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Digital Markets Taskforce

Question for Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport

UIN 128960, tabled on 14 December 2020

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, when the Digital Markets Taskforce will advise his Department on the methodology for determining what companies should be designated as having strategic market status.

Answered on

18 December 2020

Government recently announced it will establish a new, pro-competition regime for digital markets. As part of this, it will set up a new Digital Markets Unit (DMU), housed in the Competition and Markets Authority.

To inform the design and implementation of the new pro-competition regime, we established the Digital Markets Taskforce. On 8 December, the Taskforce published its advice to Government, including on the DMU’s powers, the process for designating firms with strategic market status, and the code of conduct which such firms must follow. Government is carefully considering the Taskforce’s advice.

We will consult on the form and function of the DMU in early 2021, and legislate to put it on a statutory footing as soon as parliamentary time allows.