G7 digital market summit begins in London

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) will today welcome heads of the G7 authorities and guests to its London headquarters for the agenda-setting event.

The G7 Digital Competition Enforcers Summit will strengthen relationships between international competition authorities and look to increase collaboration on issues related to competition in digital markets.

The Summit offers a unique opportunity for international agencies to discuss various questions, including on emerging issues such as in relation to large digital platforms, app stores, online marketplaces, digital advertising, mobile ecosystems, cloud computing and algorithms.

It also provides an opportunity for attendees to consider areas for potential collaboration and reflect on how best to use their skills, knowledge, and resources to deal with challenges in digital markets.

These discussions will address the challenges of digital markets and big tech, one of the most important issues facing governments and competition authorities around the world.

The Summit and related work have come out of the UK’s G7 Presidency, with the CMA tasked with using its status as a leading competition authority to convene international partners.

The aim is to find coherent and complementary ways to encourage competition and support innovation. It builds on previous collaboration between the CMA and its international counterparts.

This will be the first time that the G7 (Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, UK, USA, with the EU) competition heads have specifically come together to discuss these issues with the heads of competition authorities from the G7 guest countries (Australia, India, South Africa, South Korea).

In order to capture some of the work that the G7 competition authorities are doing, they will today jointly publish a compendium. The document outlines each authority’s work in addressing competition issues in digital markets and highlights shared approaches and tactics.