UK New Bill to Boost Competition Among Tech Firms

The UK government has initiated Digital Markets, Competition and Consumer Bill to increase completion among big tech firms

The bill introduced on Tuesday, bans people from receiving money or free goods for writing glowing reviews.

Firms will also have to remind people when free subscription trials end.

The bill also seeks to end the tech giants’ current market dominance.
Its creators have said they want to manage the way in which a handful of huge tech companies dominate the market – although none is specifically named yet, and will be selected after a period of investigation of up to nine months.
It does not matter in which country they are based, and firms headquartered in China will also be included if they are in scope.

The newly formed Digital Markets Unit, which will be part of the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), will be given certain powers to open up a specific market depending on the situation.

So, for example, this could mean telling Apple to allow iPhone and iPad users to download apps from different app stores or forcing search engines to share data.

The CMA will be able to issue fines of up to 10% of global turnover for non-compliance depending on the offence, and will not require a court order to enforce consumer law.

The EU Digital Markets Act has been set up to tackle similar competition issues with big tech firms.

The UK bill is very wide-ranging, and the CMA will have to:

The CMA has proved a UK regulator can be effective when tackling what are likely to be predominantly US-based giants after it successfully forced Meta, Facebook’s parent company, to sell the graphics animation firm Giphy after ruling that it would harm competition. Meta expressed disappointment, but it did comply.

The new rules will be enforced as soon as possible following parliamentary approval, said the Department of Business and Trade.

Bbc News/ Jamiu Ogunsh