Recent Developments at the CMA: 2019–2020

Abstract

We discuss three important cases that the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has completed over the past year: First, the coronavirus pandemic has had implications for a wide range of the CMA’s work; we describe the work on price gouging conducted by the CMA’s Covid-19 taskforce and respond to the argument that competition authorities should not be concerned about such behaviour. Second, a number of high-profile studies have considered the appropriate application of competition policy in digital industries. The second two cases—the Online Platforms and Digital Advertising market study, and the Google/Looker merger—show the work the CMA has continued to do in this area.