Four UK regulators have told companies that “the AI did it” will not work as an excuse. If an AI agent breaks consumer law while acting for you, the firm that deployed it is on the hook, and the competition watchdog alone can fine a company up to 10% of its global turnover.
The warning comes in a joint statement from the Digital Regulation Cooperation Forum, published on 30 October. The forum brings together the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) and the media regulator Ofcom.
Its subject is personal AI agents. These are assistants that do tasks for you rather than just answer questions: booking things, searching, sending emails, managing expenses or making purchases. Tools like OpenAI’s Dot agent in ChatGPT already work this way.
What the regulators said
The four bodies said they want “to be explicit that existing legal and regulatory frameworks apply to personal AI agents”. That covers competition, consumer and data protection law, online safety, financial services, payments and cyber security rules.
The key line is about blame. “An AI agent’s autonomy does not diminish the responsibility of organisations that deploy it to comply with applicable law and relevant regulation,” the statement says. “Where we identify conduct that we reasonably suspect breaches the law and risks harm to consumers or businesses, we will not hesitate to use our powers.”
The regulators named the risks they have in mind: fraud and scams, personal data being shared in ways users don’t expect, and misleading recommendations or decisions. They said they are working with the government to find gaps in the rules, as law firm Burges Salmon summarised.
The number behind the warning
The threat has teeth because of a law that took effect in April 2025. Under it, the CMA can decide for itself that consumer law was broken, without going to court, and fine a company up to 10% of its global turnover. The statement sets out no new rules or fines of its own.
The CMA had already published guidance on agentic AI and consumers in March, and updated that page to point to the new statement.
The timing matters. Big US stores and banks are already blocking outside AI shopping agents, citing security. The UK message is aimed at the other side of that fight: companies that let agents loose on customers’ behalf.
Why it matters
If an AI agent buys the wrong thing, leaks your data or steers you to a worse deal, UK regulators say the company behind it is responsible. That gives British users a clearer route to complain, before any agent-specific law exists.
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