UK to take ‘back seat’ as EU leads the way for Big Tech regulation
Departing chief of the UK competition watchdog has warned that the UK risks falling behind its European cousins after the government backtracked on giving the regulator enhanced powers to hold Big Tech to account.
Speaking to the Financial Times, Andrea Coscelli said that the UK will become a “rule taker” rather than leader in this space after plans to empower the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) were left out of this year’s Queen’s Speech.
“As a country we are in a great place to set up smart, pro-business, pro-competitive rules of the road in a number of these areas . . . If we don’t, then in practice we become a rule taker because of the cost of divergence”, he said.
This is echoed by Linklaters’ Lauren O’Brien who told Morning Wire that while the UK was an “early mover” in regulation, the EU has acted more quickly in pushing through its landmark Digital Markets Act and Digital Services Act.
O’Brien added that the CMA’s wide use of market studies and investigations, including inquiries into music streaming, were a “largely toothless animal in terms of changing self-preferencing and other behaviours in a more wholesale way until it gets the statutory footing”.
As a result, she told Morning Wire that companies will focus their attention on meeting Brussels’ regulation, with the UK taking a “back seat” moving forward.
In contrast, Policy Director at The Coalition for a Digital Economy (Coadec) Camilla de Coverly told Morning Wire that while the EU may have been faster with its approach, the Digital Markets Unit envisaged by the CMA is “more nuanced”.
She also said that the EU was always likely to the bigger player in the space because it has a bigger market dominance.