On 28 November 2024, the Government published the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act commencement regulations, which will bring the DMCC Act into force on 1 January 2025. Happy New Year.

The regulations will bring into force key sections of the DMCC Act, Part 1 on Digital Markets, Part 2 on Competition and Chapters 1 (Competition in connection with motor fuel) and 2 (Provision of investigative assistance to overseas regulators) of Part 5 (Miscellaneous).

We can therefore expect the CMA to be lining up its SMS investigations to commence forthwith from New Year’s Day.

Hopefully that means the Secretary of State has or will sign off on the CMA Guidance sent to him on 5 November, which the CMA can then publish today (hopefully) so stakeholders and those impacted (let’s face it, almost everyone) can start preparing with a starting point for some legal certainty about the approach the CMA, through its Digital Markets Unit, will take. Although, we already have a pretty good idea, some degree of greater certainty is always nice.

Find out more here.

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