Jessica Lennard, Chief Strategy Officer of the UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), took the stage at the Tech.eu Summit 2025 today to unveil a bold vision for Britain’s digital markets.
Addressing a packed audience at the Queen Elizabeth II Centre, she pledged to strip away regulatory friction and deliver tangible outcomes for startups and tech giants alike. Her message: a leaner, smarter CMA is poised to turbocharge the UK’s $1.2 trillion tech sector by fostering competition, spurring innovation, and leveling the digital playing field.
The UK tech industry, Europe’s innovation powerhouse, has surged 20% since 2023, trailing only the US and China globally.
Lennard, drawing on data from HSBC and Atomico, highlighted Europe’s tech ecosystem as a €1.5 trillion juggernaut, over 8% of the continent’s economic output, fueled by a tenfold rise in venture capital and a 24% annual growth in tech talent since 2015.
In the UK, artificial intelligence (AI) promises up to £47 billion in yearly productivity gains over the next decade, while e-commerce thrives on £23 billion in consumer spending swayed by online reviews.
Yet, bottlenecks persist. Startups crave talent and funding to rival American peers, while giants demand infrastructure and regulatory clarity to scale. Lennard framed the CMA’s mission as a catalyst for both:
“We can’t solve every problem, but we can revolutionize digital markets to unlock your potential, delivering results, not red tape.”
The CMA, long seen as a cautious gatekeeper, is shedding its ivory-tower image. Lennard, a private-sector veteran with roots in cleantech and AI, touted a retooled approach built on four pillars: pace, predictability, proportionality, and process, the “4Ps.”
In digital markets, this translates to swift, tailored interventions under the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act (DMCCA), effective since January 2025.
The DMCCA empowers the CMA to designate firms with “strategic market status” (SMS), think Google or Apple, and impose bespoke fixes rather than blanket rules. Current probes into Google’s search dominance and the Apple-Google mobile ecosystem duopoly, set to conclude in October 2025, exemplify this shift.
For startups, it means fairer platform access and data rights; for giants, a chance to innovate without stifling challengers. “This isn’t about tying up the sector,” Lennard said. “It’s about opening doors for all players.”
Past wins highlight the CMA’s impact. Its 2023 deals with Amazon and Meta leveled the Marketplace for third-party sellers, while this year’s crackdown on Google’s fake reviews bolstered trust in a £23 billion digital economy.
The Open Banking boom, sparked by a CMA banking probe, now powers £4 billion in annual value, proving regulation can ignite, not impede, growth.
Mergers, a lifeline for startups and a headache for regulators, are also getting a makeover. Of 50,000 deals annually, the CMA blocks just one or two—a figure unchanged post-Brexit.
Yet, perceptions of delay and overreach have dented confidence. Lennard unveiled reforms: shorter review timelines, a Mergers Charter for transparency, and higher £30 million de minimis thresholds to focus on big fish.
“Every deal that can be cleared should be,” she insisted, nodding to the half of UK tech value tied up in pre-exit firms.
The Experian-Clearscore merger, scuppered in 2019, offers a case study. Post-CMA intervention, Clearscore doubled down on innovation, growing to serve 21 million users across four continents. “We’re not here to kill ambition,” Lennard said. “We’re here to ensure competition fuels it.”
Not everyone is sold. Some at Tech UK warn that merger scrutiny could chill investment, while others fear the SMS regime might overreach, burdening giants unnecessarily. Lennard countered that the CMA’s independence, guided by a parliamentary mandate and a government “strategic steer”, ensures proportionality.
The 4Ps, she argued, bake in flexibility: tight deadlines for pace, roadmaps for predictability, and outreach to startups and giants alike for process.
Consumer benefits, too, are central. The DMCCA promises lower prices and more choice, while enforcement against fake reviews and data misuse builds trust, a boon for startups building brands and giants scaling adoption.
“Consumer confidence drives spending,” Lennard noted. “That’s the fuel for your growth.”
Looking to 2025, Lennard previewed the CMA’s Annual Plan: unlocking infrastructure investment, spurring AI via the government’s action plan, and tackling bid rigging to open public contracts to challengers.
Collaboration with the Digital Regulation Cooperation Forum and a new Growth and Investment Council, featuring Tech UK and the Scale-Up Institute, will sharpen its edge.
For startups dreaming of unicorn status and giants eyeing global dominance, Lennard’s closing pledge resonated: “No red tape, just results. We’re listening, engaging, and delivering a digital market where you can thrive.”
As the UK vies to cement its tech supremacy, the CMA’s revolution may well determine whether ambition meets reality.
