UK CMA outlines digital markets regime focus on competition and proportionality

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UK CMA digital markets regime

Highlights

The CMA's digital markets regime, outlined in Will Hayter's speech, prioritizes competition and consumer protection to drive UK growth in the 2026–2029 strategy.
The CMA highlights that digital platform conduct affects hundreds of thousands of UK businesses, including app developers, advertisers, fintech, and cloud service users.
The CMA emphasizes its interventions will be effective, proportional, and procedurally fair to balance rapid outcomes with robust evidence and a fair hearing for large tech firms.

Strategy and purpose for digital markets oversight

As set out in a speech published on GOV.UK by Will Hayter, the CMA’s Executive Director for Digital Markets, the authority frames its work around protecting consumers and promoting competition to drive growth and household prosperity.

Hayter says the regime is meant to support both UK consumers and companies, especially businesses that rely on digital platforms for advertising, traffic, software distribution, cloud services and customer access. He argues that competition often delivers innovation and reasonable terms on its own, but that intervention becomes necessary when market power limits choice, holds back innovation or weakens fair pricing and conditions.

The speech links that approach to the CMA’s 2026 to 2029 strategy, which presents competition and consumer protection as mutually reinforcing goals. Hayter says the authority wants companies operating in the UK, particularly domestic businesses, to have the confidence to invest and grow when markets are not functioning effectively.

Implications for big tech and the wider UK economy

Hayter says the economic importance of digital platforms means their conduct affects hundreds of thousands of businesses across the UK, from start-ups to large companies. He cites app developers, advertisers, fintech innovators, website owners, connected device manufacturers and public and corporate cloud customers as examples of groups that depend on major platforms every day.

At the same time, he stresses that supporting UK businesses and consumers does not mean disregarding the interests of large technology companies. The speech says those firms are making exceptional investments in services that continue to evolve, and that the CMA wants them to keep investing and innovating while ensuring others can compete as well.

Hayter also says the legal framework requires any intervention to be effective and proportionate, with checks and balances designed to ensure evidence is reviewed properly and firms receive a fair hearing. While acknowledging that stakeholders often want quicker outcomes, he argues that this combination of speed, procedural fairness and proportionality makes the UK’s digital markets competition regime robust and agile.

In our earlier article on the CMA’s proposed changes to Apple and Google app store rules, we described plans to let UK developers steer users to alternative payment methods and to push for fairer, lower fees than current app store commissions. We also noted the CMA was considering requiring Apple to open access to its NFC technology, potentially enabling more competition in contactless payments on iOS.

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