Competition and Markets Authority
Non-Executive Directors
About CMA
The CMA is the UK’s primary competition and consumer body. It promotes competition for the benefit of consumers, both within the UK and internationally, and its aim is to ensure that markets work well for consumers, businesses and the economy.
The CMA is a non-Ministerial department established by the Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Act 2013 on 1 April 2014, merging the Office for Fair Trading (OFT) and the Competition Commission (CC). The CMA has staff in London, Edinburgh, Belfast Cardiff, Manchester and Darlington.
The Secretary of State for Business and Trade sets the policy framework for competition which gives the CMA powers to investigate mergers, breaches of the Competition Act 1998 (CA98) prohibitions, poorly functioning markets and to protect consumers from unfair trading practices. The CMA also enforces the new pro-competition digital markets regime under the Digital Markets Competition and Consumers Act 2024 and considers appeals against the economic regulators’ decisions.
The CMA is directly funded by His Majesty’s Treasury and is accountable to Parliament. At the beginning of each Parliament, a non-binding Strategic Steer to the CMA is published by the Government outlining the key focuses and challenges for competition and consumer protection. Sponsorship for the organisation is shared between HM Treasury in relation to funding and the Department for Business and Trade (DBT) in relation to policy and Board level appointments.
