The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has published a consultation on its draft Annual Plan for 2026-2027.

The Plan echoes many of the themes that emerged from the CMA’s 2026-2029 Strategy published last year (commented upon here), which set out five strategic objectives of: (1) promoting effective competition; (2) championing consumers; (3) helping government deploy tailored pro-competition interventions to support growth, innovation, and investment-related policies; (4) fostering a UK regulatory landscape that attracts investment and instils business confidence; and (5) prioritising UK interests.

The Plan sets out in more detail how the CMA intends to achieve these objectives in the year ahead. In the area of consumer protection, for example, the CMA commits itself to taking enforcement action against aggressive sales practices, providing false information to consumers, hiding fees until late in the purchase process, and including “clearly unbalanced and unfair” contract terms. It also notes that, whilst it has already launched investigations focussing on price transparency and misleading online choice architecture, it will continue to use advisory letters to put businesses on notice that they might be at risk of enforcement and to “drive behavioural change”.

Alongside more general plans for competition enforcement, advocacy, and markets work, the CMA provides additional detail on its intended approach to the Digital Markets Competition Regime. In particular, it identifies its areas of focus for search and mobile platforms. For search services, this includes ‘choice screens’ which allow people easily to switch between search services, publisher controls, fair ranking principles, and data portability. As for mobile platforms, the CMA will not only focus on Apple and Google’s respective roles in app distribution, but also examine Apple’s interoperability so that app developers “have access to the functionality they need to innovate and compete”.

Further sections outline, again in general terms, the CMA’s approach to international cooperation, stakeholder engagement, merger control, and its internal operations.

The consultation invites views on the CMA’s proposed priorities and how it can effectively engage with stakeholders over the course of the year. To read it in full, click here.