CMA sets out plan to help people, businesses, and the economy as it approaches 10th year in action

14 Mar 2024 01:37 PM

After extensive engagement, the CMA has published its Annual Plan for 2024 to 2025.

The CMA’s 2022 to 2023 Annual Plan introduced a new multi-year strategy, amidst ongoing volatility and uncertainty in the economic, geopolitical, and technological environment. Our long-term strategy is anchored on delivering positive impact for people, businesses, and UK economy, while ensuring the CMA has the capabilities and expertise required of a 21st century competition and consumer protection authority.

The Annual Plan 2024 to 2025 builds on this strategy, following consultation with over 70 diverse businesses and organisations across England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland. In particular, the Annual Plan updates the CMA’s near-term Areas of Focus for the next 12 months, as it takes on new responsibilities under the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers (DMCC) Bill, expected to receive Royal Assent in April 2024.

The bill will strengthen the CMA’s ability to foster competition, innovation, and growth in digital markets and to protect consumers from harm. The CMA stands ready to make full use of its enhanced tools when the legislation comes into force.

For 2024 to 2025, CMA’s Areas of Focus include:

• acting in areas of essential spending and where people are under particular financial pressure, such as accommodation, caring for ourselves and others, and travel
• broadening our work to protect consumers from harmful practices in online choice architecture and misleading pricing
• enabling innovating businesses to access digital markets such as cloud services, e-commerce, and digital advertising
• encouraging effective competition and consumer protection in emergent markets, including the development and deployment of AI foundation models
• acting in existing and emergent markets for sustainable products and services, including through broadening our green claims work, encouraging competitive markets for climate technology, and implementing our Green Agreements Guidance
• identifying and acting in areas where we can influence the pro-competitive development of markets and have the most positive impact on innovation, growth and productivity, and promoting resilience through competition

Marcus Bokkerink, Chair of the CMA, said:

As we move into our 10th year, our determination to deliver positive outcomes for people, businesses, and the economy is stronger than ever. This is clear in our Annual Plan, which sees us continue to act in areas that really matter to people and businesses – from essentials like housing, groceries and road fuels, to rapidly changing technology-driven markets like AI and cloud services.

Getting out and speaking with people and businesses about what’s affecting them in the here and now, and the opportunities they see in the future, has been a core input to the CMA’s strategy. That’s why we’ve been engaging with a broad range of stakeholders across the UK as part of the Annual Plan consultation and during our day-to-day operations. The ideas and feedback we get from the people and businesses we serve is incredibly valuable.

Sarah Cardell, Chief Executive of the CMA, said:

The coming year will be a unique one in the CMA’s history as we reach our ten-year anniversary. We expect to take on new powers as part of the DMCC Bill, enabling us to inject much needed competition into digital markets and to protect consumers more effectively than ever before. We have been preparing for several years to make sure we can hit the ground running and we are more committed than ever to making a real impact for people, businesses, and the UK economy across all areas of our work.