The UK’s Competition Authority Is Ready to Regulate Big Tech

Summary:

Competition regulators across the West were focused on the dominance of a small number of American firms in digital markets. But only the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) blocked acquisitions by the largest tech firms. It unwound Meta’s acquisition of Giphy, a library of animated clips. Then, it blocked Microsoft’s $69 billion acquisition of gaming company Activision. That would probably defeat the deal globally – despite the European Commission approving the deal based on commitments from Microsoft that would regulate its future behaviour. Commentators disputed whether the CMA’s approach would help or hinder tech innovation – and many worried about giving the CMA broad new powers to regulate big tech. The EU’s approach would have led to ongoing supervision of Microsoft’s behaviour. The CMA’s decision should reassure parliamentarians that the UK regulator has little appetite for overly intrusive regulation of big tech

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ESO Records

CER Bulletin: No.144, June/July 2022: Can the UK Keep Up with Europe on Digital Competition? https://www.europeansources.info/record/can-the-uk-keep-up-with-europe-on-digital-competition/

RSCAS Policy Briefs : 21/49: Digital markets act in the making : challenges and potential of the new EU regulation on big tech https://www.europeansources.info/record/digital-markets-act-in-the-making-challenges-and-potential-of-the-new-eu-regulation-on-big-tech/

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