Digital Regulation
Competition and digital-markets regulation for firms designated, challenged or investigated under the new digital rulebook
Digital-markets regulation now decides how the largest platforms trade and how everyone else reaches their customers. The Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 gives the Competition and Markets Authority power to designate firms with strategic market status and to impose conduct requirements and pro-competition interventions on them. The EU Digital Markets Act imposes a parallel regime on gatekeepers. Bratby Law advises firms across the framework: strategic market status designation, conduct requirements, pro-competition interventions, Digital Markets Act compliance, the concurrent competition powers held by Ofcom and the Financial Conduct Authority, and merger control in digital markets. Rob Bratby leads every matter himself, with thirty years in telecoms, competition and digital-markets regulation behind the advice.
Instruct us if you run a platform facing designation, a conduct requirement or a pro-competition intervention and need the regime read precisely against your business. We act for challenger firms that depend on access to a designated platform and want the new obligations enforced, for founders and investors who need the regulatory risk in a digital business priced before a deal, and for City firms that need specialist digital-markets co-counsel alongside a wider competition or corporate instruction. The common thread is depth where competition law meets telecoms, data and payments, from the CMA's first strategic market status decisions to the divergence between the UK and EU regimes.
The regulatory framework
UK digital-markets regulation rests on the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024. It lets the Competition and Markets Authority designate a firm with strategic market status in a digital activity, then impose conduct requirements and pro-competition interventions. The EU Digital Markets Act binds designated gatekeepers under a separate regime.
The Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 created the strategic market status regime in Part 1. The Competition and Markets Authority, acting through the Digital Markets Unit, may designate a firm that holds substantial and entrenched market power and a position of strategic significance in a digital activity, subject to a turnover condition. Designation lasts five years and opens two tools. Conduct requirements set enforceable rules of fair dealing, open choice and trust and transparency on the designated firm. Pro-competition interventions require structural or behavioural change where the CMA finds an adverse effect on competition. The Act carries civil penalties of up to ten per cent of global turnover for breach of a conduct requirement.
The EU Digital Markets Act designates gatekeepers that operate core platform services under Article 3 and imposes self-executing obligations under Articles 5 to 7, enforced by the European Commission with fines of up to ten per cent of worldwide turnover. A UK business that supplies an EU core platform service can fall under both regimes at once. Alongside the digital rulebook, the Competition Act 1998 Chapter I and Chapter II prohibitions and the market investigation powers in the Enterprise Act 2002 continue to apply. Ofcom, the Financial Conduct Authority and the other sectoral regulators hold concurrent competition powers under the Competition (Concurrency) Regulations 2014, so a single digital practice can engage the CMA and a sector regulator on the same facts.
The regime is in its opening phase. The CMA has taken its first strategic market status decisions on mobile platforms and search, and is investigating business software. The EU is designating cloud services as core platform services while the UK holds back. The two regimes are already diverging on scope and remedy, and a firm that tries to comply with both at once has to reconcile them itself. Digital-markets regulation now stands with telecoms, data protection and payments as a standing regulatory risk for any platform business.
What we advise on
We advise across the digital-markets life cycle: strategic market status designation, conduct requirements, pro-competition interventions, EU Digital Markets Act compliance, the concurrent competition powers of the sector regulators, merger control in digital markets, and market investigations and enforcement.
SMS Designation and Conduct Requirements
The CMA can designate a firm with strategic market status and impose conduct requirements on how it deals with users and rivals. We advise designated and candidate firms on the designation test, representations and the conduct requirements that follow.
Pro-Competition Interventions
A pro-competition intervention can require a designated firm to change its structure or behaviour. We advise on the CMA's investigation, the evidence and remedies in play, and the response that protects a workable business model.
EU Digital Markets Act Compliance
Gatekeepers designated under Article 3 face self-executing obligations under Articles 5 to 7. We advise UK and international firms on gatekeeper status, compliance reports and the interaction with the UK strategic market status regime.
Concurrent Competition Powers
Ofcom, the FCA and the other sector regulators enforce the Competition Act 1998 alongside the CMA. We advise on which regulator holds a matter, how concurrency is resolved, and the overlap with sectoral rules.
Merger Control in Digital Markets
Digital mergers draw close scrutiny, including of acquisitions by firms with strategic market status. We advise on notification, the CMA's jurisdiction and the substantive theories of harm applied to platform deals.
Market Investigations and Studies
The Enterprise Act 2002 lets the CMA investigate whole markets and impose remedies. We advise firms responding to a market study or market investigation, from information requests to remedies.
Competition Enforcement and Litigation
Chapter I and Chapter II investigations, complaints and follow-on claims depend on the facts and the economics. We advise on enforcement exposure, settlement and the conduct of a competition investigation.
Why digital regulation matters
Digital-markets regulation decides which firms can trade freely and which trade under supervision. A strategic market status designation reshapes how a platform prices, ranks and contracts, and a conduct requirement can override a commercial term that took years to build. Firms that treat the regime as a compliance postscript rather than a design input lose the argument before it starts. The CMA and the European Commission are writing the rules of digital competition case by case, and the first decisions set the reference points for everything that follows. For a challenger, the same regime is an asset: it opens access to a platform that was closed. For an investor, digital-markets exposure now belongs in the diligence, priced as a live regulatory risk rather than a footnote. Firms that try to operate between the UK and EU regimes without reconciling them end up paying for both.
Our unique perspective on digital regulation
Bratby Law's digital regulation advice is anchored in three distinct perspectives.
The Platform's Perspective
A designated firm has to run its business under conduct requirements it did not write. The task is to comply without conceding more than the rule demands, and to keep the commercial model intact while the CMA tests it. We read each conduct requirement against the actual product and advise on the response that holds.
The Advisor's Perspective
In my view the strategic market status regime is the most consequential shift in UK competition law since the Enterprise Act 2002. It moves from prohibition after the fact to supervision in advance. A firm that engages early, on the designation test and the first conduct requirements, shapes the regime it will live under; a firm that waits inherits one written around it.
The Investor's Perspective
Digital-markets regulation changes the value of a platform asset. Designation caps some revenue lines and opens others, and a pro-competition intervention can reset a business model mid-hold. We advise investors on the regulatory risk in a digital target, how a designation would apply, and what it means for the deal.
This combination of platform, advisor and investor perspective gives clients access to practical, confident digital regulation advice grounded in how the CMA, the European Commission and digital businesses actually operate.
Our digital regulation credentials
Rob Bratby, Managing Partner, Bratby Law. Chambers UK Band 2 in Telecommunications. Legal 500 Leading UK Telecoms Partner. Thirty years in telecoms, competition and digital-markets regulation, including roles at Oftel and senior operator positions. In our experience advising telecoms operators, payments firms and platform businesses on where competition law meets sector regulation, the firms that do best treat the digital rulebook as an operating constraint from the first product decision, not a matter for outside counsel after designation.
Rob Bratby, Managing Partner | Last updated: July 2026
Why a specialist boutique?
Digital-markets regulation sits at the intersection of competition law, sector regulation, technology and commercial strategy. Depth in all four is rare in a large generalist practice.
| Feature | Bratby Law | Large firm | In-house only |
|---|---|---|---|
| Who does the work | Rob Bratby, Managing Partner, on every matter | Associates, partner-supervised | Fixed internal capacity |
| Digital-markets depth | Competition law where it meets telecoms, data and payments | Broad competition team, less sector overlap | Depends on the hire |
| Response to designation | Read against your product, not a template | Precedent-led, resourced | Stretched at peak |
| Cross-regime reach | One adviser across CMA, Ofcom and FCA concurrency | Separate teams, separate bills | Rarely all four regimes |
| Cost | Partner rate, no pyramid markup | Associate pyramid billing | Salaried, capacity-bound |
Recent insights on digital regulation
- CMA steering conduct requirements: the price of access to Apple and Google's mobile platforms (1 July 2026)
- DSA hosting exemption after WebGroup and Coyote: where is the line? (28 June 2026)
- DMA cloud gatekeeper designation: the EU acts as the UK holds back (26 June 2026)
- Microsoft SMS investigation: the CMA turns to business software (24 June 2026)
- Google search conduct requirements: the CMA's SMS regime in action (19 June 2026)
- Concurrent competition powers: who enforces competition law in regulated sectors (4 June 2026)
How we work
Bratby Law works with clients in three ways: as direct legal advisors on specific matters, as specialist co-counsel supporting other legal teams, and as fractional general counsel on a longer-term retained basis. Each model delivers partner-level input without delegation.
Facing designation, a conduct requirement or a Digital Markets Act question?
Frequently asked questions about digital regulation
What is strategic market status under the DMCC Act 2024?
Strategic market status is a designation the Competition and Markets Authority can apply to a firm with substantial and entrenched market power and a position of strategic significance in a digital activity, above a turnover threshold. Designation lasts five years and lets the CMA impose conduct requirements and pro-competition interventions on that firm.
Does the EU Digital Markets Act apply to a UK business?
It can. The Digital Markets Act binds a firm designated as a gatekeeper of a core platform service under Article 3, wherever it is based, if it provides that service to business and end users in the EU. A UK platform that meets the thresholds falls under the EU regime as well as the UK strategic market status regime, and has to comply with both.
What is the difference between a conduct requirement and a pro-competition intervention?
A conduct requirement is a standing rule of fair dealing, open choice or transparency that the CMA sets for a designated firm. A pro-competition intervention is a targeted remedy, structural or behavioural, that the CMA imposes after finding an adverse effect on competition. Conduct requirements govern day-to-day behaviour; interventions change the underlying position.
What are concurrent competition powers?
Ofcom, the Financial Conduct Authority, Ofgem and the other sector regulators hold the same Competition Act 1998 enforcement powers as the CMA within their sectors, under the Competition (Concurrency) Regulations 2014. A single set of facts in a regulated digital market can engage a sector regulator and the CMA at once, and the concurrency rules decide who leads.
Is AI regulation part of digital regulation?
No. Bratby Law treats AI as a data protection matter, framed as data protection for AI-enabled products, and advises on it within the Data Protection practice. Digital regulation here means competition and digital-markets regulation: strategic market status, the Digital Markets Act and concurrent competition powers.
How does digital-markets regulation interact with telecoms, data and payments?
Closely. A conduct requirement on a platform can depend on how it handles personal data, a concurrency question can put Ofcom or the FCA in the lead, and a digital merger can raise both competition and sectoral issues. We advise where the digital rulebook meets telecoms, data protection and payments regulation.
How we work
Bratby Law is built for depth, not scale. Rob Bratby leads every matter himself. The firm acts through three engagement models: direct legal advice, specialist co-counsel to another firm, and fractional general counsel on a longer-term retained basis.
Rob Bratby currently holds Fractional General Counsel appointments at TOTSCo, TelXL, Core and the UK Payments Initiative. Read more about the Fractional General Counsel model.