Communications and Digital Committee
Tuesday 20th October 2026
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14:02
Baroness Keeley
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Baroness Keeley
Good afternoon. I'd like to welcome everyone to this meeting of the Communications and Digital Committee. Today we are revisiting a long strand of work for the committee by examining the regulation of digital markets. Last January, a new regime for managing competition issues in the UK in UK digital markets came into effect, giving the Competition and Markets Authority a substantial suite of powers. New powers serum will. You gave evidence to the committee at around that time, and I'm very pleased to welcome you back today to give us an update on progress. So thank you for joining us.
I think given the flurry of announcements that we've seen over the recent days, I think it would be good if we start there. So on those announcements you've made made in the last few days relating to investigations under the digital markets competition regime, could you actually start by talking us through the key points of what you've announced?
I think given the flurry of announcements that we've seen over the recent days, I think it would be good if we start there. So on those announcements you've made made in the last few days relating to investigations under the digital markets competition regime, could you actually start by talking us through the key points of what you've announced?
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Speaker 2
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Speaker 2
Thank you. So as you say, two two announcements in recent days as part of the building momentum and delivery on the regime as a whole through the autumn, I'll take them in order. Last Friday, we announced three related steps, the first of which was that we proposed to designate Microsoft with strategic market status in relation to its business software ecosystem. Those are five services included in that proposed designation. They are services used by over a million customers in the public and private sectors in the UK, and around around 20 million end users. Second, we then published a company that an indicative roadmap explaining those areas that we want to look at further to work out whether there are potential interventions that might be needed, subject, of course, to the final designation decision.
Any such interventions would be intended to get better outcomes for UK customers in the public and private sectors. And then third accompanying that, we gave an update on the engagement we've had in recent months with Amazon and Microsoft, through which we've been looking to reduce barriers to switching and to multi-cloud. The headline update there was good, good progress so far. Concrete steps, removing data transfer charges for switching and reducing those charges for multi-cloud, and then also having processes in place for supporting interoperability requests, as well as rolling out products to connect their data centres directly to further support multi-cloud and the ease of switching.
Good progress, but more to be done. The firms need to continue to deliver on the steps they've promised, and we identified with them two further areas to look at, which are security across clouds and reducing friction so that applications built for portability can indeed deliver that portability. And this is this is a progress update with a further review from our board in the spring. So that was last Friday. Then today we've announced that we're consulting on a proposed conduct requirement on on Apple to require access to the NFC, NFC technology on iPhones on fair and effective terms.
Now, contactless technology widely used in the UK, both for payments but also beyond into things like ID or physical access management to buildings and cars and so forth. And recent research shows that about 60% of adults use a digital wallet in the UK at the moment, Apple does provide NFC access, but we have heard widespread concerns from UK businesses that the terms on which it provides that access are not commercially viable, and the particular concerns are that the fees and other terms are too onerous, and also that the technical standards across platforms and across countries can make it difficult for competitors and developers to build and and to compete.
So the requirement we're proposing aims to address two main barriers first, providing access on both the main technical standards to support payment and non payment use cases. And then second, making sure that fees and other terms allow viable businesses to develop in the round. We expect this to support growth in a key UK sector fintech as well as more broadly in terms of choice in innovation for consumers to.
Any such interventions would be intended to get better outcomes for UK customers in the public and private sectors. And then third accompanying that, we gave an update on the engagement we've had in recent months with Amazon and Microsoft, through which we've been looking to reduce barriers to switching and to multi-cloud. The headline update there was good, good progress so far. Concrete steps, removing data transfer charges for switching and reducing those charges for multi-cloud, and then also having processes in place for supporting interoperability requests, as well as rolling out products to connect their data centres directly to further support multi-cloud and the ease of switching.
Good progress, but more to be done. The firms need to continue to deliver on the steps they've promised, and we identified with them two further areas to look at, which are security across clouds and reducing friction so that applications built for portability can indeed deliver that portability. And this is this is a progress update with a further review from our board in the spring. So that was last Friday. Then today we've announced that we're consulting on a proposed conduct requirement on on Apple to require access to the NFC, NFC technology on iPhones on fair and effective terms.
Now, contactless technology widely used in the UK, both for payments but also beyond into things like ID or physical access management to buildings and cars and so forth. And recent research shows that about 60% of adults use a digital wallet in the UK at the moment, Apple does provide NFC access, but we have heard widespread concerns from UK businesses that the terms on which it provides that access are not commercially viable, and the particular concerns are that the fees and other terms are too onerous, and also that the technical standards across platforms and across countries can make it difficult for competitors and developers to build and and to compete.
So the requirement we're proposing aims to address two main barriers first, providing access on both the main technical standards to support payment and non payment use cases. And then second, making sure that fees and other terms allow viable businesses to develop in the round. We expect this to support growth in a key UK sector fintech as well as more broadly in terms of choice in innovation for consumers to.
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14:02
Speaker 1
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Speaker 1
Thank you chair. So as you say, we were last before the committee back in January last year, right at the outset of the regime and over the subsequent 21 months, I think just about it's been implementing the regime has been an absolute priority for the CMA, both for myself and Will as as the lead executives, but also for the CMA board. And we have a number of our board members who are directly involved as members of our decision making subcommittees. What has that prioritisation meant in practice? For us, it's really about speed to impact. It's about making sure that we are taking action across a whole suite of areas, as well as already touched on where we can deliver tangible improvements for UK businesses and UK consumers who are dependent on these digital markets, who have opportunities to innovate and grow in this space.
And we have been very mindful as we have implemented the regime of the intent of Parliament, that this is a regime which is participative. So we have engaged very actively, not just with the prospective and now in some cases, designated firms, but also with a whole host of different stakeholders, both UK players and internationally, who have a direct interest in these markets. So that participative approach is absolutely key. Another element is proportionality that we want to take action that is targeted, is bespoke, does what it needs to do, but doesn't go further than that, and in particular with a really keen focus on impact, that we are taking action in areas where the CMA is best placed to act, that we can really deliver that impact.
So that's our that's our strategic approach, if you like. What has that meant in practice? And perhaps just to put Will's sort of resume of our most recent announcements in context of the sort of totality of what we have
And we have been very mindful as we have implemented the regime of the intent of Parliament, that this is a regime which is participative. So we have engaged very actively, not just with the prospective and now in some cases, designated firms, but also with a whole host of different stakeholders, both UK players and internationally, who have a direct interest in these markets. So that participative approach is absolutely key. Another element is proportionality that we want to take action that is targeted, is bespoke, does what it needs to do, but doesn't go further than that, and in particular with a really keen focus on impact, that we are taking action in areas where the CMA is best placed to act, that we can really deliver that impact.
So that's our that's our strategic approach, if you like. What has that meant in practice? And perhaps just to put Will's sort of resume of our most recent announcements in context of the sort of totality of what we have