The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has published its Strategy for 2026-2029, setting out its strategic objectives for the next few years.

Five objectives are identified:

1. Promoting effective competition

The Strategy highlights the CMA’s continuing work to implement the new digital markets competition regime, with the aim of supporting an “environment where all companies, large and small, can flourish”.

2. Championing consumers

The CMA promises to implement an “enhanced regime for consumer protection” by using its new powers to identify where consumer protection laws have been infringed and to sanction non-compliant businesses.

3. Helping government deploy tailored pro-competition interventions to support growth, innovation, and investment-related policies.

At what it describes as “a pivotal moment for the UK economy,” the CMA states that it “must be as much an enabler of competition as an enforcer” and pledges to remove anti-competitive regulation that hinders investment and growth.

4. Fostering a UK regulatory landscape that attracts investment and instils business confidence

The CMA identifies its ‘4 Ps’ approach as being central to achieving its aim of helping the UK attract investment and talent.

5. Prioritising UK interests

Finally, the Strategy states that the CMA will “consciously prioritise markets and issues that deliver the greatest positive impact for the UK’s economy, citizens and businesses, setting the UK on a path to a more stable and prosperous future”.

To achieve these objectives, the CMA points to its making “fundamental changes” to how it operates through its 4Ps framework, described as “the most significant transformation programme” since its inception. The Strategy also outlines how the CMA will monitor and report on the effectiveness of these changes over the coming years.

To read the Strategy in full, click here.