The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has published updated guidance on its approach to the markets regime.

The new guidance follows a consultation last year (on which we commented here) and brings together a range of existing resources into a single document that comprehensively sets out the CMA’s approaches to market reviews, studies, and investigations.

However, the guidance is not just an exercise in consolidation: it also introduces important new material to reflect the passage of the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 (DMCCA) and the introduction of the CMA’s ‘4Ps’ framework.

For example, it provides details of new procedural steps that will be introduced to make the CMA’s processes more efficient. This includes a new ‘Project Roadmap’, to be published on the launch of a market review, which will be a “short, accessible document targeted at the stakeholders affected by [the CMA’s] work to explain the key staging points of the project”. There will also be ‘state of play’ meetings at the end of the evidence gathering phase, which will provide the opportunity to take stock and assess whether to continue, amend, or remove any areas of analysis, as well as to keep the relevant parties informed as to the CMA’s progress.

The greater engagement of parties at an earlier stage is something that has been a particular focus for the CMA and is reflected in the guidance. As the CMA has put it, “enhanced and earlier engagement with parties will support a participative approach to our markets work, provide parties with greater predictability on next steps, and greater visibility on possible concerns at an earlier stage of markets work”. The guidance also confirms that sector experts may be brought in at an early stage to help the CMA “develop [its] understanding of the market at pace, allowing [it] to move more quickly to assessing and addressing concerns in the market”.

Finally, on the matter of remedies, the guidance provides more information about remedy trials and reviews, and confirms that the CMA will adopt ‘sunset clauses’ as a default, specifying when an individual measure will cease to have effect, whether by reference to a specific date or a particular event.

To read the guidance in full, click here.