Digital Regulation
Competition and digital-markets regulation for firms designated, challenged or investigated under the UK and EU regimes
The Competition and Markets Authority now sets the terms on which the largest platforms trade, and other businesses must reach their customers on those terms. Under the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 the CMA may designate a firm with strategic market status and impose conduct requirements and pro-competition interventions on it. Gatekeepers are subject to a parallel regime under the EU Digital Markets Act. Bratby Law advises on 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 and has more than 30 years' experience in telecoms, competition and digital-markets regulation.
This work is for a telecoms, payments or data business that deals with a designated platform or is subject to the concurrent competition powers of Ofcom or the FCA; for a challenger that depends on access to a designated platform and wants the obligations enforced; for founders and investors who need the regulatory risk in a digital business priced before a deal; for the deal teams of large UK and US law firms who need CMA merger control and digital-markets risk assessed on a UK transaction, with us as co-counsel; and for a platform that needs the regime read against its own business. We concentrate on the points 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. Under Part 1 the Competition and Markets Authority may designate a firm with strategic market status in a digital activity and then impose conduct requirements and pro-competition interventions on it. Designated gatekeepers are bound by a separate regime, the EU Digital Markets Act.
Parliament created the strategic market status regime in Part 1 of the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024. The Competition and Markets Authority 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. Through conduct requirements the CMA sets enforceable rules of fair dealing, open choices and trust and transparency for the designated firm. Where the CMA finds an adverse effect on competition, it may require structural or behavioural change through a pro-competition intervention. Where a designated firm breaches a conduct requirement without reasonable excuse, the CMA may impose a civil penalty of up to ten per cent of its worldwide turnover, or of its group's worldwide turnover where it is part of a group.
Under the EU Digital Markets Act the European Commission designates gatekeepers that operate core platform services (Article 3), and a gatekeeper must meet self-executing obligations under Articles 5 to 7, which the European Commission enforces 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 the CMA and a sector regulator can both act on the same facts against a single digital practice.
The regime is in its opening phase. The CMA designated Google in general search services on 10 October 2025 and Apple and Google in their mobile platforms on 22 October 2025, and opened a strategic market status investigation into Microsoft's business software on 14 May 2026. 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. Any platform business now carries digital-markets regulation as a continuing regulatory risk alongside telecoms, data protection and payments.
Digital-markets advice
Designation for strategic market status, 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 each raise a separate question for a platform business and for the firms that deal with it.
Why digital regulation matters
The CMA now decides which platforms trade under supervision and on what terms. Once designated, a platform may have to change how it prices, ranks and contracts, and the CMA can require it to change a commercial term that took years to build. 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. A challenger can use the same regime to gain access to a platform that was closed to it. For an investor, digital-markets exposure now belongs in the diligence, priced as a live regulatory risk. A firm that operates under the UK and EU regimes without reconciling them pays the cost of both.
Perspectives on the regime
The platform, the advisor and the investor each see a different part of the regime.
The Platform's Perspective
A designated firm has to run its business under conduct requirements it did not write. It must comply without conceding more than the rule demands, and keep its commercial model intact while the CMA tests it. It has to read each conduct requirement against its actual product.
The Advisor's Perspective
In Rob Bratby's 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 can cap some revenue lines and open others, and a pro-competition intervention can force a change of business model during the holding period. An investor has to price that risk in a digital target, establish whether a designation would apply to it, and decide what that means for the deal.
We draw on all three in advising on the regime.
Our digital regulation credentials
Rob Bratby, Managing Partner of Bratby Law, is ranked Chambers UK Band 2 in Telecommunications and has more than 30 years' experience in telecoms, competition and digital-markets regulation, including a one-year secondment to Oftel and senior operator positions.
Rob Bratby, Managing Partner | Last updated: August 2026
Specialist boutique compared with a large firm
A digital-markets matter involves competition law, sector regulation, technology and commercial strategy together. Bratby Law adds that sector depth to a large firm’s competition or deal team, or advises the business directly.
| Feature | Bratby Law | Alongside a large firm | In-house only |
|---|---|---|---|
| Who does the work | Rob Bratby, Managing Partner, on every matter | Its team keeps conduct of the matter | Fixed internal capacity |
| Digital-markets depth | Competition law where it meets telecoms, data and payments | Its competition team, with our sector depth added | Depends on the hire |
| Response to designation | We read it against your product | Its resources, with our reading of the product | Stretched at peak |
| Cross-regime coverage | One advisor across CMA, Ofcom and FCA concurrency | One specialist on the regulatory points, reporting to the lead partner | Rarely all four regimes |
| Cost | Fixed fee for the initial review, then scoped by instruction | White-label or under our own name | 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)
Also see
Digital-markets regulation meets Telecoms Regulation, Data Protection, Payments Regulation and Transactions at several points. The engagement models are set out in How We Work, and current regulatory developments in Insights.
How we work
Bratby Law advises clients directly on specific matters as direct legal advisors, supports other legal teams as specialist co-counsel, and takes longer-term retained appointments as fractional general counsel. In each case a partner advises and signs off the work.
Designation, conduct requirements and Digital Markets Act compliance
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 the CMA may then impose conduct requirements and pro-competition interventions on that firm.
Does the EU Digital Markets Act apply to a UK business?
It can. A firm designated as a gatekeeper of a core platform service under Article 3 is bound by the Digital Markets Act, 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 choices 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. A designated firm follows conduct requirements day to day; an intervention changes its 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 regulators decide under the concurrency rules which of them 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. A single matter can therefore cross telecoms, data protection and payments regulation at once.
How we work
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 Communication and the UK Payments Initiative. Read more about the Fractional General Counsel model.
Our own use of AI in research and drafting is described on How we use AI.