, the Chair of
the Lords Communications and Digital Committee, has welcomed a
commitment by the CMA to take more action on digital competition
issues whilst they await further powers. This came in a letter
from the Chief Executive of the CMA, Dr Andrea Coscelli, to the
Chair published today.
In February, the Committee urged the CMA to utilise the powers
already at their disposal to tackle anti-competitive practices in
digital markets and not wait for new legislation to put the
Digital Markets Unit (DMU) on a statutory footing,
On 11 March the CMA announced it was launching an antitrust
investigation into Jedi Blue - the name given to the
agreement between Alphabet and Meta on their online display ad
business.
, chair of the
Committee, commented:
“We look forward to further enforcement actions from the CMA to
rogue practices in the digital markets being announced in the
coming months. The CMA should not wait for the legislation that
will put the DMU on a statutory footing to use the powers already
at its disposal to tackle digital competition issues.
“That being said, it has long been acknowledged that the CMA’s
existing powers are not adequate for regulating competition in
the digital world – and the establishment of the DMU on a
statutory footing is an urgent necessity and should be a
legislative priority for the Government. As the CMA highlight,
and as the Committee has made clear to the Government, the EU is
making progress in this area and where the UK was world-leading
it now risks falling behind. I hope recent media reports
that the necessary legislation will not be in the next Queen’s
Speech are proved to be wrong.”
