All Change to the UK’s Competition Law Regime

By: Sara Warner (Mills & Reeve)

After much anticipation, the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers (DMCC) Bill passed through the UK Parliament on May 23, 2024, and received Royal Assent the following day, becoming law. The Act is set to take effect in Autumn 2024.

Representing the most significant reform to UK competition and consumer protection laws in over 20 years, the DMCC Act introduces substantial changes in digital market regulation, merger control, competition law enforcement, and consumer protection. This briefing highlights key takeaways related to the first two points, relevant to a wide range of tech sector organizations.

About the digital markets regime: The Act establishes a pro-competitive regime for regulating digital markets, granting significant powers to the UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) and its new administrative function, the Digital Markets Unit (DMU). The DMU can designate firms with “substantial and entrenched market power” and strategic significance in digital activities linked to the UK as having Strategic Market Status (SMS). To be designated with SMS, a firm must have a group worldwide turnover exceeding £25 billion or a group UK turnover exceeding £1 billion…

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