Title page 1

Contents 3

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 4

SUMMARY 5

1. INTRODUCTION 8

2. THE UK'S BIG TECH RULES HAVE NOT LIVED UP TO THEIR PROMISE 9

POLITICAL BACKING HAS WAVERED 9

ENFORCEMENT HAS WON NARROW VICTORIES 10

AI IS LEAVING US BEHIND 11

3. UK BUSINESSES ARE PAYING THE PRICE 13

4. GROWTH AND SOVEREIGNTY: WEIGHING THE TRADE-OFFS 15

GOOD GROWTH AND INWARD INVESTMENT 15

THE UK'S SOVEREIGNTY AND GEOPOLITICAL REALITY 18

5. RECOMMENDATIONS 22

ISSUE A NEW STRATEGIC STEER FOR THE CMA 22

PRIORITISE THE REMEDIES THAT BOOST GROWTH 22

INTRODUCE REPORTING REQUIREMENTS THAT SUSTAIN THE CMA'S MANDATE 23

ALIGN BROADER TECH POLICY PRIORITIES TO ENSURE IMPACT 23

MAINTAIN A PROPORTIONATE ENFORCEMENT FRAMEWORK 24

REFERENCES 25

APPENDIX: METHODS 28

FIGURE 3.1. Half of businesses would cease to function within days of losing access to their most important technology provider 13

FIGURE 3.2. UK businesses experience the harms of market concentration 14

FIGURE 3.3. Businesses' perceptions of potential DMCCA conduct requirements are consistently positive 14

FIGURE 4.1. Market power ranks high as a constraint on UK businesses' growth 15

FIGURE 4.2. Many UK businesses send the majority of their digital budget to US big tech 16

FIGURE 4.3. One year to create a UK AI champion 19

FIGURE 4.4. UK businesses pay for the ChatGPT AI tool the most, followed by Microsoft Copilot and Google Gemini 20