Britain’s antitrust regulator, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), is set to gain new legal powers to regulate big tech companies such as Meta, Alphabet, and Amazon.
These new powers will allow the CMA to tailor rules specifically for these companies to ensure they treat businesses and consumers fairly.
The CMA established a dedicated Digital Markets Unit (DMU) over two years ago to examine rapidly evolving markets like social media. The proposed “Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers” law will give the DMU the authority to enforce its remit.
A select group of big tech companies with designated status will be required to comply with the new rules. These companies could face fines of up to 10 per cent of their global turnover for breaches of the regulations.
The new law will also introduce removing the requirement for agreements to be implemented in the U.K. It will also give the CMA power to seize documents and information from companies.
It will allow the CMA to impose interim measures on companies while investigations are ongoing. It will also increase the maximum fines for competition law breaches while expanding the scope of market investigations.
The government has said that the new regulations are necessary to ensure that big tech companies do not abuse their market power and that they treat businesses and consumers fairly. The regulations are expected to come into force in 2024.
The sources for this piece include an article in Reuters.