumers are "spending an estimated 1.6 billion pounds ($2.2 billion) a year on (subscriptions) they don't actually want, "Downing Street said.

New rules will come into force in January next year, it said, forcing businesses to give customers "clearer up-front information, regular reminders and a much easier exit to contracts."

There will be a new 14-day cooling-off period to let consumers cancel after a trial or a long-term contract renews, the government announced, without describing how this would be implemented.

Burnham also promised to tackle "misleading claims to customers about discounts" based on inflated full-price figures.