All you need to know as AA and BSM driving schools ordered to issue refunds:
- Two AA-owned driving schools have been slapped with a £4.2 million fine and ordered to refund more than 80,000 customers over illegal hidden fees.
- The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) found AA Driving School and BSM Driving School failed to include a mandatory £3 booking fee in their upfront prices - a practice known as drip-pricing.
- Customers will receive automatic refunds averaging £9 each, totalling more than £760,000, without needing to take any action.
- The AA Driving School or BSM Driving School will write to them stating that the money will be automatically refunded onto the card they used to pay for their lessons.
- CMA chief executive Sarah Cardell said: "If a fee is mandatory, the law is clear: it must be included in the price from the very start – not added at checkout – so consumers always know what they need to pay."
- This marks the first financial penalty the CMA has imposed for breach of consumer law since receiving new enforcement powers.
- AA driving schools acknowledged the error, saying they "made immediate changes" to make the booking fee more prominent on their website.
- The combined refunds and fine will cost the driving schools almost £5 million in total.
- READ THE FULL STORY HERE: 80,000 learner drivers to get money back over 'drip pricing' breach