The UK Government has published its long-awaited Digital Markets, Competition and Consumer Bill, including a wide-ranging and far-reaching set of reforms to UK competition and consumer law, along with a new regulatory regime for digital markets.
The publication of the bill follows the UK Government’s response to its consultations in April-May 2022 (see previous blog posts here and here), in which it recommended legislation implementing the digital markets regulatory regime and various changes to UK competition and consumer law. The Queen’s Speech in May 2022 only included reference to a draft Bill being published in the future, which provoked criticism and calls for the Government to prioritise commencing the legislative process.
Those calls have now been answered. Notably, the Bill put forward is not a ‘draft’ bill, and will now proceed directly through the parliamentary process, including debate in the House of Commons and House of Lords. The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has welcomed the Bill, stating it “has the potential to be a watershed moment in the way we protect consumers in the UK and the way we ensure digital markets work for the UK economy”.
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