The Competition and Markets Authority has opened an investigation into Ryanair over the way parents are charged to sit with their children on flights. For most small businesses, the useful lesson is not about airline seating. It is about pricing: if a cost is effectively unavoidable, regulators expect customers to see it clearly and early.
The CMA said on 11 June 2026 that Ryanair is under investigation over fees parents must pay to reserve what the airline calls a mandatory family seat. Ryanair’s terms require at least one adult to sit with children aged 2 to 11. The CMA says the adult seat reservation typically costs around £8 each way, while Ryanair’s website refers to free reserved seats for children under 12.
No finding has been made. The CMA is at the start of its investigation and says it will gather evidence before deciding whether consumer law has been broken. Ryanair has publicly defended its policy. But the case is still worth close attention for any SME that sells to consumers online, takes bookings, runs events, charges extras, or relies on terms and conditions to explain what is included.
The first issue is whether a contract term is fair. The CMA says it will examine whether Ryanair’s approach puts customers at an unfair disadvantage by requiring payment for something linked to child safety or disability-related obligations. For a small firm, the same principle can arise in simpler ways. If a charge is needed for the customer to receive the service as reasonably expected, it may be risky to present it as an optional add-on.
The second issue is price presentation. The CMA will also look at whether the family seat fee is being “dripped” during the booking process. Under consumer law, businesses must show the total price including unavoidable charges, rather than adding extra compulsory costs later. That matters for restaurants with booking fees, venues with service charges, trades with call-out costs, online shops with handling fees, and subscription firms with activation or cancellation charges.
The practical test is straightforward: can a customer understand the real price before they have invested time in the purchase? If the answer is no, the business may be creating avoidable friction as well as regulatory risk.
Small firms should not wait for a high-profile enforcement case to review their own checkout pages and sales journeys. Start with the charges that are easy to explain internally but may surprise a customer: admin fees, delivery surcharges, card or payment charges, seat or table reservations, installation costs, minimum order fees, compulsory insurance, packaging, returns deductions, and renewal terms.
Then ask whether each charge is truly optional. If a customer cannot realistically buy the advertised product or service without paying it, the safer approach is to include it in the headline price or make it prominent from the beginning. If the charge varies, explain the basis clearly before the customer commits. If it is optional, make the choice genuinely optional and avoid designs that steer people into paying without noticing.
Terms and conditions also deserve a plain-English check. A term may be legally drafted but still create problems if the overall effect is unbalanced or surprising. Customers should not have to decode small print to discover that a headline offer depends on a separate fee. The best small-business terms are boring in the right way: clear, predictable, and consistent with what the sales page appears to promise.
There is also a commercial reason to act. Hidden or late-stage charges often increase abandoned baskets, complaints, refund requests and negative reviews. Upfront pricing may feel harder because the headline number looks higher, but it can build trust and make comparison easier. For service firms in particular, clarity can be a competitive advantage when customers are already watching costs closely.
A simple review this week could help. Walk through your website or booking process as a new customer. Record the first price shown, every extra charge that appears, where it appears, and whether the customer can avoid it. Check that staff scripts, invoices, quotes and confirmation emails say the same thing. Where there is doubt, make the cost clearer earlier.
The CMA expects to update the Ryanair investigation within six months. Whatever the outcome, the direction of travel is clear: pricing that depends on late compulsory extras is becoming harder to defend. For SMEs, this is a good moment to clean up charges before a customer, competitor or regulator asks the question first.
Sources: CMA announcement on Ryanair family seating charges; CMA Ryanair consumer protection enforcement case page.
