Dr Joseph Spooner was recently quoted by Wired in their article on the 'loyalty penalty', the findings of a Citizen's Advice Bureau survey on the the difference between what new and loyal consumers pay for the same service. The total cost to UK consumers, the CAB report concludes, is as much as £4 billion a year. Dr Spooner noted: "Firms can design contracts to minimise their exposure to costs - and to extract more from customers. We rely on regulators and trust in firms’ reasonableness in order for markets to work, but it seems that we are being let down.”