The keynote speech at the BIICL Tech Antitrust Roundtable 2024 highlighted the significance of competition in promoting economic growth and stability in the UK, focusing on industries like clean tech, renewables, telecoms, and digital markets.

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) plays a crucial role in ensuring competitive markets, addressing unfair practices, and benefiting consumers and the economy. Advisors should be aware of the CMA's focus on digital markets and artificial intelligence, which raise important questions about market power and societal impact.

Competition policy aims to drive growth, productivity, wage growth, consumer confidence, and innovation, fostering investor confidence, market integrity, and diversity. The CMA prioritizes sustainable growth, emphasizing the positive outcomes of competition in critical sectors like infrastructure and digital services.

The CMA is actively using its enforcement powers to tackle illegal practices in public sector procurement, engaging with the business community to understand barriers to investment, and implementing Phase 2 merger reforms to enhance transparency and efficiency.

The new digital markets competition regime effective in January 2025 aims to address harms in digital markets while promoting growth and innovation, with a focus on driving growth without hindering investment. Advisors should monitor substantial market power evidence to prioritize investigations and foster innovation in the digital sector.

The CMA is actively involved in monitoring the AI market to ensure fair competition, unlock opportunities for UK businesses and consumers, and address potential risks related to market control, exploitation, and reinforcing power through partnerships.

The CMA has outlined principles to guide AI markets, considering competition impacts through various tools and scrutinizing merger control in the AI ecosystem. Advisors should stay informed about these developments to assist businesses in navigating the evolving AI landscape.

The CMA's efficient review of merger cases, transparent decision-making process, and international cooperation are crucial aspects for advisors to consider in navigating merger control processes and understanding the evolving digital and AI sectors.