Building the UK’s digital markets regime: appointment of independent ‘Digital Experts’

Written by Will Hayter, Senior Director for the Digital Markets Unit (DMU)

Digital markets can move fast. Open AI’s ChatGPT was only launched in November 2022. Since then it is estimated to have been used by over 100 million people and has raised questions about the potential for natural language models and generative AI to change how we access information online.

The complex and fast-paced nature of digital markets presents challenges for competition and consumer protection authorities, like the CMA. It is vital that we remain on top of developments. We need to consider possible implications and anticipate both the benefits that they could bring and the risks they could pose to people and businesses.

I am delighted to announce that we have appointed nine policy and digital market specialists as CMA Digital Experts to support us as we take on new responsibilities for digital markets.

At the CMA we have a strong foundation of legal, economic and policy specialists. We have also established a specialist Data, Technology and Analytics Unit to provide us with deep technical understanding and insight. Our nine new Digital Experts will complement our existing teams, helping ensure that our digital work is informed by the latest evidence.

Our new Digital Experts will be independent specialists, bringing fresh perspectives on the basis of their experience working on issues related to digital markets, including directly within large technology firms. As advisors, they will support the CMA’s ongoing portfolio of digital cases as well as our work to prepare for the new pro-competition digital markets regime. Working closely with CMA teams – particularly the Digital Markets Unit – they will help strengthen our understanding of the dynamics and operation of these markets.

Digital Experts appointed by the CMA:

• Professor Annabelle Gawer - Chaired Professor in Digital Economy and Director of the Centre of Digital Economy at Surrey Business School, University of Surrey
• Professor Anja Lambrecht - Professor of Marketing, London Business School
• Professor Neil Lawrence - DeepMind Professor of Machine Learning at the University of Cambridge, Senior AI Fellow at the Alan Turing Institute
• Geoffrey Myers - Visiting Professor in Practice at the London School of Economics and Political Science. Former Director of Competition Economics, Ofcom.
• Mark Nottingham - Expert in Internet standards, contributor to the Internet Engineering Task Force and Member of the Board of Directors for the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)
• Professor Sir Nigel Shadbolt - Principal of Jesus College, Oxford and Professorial Research Fellow in the Department of Computer Science, University of Oxford. Chair of the Open Data Institute
• Rod Sims AO - Professor, Crawford School of Public Policy, at the Australian National University. Former Chair of The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC)
• Dina Srinivasan – Researcher and lawyer. Fellow, Thurman Arnold Project, Yale University
• Dr Mahlet Zimeta - Data and technology policy expert, previously Head of Public Policy at the Open Data Institute and Senior Policy Adviser at the Royal Society

Find out more about the experts on the CMA's Independent digital experts page.

For more information on the work of the Digital Markets Unit and career opportunities read our 'Want to work with the Digital Markets Unit?' blog article.