Retailers will be banned from fleecing customers with credit card surcharges and premium- rate phone lines in the largest shake-up of consumer rights in a generation. Those who buy from pushy door-to-door salesmen will be given the right to cancel any purchases within 14 days – doubling the current cooling-off period. Under plans to be unveiled on Monday, airlines and other retailers that hit customers with credit card charges after they have filled in pages of information online will be banned from doing so. In addition, anyone who calls a firm to discuss an existing order must be allowed to use a basic-rate phone line. The move will put an end to the practice of companies charging premium prices for complaint hotlines and ripping them off twice over.

In a further defence of consumer rights, retailers will be barred from trying to trick customers into buying extras such as travel insurance when they shop online. Websites will be prevented from automatically ticking boxes for such items, meaning customers will have to opt-in for the charges....Read more here