Experts appointed as UK looks to level digital playing field for consumers

23 Feb 2023 11:04 AM

Leaders from competition, academia and industry brought in to advise the CMA as it prepares for new powers to oversee digital markets

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has appointed specialists at the forefront of technological innovation, online competition and tackling the dominance of some of the world’s most powerful firms.

This comes as the CMA prepares to be given new powers by government to tackle problems in online markets more rapidly, and ensure consumers benefit from free and fair competition. This means, for example, being able to set targeted rules which the most powerful firms must follow, rather than tackling problems after the harm has already been done.

The experts advising the CMA are:

• Professor Annabelle Gawer - chaired Professor in Digital Economy and Director of the Centre of Digital Economy at Surrey Business School, University of Surrey
• Professor Anja Lambrecht - Professor of Marketing, London Business School
• Professor Neil Lawrence - DeepMind Professor of Machine Learning at the University of Cambridge, Senior AI Fellow at the Alan Turing Institute
• Geoffrey Myers - Visiting Professor in Practice at the London School of Economics and Political Science. Former Director of Competition Economics at Ofcom.
• Mark Nottingham - Expert in Internet standards, contributor to the Internet Engineering Task Force and Member of the Board of Directors for the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C).
• Professor Sir Nigel Shadbolt - Principal of Jesus College, Oxford and Professorial Research Fellow in the Department of Computer Science, University of Oxford. Chair of the Open Data Institute.
• Rod Sims AO - Professor, Crawford School of Public Policy, at the Australian National University. Former Chair of The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC).
• Dina Srinivasan – Researcher and lawyer. Fellow, Thurman Arnold Project, Yale University
• Dr Mahlet Zimeta – Data and technology policy expert, previously Head of Public Policy at the Open Data Institute and Senior Policy Adviser at the Royal Society

Will Hayter, Senior Director for the Digital Markets Unit at the CMA, said:

We’re working to ensure that UK consumers and businesses continue to enjoy the benefits of online innovation, which can only come from fair competition.

The online world moves fast and we need to ensure competition rules are not just fit for today – but are also capable of responding to future digital challenges.

That’s why we’re bringing in these leading experts, who can provide us with insight and advice, and I look forward to working with them and government as we continue to take action in digital markets and prepare for the new pro-competition regime.

More information on the appointed experts can be found on the CMA website.

Notes to editors

1. The nine experts bring independent insight and practical experience and will support the CMA in maintaining a detailed understanding of the dynamics and operation of digital markets. They have been appointed in an advisory capacity, for an initial two-year period with an expectation that they will support CMA teams for up to 20 days a year
2. The Chancellor confirmed in his autumn statement that the government will shortly introduce new legislation that will give the CMA new powers to deal with anti-competitive practices in digital markets.
3. For media enquiries, contact the CMA press office on 020 3738 6460 or press@cma.gov.uk.