United Kingdom: Adopted Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Bill including consumer protection authority governance

On 23 May 2024, the Merger Control and Antitrust Rules in Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Bill was adopted by the United Kingdom Parliament. The Bill gives new powers to the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) and its Digital Markets Unit to promote and address anti-competitive practices in digital markets. In particular, the Bill changes the competition framework to allow streamlined decision-making regarding mergers and fine thresholds. Furthermore, the Bill gives the CMA additional powers, enabling it to issue sanctions to entities that fail to comply with investigations and remedies. Finally, the Bill includes provisions that allow CMA to cooperate with competition authorities from other jurisdictions and disclose information related to domestic investigations.