DMCC Act: What are the key competition law reforms?

The long-awaited Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 (DMCC Act) will soon enter into force.  While the new UK digital regulatory regime for large tech firms with Strategic Market Stautus has attracted most of the headlines, the DMCC Act also introduces a number of important changes to the UK competition law regime.  Nuala Canavan and Richard Whish KC discuss the main changes to the competition law regime in this video.

The competition law reforms include broadening the geographic scope of the Chapter I prohibition against cartels and other anti-competitive agreements to better capture foreign arrangements causing harm in the UK.  Other reforms are intended to strengthen and modernise investigation powers, including the addition of “seize and sift” powers for dawn raids at domestic premises, higher penalties for failing to comply with information requests and a new duty to preserve documents relevant to investigations.