United Kingdom: Closed consultation regarding objectives and powers of Digital Markets Unit

On 1 October 2021, the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport (DCMS) and the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS) closed the consultation entitled "A new pro-competition regime for digital markets", regarding the objectives of the new Digital Markets Unit within the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA). The consultation was opened on 20 July 2021. The consultation aims to gather information on the scope, approach, duty and objectives for the new Digital Markets Unit. More specifically, relevant firms (firms with "strategic market status") are identified and regulated in a way to increase competition in the digital market. Possible reforms include an obligatory code of conduct for large technology companies (i.e. to regulate their "strategic market status" or limit their ability to impose terms on news publishers and monetise their content) as well as the introduction of pro-competitive interventions. Finally, the power of the Digital Markets Unit is assessed, to ensure that it will be able to enforce its power in the dynamic and fast-moving digital markets, including fines of up to 10% of turnover. The Digital Markets Unit is already a non-statutory part of the CMA.