The Digital Markets Competition & Consumer Act 2024 & Competition Law - The Latest Developments - Webinar

Introduction

The Digital Markets, Competition and Consumer Act 2024 (‘DMCC’ Act) finally received Royal Assent in May 2024, and the new Digital Competition regime and other competition law reforms came into force in January 2025.

This flagship piece of legislation introduced a new groundbreaking regime for the regulation of digital markets designed to curb the anti-competitive behaviour of ‘Big Tech’ and provide fast and effective remedies to those aggrieved by digital platforms’ offending conduct including private actions for damages. In addition, the Act implemented the first major competition law reforms since Brexit. In a radical set of measures, the Government updated the UK competition law regime to improve effectiveness and speed up enforcement.

The Act’s widespread reforms change the CMA’s market study and market inquiry regime, merger control thresholds and procedure, and introduce stronger Competition Act 1998 enforcement together with greater powers being invested in the Competition Appeal Tribunal. The Act’s consumer reforms are outside the scope of this webinar.

What You Will Learn

This webinar will cover the following:

• Digital Markets Competition regime and the establishment of Digital Markets Unit part of CMA - the new regulator
• Three main pillars of the new regime - Strategic Market Status, Conduct Requirements and the Strategic Market Status merger rules
• Procompetitive Interventions
• Examples of Early CMA enforcement
• Competition Law
• Reforms to CMA market study and investigation regime
• Updates to UK merger control regime; new acquirer focused merger thresholds, safe harbour for small mergers and revised merger thresholds
• Stronger Competition Act 1998 enforcement including increasing penalties on companies and directors as well as new investigative powers
• Greater powers for the Competition Appeal Tribunal
• More effective international cooperation with other regulators such as DG Comp and the DoJ/FTC

This pre-recorded webinar will be available to view from Wednesday 21st October 2026

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