The UK’s Digital Markets Bill: A Landmark Shift in Regulating Big Tech and Protecting Consumers

New UK Regulatory Powers

The Bill introduces a digital regulatory regime, enhanced powers for the Competition and Markets Authority and stronger consumer protection enforcement. The CMA will be able to act directly against companies that breach consumer law without going to court. It will also be able to impose fines of up to 10 per cent of global annual turnover and penalise companies that fail to comply with information requests or undertakings.

Digital Regulatory Regime

The CMA’s Digital Markets Unit will gain legislative powers to designate certain digital companies as having strategic market status. SMS firms are expected to include Google, Amazon, Microsoft, Meta and Apple due to their gatekeeper platforms, market capitalisation, revenue, global reach and user numbers.

These firms, valued collectively at approximately £5.6 trillion, benefit from network effects, economies of scale and vast quantities of consumer data. This gives them the ability to suppress competition. Recent enforcement actions, such as the European court’s €4.1 billion fine against Google and the European Commission’s probe into Amazon Marketplace, show growing international appetite for regulating Big Tech.

Anti‑Competitive Behaviour

SMS companies will be required to comply with a new enforceable code of conduct designed to prevent anti‑competitive behaviour. The regime will allow the CMA to intervene where an SMS firm’s dominance restricts competition, including issues relating to personal data access and interoperability.

The CMA will also gain early visibility of mergers that may harm competition. This prevents retrospective investigations such as the Meta and Giphy case. Under the proposed rules, the CMA will have jurisdiction over transactions where UK turnover exceeds £350 million or where one party holds at least 33 per cent of supply in a relevant market.

Consumer Law Enforcement

The Bill strengthens consumer protection law and targets harmful practices, particularly:

• fake reviews
• subscription contracts and auto‑renewals

Fake Reviews

Fake reviews have long been a focus of CMA investigations. Andrea Coscelli, former CMA Chief Executive, emphasised the harm misleading reviews cause to honest businesses and consumers. The CMA estimates that £23 billion of annual UK consumer spending may be influenced by online reviews.

Subscription Contracts and Auto‑Renewals

The Bill aims to prevent consumers from being locked into subscriptions through deceptive design. Companies will be required to provide clear information on minimum terms, cancellation notice periods, billing prices and cancellation processes.

An impact assessment by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy found that consumers spend up to £3.3 billion annually on subscriptions they consider poor value for money. Approximately £25 billion per year is spent on subscriptions in non‑regulated sectors.

Online Exploitation of Consumer Behaviour

Although the UK government has not expanded the scope of the Bill to include all forms of online manipulation, practices such as dark patterns, sludges and drip pricing remain under regulatory scrutiny. Companies should review their online choice architecture in anticipation of future rules.

In contrast, the EU Digital Services Act prohibits dark patterns outright, banning tools such as countdown timers or interface designs that mislead consumers.

Conclusion

The Digital Markets, Competition and Consumer Bill adopts an ex ante approach, signalling the UK’s intention to regulate digital markets proactively. While more flexible than the EU’s prescriptive legislation, the Bill still represents a major shift for companies operating in digital markets. It marks one of the most significant regulatory reforms of 2023 and sets the foundation for a fairer digital economy.