Consumer

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Consumer protection is eroding on every front. Food portions shrink while salt, sugar, and ultra-processed fillers rise; origin labels are blurred by “processed in the UK” loopholes and pesticide limits quietly relax under trade deals. 

Fast fashion (cheap, trendy clothes made to be thrown away) and modern electronics often use planned obsolescence—designing products to break or go out of date quickly. They include things like non-standard screws (so you can't open or fix them easily) and limited warranties (which don’t cover common faults), all of which make repair harder and more expensive than replacement.

Subscriptions mutate: free trials default to paid tiers (and so were never really free, especially including the mass of ads), functions migrate behind “pro” paywalls, bundled add-ons auto-renew, and exit routes hide behind labyrinthine menus. 

Streaming libraries shrink as prices climb, while dynamic advertising now appears in content you already pay for.

Airlines headline £29 fares, then pile on seat selection, cabin baggage, fuel surcharges, credit-card fees, and “optional” carbon offsets. 

Ticketing platforms add opaque “service” and “processing” charges moments before checkout; hotels mimic them with resort and cleaning fees. 

Utilities penalise loyalty: energy, broadband, and insurance quotes escalate for long-term customers through algorithmic profiling. 

Buy-now-pay-later schemes normalise high-interest micro-debt, targeting younger consumers via influencers who fail to disclose sponsorships.

Data itself has become currency: smart devices harvest behaviour, sell it to third parties, and nudge spending through personalised surge pricing. 

Recalls arrive late, counterfeit goods flood online marketplaces, and environmental micro-costs—microplastics, e-waste, CO₂—are offloaded onto the public purse. 

The cumulative effect is systematic value extraction masked as convenience.