After the shake-up, is the CMA still a watchdog with teeth?
Those of us who have regulators’ email alerts switched on were familiar with the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) as an active regulator, but that didn’t align with the Labour government’s agenda.
The CMA is the UK’s main competition and consumer protection authority, wearing several hats, including investigating mergers and taking action to protect consumers from unfair trading practices.
Since its establishment in 2014, the CMA has developed a reputation as an aggressive and proactive regulator, particularly in recent years due to its post-Brexit independence.
The body launched several probes into US tech giants. In 2022, it launched a consumer protection investigation into Facebook (now Meta) over concerns that it was using data from other businesses to unfairly compete with them.
The following year, the body launched an investigation into the house building sector amid concerns that developers were not delivering homes at an adequate pace or scale.
The body handed out hefty fines to big businesses. For competition law breaches, pharmaceutical companies Pfizer and Flynn Pharma were fined £70m in 2022, a fine that is currently under appeal.
While for procedural breaches, Facebook was handed a £50.5m in 2021, for failing to comply with an Initial Enforcement Order during its acquisition of Giphy
However, the British body found itself in the spotlight in 2023 after it blocked Microsoft’s $70bn bid for the video game publisher, Activision Blizzard. Speaking at the time, Microsoft’s President Brad Smith described the move as “bad for Britain”, while Activision said “the UK is clearly closed for business”.
The CMA’s then Chair Marcus Bokkerink, while grilled by MPs, defended the decision by saying “it’s our duty to be vigilant”. The CMA eventually granted the merger in October 2023.
The CMA’s actions made businesses more cautious about pursuing mergers and kept lawyers occupied, both advising clients and litigating challenges and follow-on cases before the Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT).
Political landscape whiplash
Months after Labour was elected into power, it was reported that Prime Minister Keir Starmer was urging the CMA to do more to prioritise economic growth in its ‘pro-business’ push.
In January of this year, Starmer, writing for The Times, vowed to deregulate Britain and cut through “thickets of red tape” in a promise to boost growth.
And by the end of that month, news broke that Bokkerink had been sacked as chairman of the CMA. His shocking departure was described as the “most overtly political” regulatory intervention of recent years.
While lawyers at the time said the move sent “a clear message” to regulators that the government wants to reduce regulatory barriers to investment.
Former Amazon executive Doug Gurr was appointed as the new chair.
The government said its number one priority is economic growth and stated that the CMA has a key role to play in supporting that, including promoting dynamic markets and supporting productivity and innovation.
What’s happening now?
So what is happening with the CMA post-chair outage drama? It is notably quieter in terms of alerts received from the body. Jessica Radke, senior counsel at Linklaters, told City PM: “Overall, there appears to be fewer open investigations than previously.”
“They appear to still have a healthy roster of Phase 1 mergers, and they are delivering outcomes quickly. However, they closed quite a few CA98 investigations in the past year and don’t appear to have opened an equivalent number,” she explained.
Neil Baylis, partner at CMS, added: “The CMA has taken a lighter touch in relation to opening fewer investigations and closing several ongoing investigations.”
The probes haven’t come to a complete stop. The regulator swiftly approved the Aviva and Direct Line merger after launching an investigation, looked into Ticketmaster’s sale of Oasis tickets, and opened three separate investigations into Google and Apple under its new Strategic Market Status (SMS) regime.
The Digital Markets Competition and Consumers Act 2024 (DMCC), which grants the CMA greater powers than ever to enforce consumer law, regulate big tech, and exercise enhanced investigatory powers, came into force on 6 April 2025.
Baylis sees the CMA seeking to prioritise work on digital markets and consumer enforcement.
Sharon Malhi, partner at Freshfields, noted that as a result of the DMCC, the body “is evolving”.
“With powerful new tools and a sharper focus on high-growth sectors, we are likely to see more targeted and strategic antitrust and M&A investigations,” Malhi added.
The City will be watching and waiting to see what happens with the CMA, as there are many questions being raised about what it will prioritise from now on.
Radke questioned: “Has there been a shift permanently away from Abuse of Dominance Cases in the competition sphere? Will the CMA continue to be muscular in its interventions into private actions or will they take a step back?”
Going from 100 to zero, to the point where the City can feel the whiplash, has left businesses in a bit of a limbo as they, too, try to figure out, via their lawyers, what is on the CMA’s future agenda.
Baylis stated that, “Clients remain nervous about the potential for dawn raids and for individuals to be interviewed and have domestic premises searched.”
“Businesses are keen to understand how these shifts will play out in practice, and to what extent the CMA will focus on enhancing timely and substantive business engagement to support investment and predictability,” Malhi added.
In a recent annual report, CMA’s Gurr said: “We’re continuing to deliver on our fundamentals. We can’t support growth and prosperity for all without driving forward our independent work to protect UK consumers and promote competition.”
Eyes on the Law is a weekly column by Maria Ward-Brennan focused on the legal sector.