Watchdog warns funeral provider over ongoing breaches
Funeral services provider Harmony Group has come under scrutiny from the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) for ongoing breaches of the Funerals Market Investigation Order 2021.
This order, introduced by the CMA to reform the funeral industry, aimed to enhance transparency and ensure that customers, often vulnerable in times of grief, could make informed choices about funeral services and pricing.
Coventry-headquartered Harmony has been accused of breaching several requirements, such as failing to display a standardised price list, additional options price list and information on crematoria pricing on its website, alongside a disclosure of interests.
The Asian funerals directors, which have six funeral homes in Wolverhampton, Birmingham, Coventry, Leicester, Derby, Leamington & Warwick, have been engaging with the CMA since March 2023, but seventeen months later are still not compliant with the order.
The CMA has given the group three weeks from today (Oct 17) to take steps to become fully compliant to avoid further enforcement action.
After the order was introduced, the CMA said it notified Harmony on 8 March 2023, that it had failed to comply with several critical aspects.
In response, Harmony acknowledged the concerns and committed to making the necessary changes in a letter to the CMA dated 31 March 2023.
Despite assurances, the CMA’s follow-up communications revealed that Harmony still had not fully rectified its breaches. Letters were sent in July 2023 and April 2024, which outlined the remaining areas of non-compliance and requested further action.
Harmony did respond on 22 April 2024, stating that it had “made all the alterations that the CMA advised us to make” but upon review, the CMA found that while some steps had been taken—such as improvements in displaying the Standardised Price List and ownership information—important pricing details were still missing.
The provider was warned by the CMA on 27 September 2024 that it intended to issue a public statement concerning its continued non-compliance, Harmony replied three days later saying it had ‘made every effort to make sure we are in line with all your criteria listed’, but no changes were made.
A final communication attempt via phone on 8 October 2024 was made, but Harmony failed to provide a response.
The CMA said that after seventeen months, the business has not achieved full compliance, leaving customers without the clear pricing information they need to compare services effectively.
The Harmony Group has been contacted for comment with no immediate response.
