UK's competition watchdog preps to shoulder post-Brexit workload from European Commission
- Reference: 1624897146
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2021/06/28/cma_law_society/
- Source link:
Jonathan Scott, chair of the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), said the nation was now ready to "step up and fulfil the regulatory role previously held by the European Commission."
[1]Addressing the Law Society last week , Scott said: "Now we are out of the Transition Period, we are carrying responsibility for the biggest and most complex competition and merger investigations which previously would have been the exclusive preserve of the European Commission.
[2]
"And post-COVID, we will carry responsibility for coming down like a ton of bricks on anyone attempting to stifle the economic recovery and damage consumer confidence through anti-competitive or unfair activity."
[3]
[4]
When it comes to holding businesses to account, he touched on the difficulties faced by "big parties with deep pockets and no shortage of very talented advisers who know only too well how to hold us up."
He lamented the fact that compared to other regulators, the CMA lacked sufficient oomph and called, instead, for "penalties for non-compliance with the CMA's investigatory requirements [to] be bolstered."
[5]UK competition watchdog launches investigation into fake review epidemic across Google and Amazon
[6]UK competition watchdog begins probe into Apple and Google's total domination of the mobile landscape
[7]UK competition bods to keep tabs on Google, ensure 'Privacy Sandbox' doesn't distort competition
[8]Facebook faces competition enquiry on two fronts as EU and UK officials scrutinise its ad data
He went on: "It is important to be able to adequately incentivise compliance and deter failures to comply. For example, in our Amazon/Deliveroo merger, when Amazon delayed proceedings by failing to provide complete information, we fined them circa £60,000. When Facebook did similar to the European Commission, it fined them circa €110m."
His comments come as the CMA has stepped up the number of investigations it is handling, especially in the digital space.
[9]
In the last month, the CMA said it had:
opened a [10]formal probe into Amazon and Google over fake reviews and is digging deeper into whether the online beasts have broken consumer law by taking "insufficient action to protect shoppers"
launched a [11]broad-reaching market study into Google and Apple's duopoly of the mobile sphere to figure out if this has led to reduced innovation and higher prices for consumers
said it will keep [12]a close eye on Google as it works to address concerns around its proposals to remove third-party cookies from its Chrome web browser. It even plans to take up a role in the design and development of Google's "Privacy Sandbox" proposals to ensure they do not distort competition
[13]slapped on the latex gloves to probe Facebook amid allegations the social media giant unfairly used the data gained from its advertising and single sign-on to benefit its own services. This coincided with a full-on investigation by the European Commission to look at whether Facebook "ties its online classified ads service 'Facebook Marketplace' to its social network, in breach of EU competition rules."
Whether this activity is a sign that the CMA is ramping up its position to protect consumers – or merely taking on board the extra workload following Brexit – remains to be seen. But with some of the world's biggest firms facing greater scrutiny, things should get interesting. ®
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[1] https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/jonathan-scott-keynote-speech-to-the-law-society-2021
[2] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/legal&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2YNpGgIg4XYucbUDJzb@lfAAAAIk&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/legal&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44YNpGgIg4XYucbUDJzb@lfAAAAIk&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/legal&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33YNpGgIg4XYucbUDJzb@lfAAAAIk&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[5] https://www.theregister.com/2021/06/25/uk_cma_google_amazon_fake_reviews/
[6] https://www.theregister.com/2021/06/15/cma_google_apple_mobile/
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2021/06/11/uk_cma_privacy_sandbox/
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2021/06/04/facebook_faces_competition_enquiry_on/
[9] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/legal&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44YNpGgIg4XYucbUDJzb@lfAAAAIk&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2021/06/25/uk_cma_google_amazon_fake_reviews/
[11] https://www.theregister.com/2021/06/15/cma_google_apple_mobile/
[12] https://www.theregister.com/2021/06/11/uk_cma_privacy_sandbox/
[13] https://www.theregister.com/2021/06/04/facebook_faces_competition_enquiry_on/
[14] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
We're going to hit you with a massive fine.....
"We're leaving".
"Please stay, we didn't mean it".
Re: We're going to hit you with a massive fine.....
"We're leaving".
"Please stay, we didn't mean it".
No, that's the situation in Ireland. The UK isn't competent enough to have attracted (or retained) any of the big international tech players. (Yes, we have the home grown ARM here, and once upon a time there was Symbian, and we once also had various assembly-line factories, but we're sadly still only a small player in the bigger scheme of things.)
Re: We're going to hit you with a massive fine.....
If you can no longer count all UK sales in Ireland is it as desirable as an HQ for USA?
Oh, right.
"... things should get interesting."
Yes maybe, but judging by the sums quoted in the article not more expensive for the guilty.
£60,000 versus €110m? That's loose change for some of those in the CMA's sights.
It's like squaring up to a 16 inch battleship armed with a peashooter.
Pipsqueak threats from a sorely diminished country.
Is that what we were promised when we "Took back control"?
Re: Oh, right.
> Is that what we were promised when we "Took back control"?
You can't vote out the European Commission so you don't exactly have control over laws that are voted in by mindless drones, sorry I mean MEPs.
We have quite inept government, but we can have it completely replaced at the next elections as they so far have been falling short.
As in taking back control, in theory, we can have a party that could legislate loan charge treatment for these giant companies using various schemes to avoid paying the right amount of tax. This wouldn't be possible in the EU.
Re: Oh, right.
And what's more by negotiating our own deals we have the power to tell American, Chinese and Indian companies exactly what they have to do if they want a trade deal
Re: Oh, right.
You mean like we just did to Australia?
Odd that the NFU and food and drink associations aren't too happy about it, then.
Re: Oh, right.
LOL, you REALLY should have used the
Re: Oh, right.
"£60,000 versus €110m? That's loose change for some of those in the CMA's sights."
That was the point of the quote. He wants stronger powers for the CMA.
Watchdog or lapdog?
Which is it?
They probably don't know which company to pick on and are in a permablocked state.
"Whether this activity is a sign that the CMA is ramping up its position to protect consumers ..."
This is the CMA whose supposedly independent public enquiry into targeted online advert placement clearly presupposed that the public actually wish to be tracked and have promo forced on them.
"Whether this activity is a sign that the CMA is ramping up its position to protect consumers – or merely taking on board the extra workload following Brexit – remains to be seen."
Getting swamped by it all seems more likely.
Ye trillion $ global monopolies
Feel the wrath of our mighty sovereignty and tremble