Episode 19- Anush Ganesh - The DMCCA Takes Shape: Unpacking the First Conduct Requirements and Commitments

In this episode, Kena Zheng and Jasper van den Boom welcome SCiDA colleague Anush Ganesh as a guest on the podcast. Just over a year since the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act came into force, the UK's new digital markets regime is rapidly taking shape, and Anush has been following its implementation closely, attending CMA roundtables, analysing stakeholder consultation responses, and writing extensively on the emerging regulatory landscape. Together, they discuss the CMA's first proposed conduct requirements targeting Google Search, including interventions on publisher protections against AI content exploitation, fair ranking obligations, innovative choice screen designs with a novel "test-drive" functionality, and data portability. They also examine the CMA's decision to pursue voluntary commitments from Apple and Google on their mobile platforms rather than binding conduct requirements, and what that signals about the regulator's approach. The conversation turns to the bigger picture: how the UK's tailored, evidence-based model compares with the EU's Digital Markets Act, whether the pace of regulation can keep up with fast-moving digital markets, and what the next twelve months will tell us about which approach delivers real results.