Digital Markets Expert advice and Market Studies
In 2018, the Government established a Digital Competition Expert Panel (the "Panel") to examine competition in digital markets. The Panel issued its final report in March 2019, which recommended the establishment of a digital markets unit equipped with tools and frameworks to support greater competition in digital markets.3 In March 2020, the Government announced it would accept all six of the report’s strategic recommendations4 and committed to establishing a cross-regulator Digital Markets Taskforce to provide advice on the design and implementation of a competition regime for digital markets. In December 2020, the Digital Markets Taskforce recommended that the Government set up a digital markets unit with powers to designate an undertaking with Strategic Market Status, and that designated undertakings be subject to additional merger control requirements.5
	The CMA agreed with the Panel’s recommendation to launch a market study into online platforms and digital advertising. This Market Study was launched in July 2019 and the final report was published in July 2020.6 The report identified several characteristics of digital markets which can cause them to tip in favour of a small number of firms, including network effects and economies of scale which can act as a barrier to market entry, unequal access to user data, platforms’ control over default settings and a lack of transparency around complex decision-making algorithms. In November 2020, the Government responded to the Market Study and committed to establishing and resourcing a new Digital Markets Unit within the CMA from April 2021 to oversee a regime designed to increase competition in digital markets.7
	The CMA launched a second Market Study in June 2021 into mobile ecosystems in the UK. Its report found that Apple and Google have "substantial and entrenched market power" in mobile operating systems.8 The report emphasised the CMA’s support for the Government’s proposals to give it new powers to address competition issues in digital markets. In June 2022, the CMA announced a Market Investigation into mobile browsers and cloud gaming.