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Time of India
26-06-2025
- Business
- Time of India
UK politics blunts antitrust action against Google
Britain's competition regulator has finally come up with a plan to control Google's huge search business, but a shift in the political wind in favour of big tech and the money it invests makes it more of a bark than a bite. The Competition and Markets Authority spent years setting up a regime to intervene in the operations of tech giants such as Google, Apple and Amazon, saying it needed special expertise and powers to drive competition in the digital economy. But just as it received new powers, Britain's Labour government said its need to grow the economy meant tough regulation was now out. The CMA, chaired by a former Amazon executive, has touted a targeted approach as the way to meet its goal of reining in big tech without throttling investment from an industry that has spent tens of billions of pounds in Britain. On Tuesday, it proposed designating Google as having "strategic market status" in search, giving it the power to impose conditions on the U.S. tech firm such as changing the way it ranks search results or offering users more choice. Competition experts said the designation was no surprise, coming long after similar moves in the United States and the European Union. "Everyone has been at the search rodeo for years, there are EC (European Commission) decisions, U.S. judgements," Cristina Caffarra, a competition economist, said. "What the CMA is doing is purely performative." Nonetheless, the CMA's first designation is being closely watched by tech groups, lawyers, and business owners to see how it operates in the new political climate. In announcing its proposals, CMA Chief Executive Sarah Cardell was careful to stress its "targeted and proportionate actions" to regulate a sector innovating at breakneck speed via artificial intelligence, and mindful of the political pressure. Lawyer Ronan Scanlan, a partner at Steptoe International and former deputy director at the CMA, said Britain's Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act gave the CMA broad powers, but in practice it didn't have the political capital to make grand interventions. "The DMCC Act, which was billed as this revolutionary new tool that the CMA could wield, has arrived three years too late and is becoming a bit of an albatross around its neck," he said. "It's up against huge players like Google, Apple, Amazon, with a lot of political connections, and now - in a new political reality - somehow has to try to extricate itself with the minimum amount of damage." The CMA's delicate balancing act is made harder by U.S. President Donald Trump's muscular defence of U.S. business interests, and Scanlan said the regulator would want to see what would happen with Google there. Tougher proposals Some of the measures the CMA is proposing, such as choice screens for consumers to easily opt for alternative search engines, have been around for decades. Others, such as changing the ranking of results to limit Google favouring its own services, could have more impact if they are confirmed in the CMA's final decision in October. Tom Smith, a competition lawyer at Geradin Partners and a former CMA legal director, said there was a question mark over political support for some of the regulator's tougher proposals, but thought it was trying to stick to its guns. "Given the new context, it's still implementing the regime properly," he said, adding that the U.S. Department of Justice had proposed measures that could lead to a breakup of Google, particularly in its search and advertising businesses. "The idea that the CMA is going too far by putting in a choice screen, it's quite ludicrous." Despite that, Alphabet-owned Google warned it may not bring new features and services to Britain if the regulator goes ahead with the proposals, and said "proportionate, evidence-based regulation" was needed if Britain was to grow its economy. Google, which employs around 7,000 people in Britain, accounts for more than 90% of all general search queries in the country, with more than 200,000 businesses relying on its search advertising to reach their customers. But according to submissions to the CMA from the likes of flights and hotel website Skyscanner and the recommendation platform Checkatrade, that dominance may have enabled it to favour its own services over their offerings, and they want regulatory intervention. Silicon Valley has been wary of the CMA since 2023, when it blocked Microsoft's $69 billion acquisition of the "Call of Duty" maker Activision-Blizzard. Having sparked fury from the U.S. companies, it then tore up its own rule book to approve the case after Microsoft made some changes. Its second investigation under its new powers is examining mobile operating systems, targeting Google and Apple. Previous CMA investigations had pointed to Amazon as the subject of the third strategic market status investigation that was due to be announced this summer. On Tuesday, however, the CMA pushed the third case back to next year.
Time of India
25-06-2025
- Business
- Time of India
UK politics blunts antitrust action against Google
Academy Empower your mind, elevate your skills Britain's competition regulator has finally come up with a plan to control Google's huge search business, but a shift in the political wind in favour of big tech and the money it invests makes it more of a bark than a Competition and Markets Authority spent years setting up a regime to intervene in the operations of tech giants such as Google, Apple and Amazon, saying it needed special expertise and powers to drive competition in the digital just as it received new powers, Britain's Labour government said its need to grow the economy meant tough regulation was now CMA, chaired by a former Amazon executive, has touted a targeted approach as the way to meet its goal of reining in big tech without throttling investment from an industry that has spent tens of billions of pounds in Tuesday, it proposed designating Google as having "strategic market status" in search, giving it the power to impose conditions on the U.S. tech firm such as changing the way it ranks search results or offering users more experts said the designation was no surprise, coming long after similar moves in the United States and the European Union."Everyone has been at the search rodeo for years, there are EC (European Commission) decisions, U.S. judgements," Cristina Caffarra, a competition economist, said. "What the CMA is doing is purely performative."Nonetheless, the CMA's first designation is being closely watched by tech groups, lawyers, and business owners to see how it operates in the new political announcing its proposals, CMA Chief Executive Sarah Cardell was careful to stress its "targeted and proportionate actions" to regulate a sector innovating at breakneck speed via artificial intelligence, and mindful of the political Ronan Scanlan, a partner at Steptoe International and former deputy director at the CMA, said Britain's Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act gave the CMA broad powers, but in practice it didn't have the political capital to make grand interventions."The DMCC Act, which was billed as this revolutionary new tool that the CMA could wield, has arrived three years too late and is becoming a bit of an albatross around its neck," he said."It's up against huge players like Google, Apple, Amazon, with a lot of political connections, and now - in a new political reality - somehow has to try to extricate itself with the minimum amount of damage."The CMA's delicate balancing act is made harder by U.S. President Donald Trump's muscular defence of U.S. business interests, and Scanlan said the regulator would want to see what would happen with Google of the measures the CMA is proposing, such as choice screens for consumers to easily opt for alternative search engines, have been around for such as changing the ranking of results to limit Google favouring its own services, could have more impact if they are confirmed in the CMA's final decision in Smith, a competition lawyer at Geradin Partners and a former CMA legal director, said there was a question mark over political support for some of the regulator's tougher proposals, but thought it was trying to stick to its guns."Given the new context, it's still implementing the regime properly," he said, adding that the U.S. Department of Justice had proposed measures that could lead to a breakup of Google, particularly in its search and advertising businesses."The idea that the CMA is going too far by putting in a choice screen, it's quite ludicrous."Despite that, Alphabet-owned Google warned it may not bring new features and services to Britain if the regulator goes ahead with the proposals, and said "proportionate, evidence-based regulation" was needed if Britain was to grow its which employs around 7,000 people in Britain, accounts for more than 90% of all general search queries in the country, with more than 200,000 businesses relying on its search advertising to reach their according to submissions to the CMA from the likes of flights and hotel website Skyscanner and the recommendation platform Checkatrade, that dominance may have enabled it to favour its own services over their offerings, and they want regulatory Valley has been wary of the CMA since 2023, when it blocked Microsoft's $69 billion acquisition of the "Call of Duty" maker Activision-Blizzard. Having sparked fury from the U.S. companies, it then tore up its own rule book to approve the case after Microsoft made some second investigation under its new powers is examining mobile operating systems, targeting Google and CMA investigations had pointed to Amazon as the subject of the third strategic market status investigation that was due to be announced this summer. On Tuesday, however, the CMA pushed the third case back to next year.
Yahoo
25-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Analysis-UK politics blunts antitrust action against Google
By Paul Sandle LONDON (Reuters) -Britain's competition regulator has finally come up with a plan to control Google's huge search business, but a shift in the political wind in favour of big tech and the money it invests makes it more of a bark than a bite. The Competition and Markets Authority spent years setting up a regime to intervene in the operations of tech giants such as Google, Apple and Amazon, saying it needed special expertise and powers to drive competition in the digital economy. But just as it received new powers, Britain's Labour government said its need to grow the economy meant tough regulation was now out. The CMA, chaired by a former Amazon executive, has touted a targeted approach as the way to meet its goal of reining in big tech without throttling investment from an industry that has spent tens of billions of pounds in Britain. On Tuesday, it proposed designating Google as having "strategic market status" in search, giving it the power to impose conditions on the U.S. tech firm such as changing the way it ranks search results or offering users more choice. Competition experts said the designation was no surprise, coming long after similar moves in the United States and the European Union. "Everyone has been at the search rodeo for years, there are EC (European Commission) decisions, U.S. judgements," Cristina Caffarra, a competition economist, said. "What the CMA is doing is purely performative." Nonetheless, the CMA's first designation is being closely watched by tech groups, lawyers, and business owners to see how it operates in the new political climate. In announcing its proposals, CMA Chief Executive Sarah Cardell was careful to stress its "targeted and proportionate actions" to regulate a sector innovating at breakneck speed via artificial intelligence, and mindful of the political pressure. Lawyer Ronan Scanlan, a partner at Steptoe International and former deputy director at the CMA, said Britain's Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act gave the CMA broad powers, but in practice it didn't have the political capital to make grand interventions. "The DMCC Act, which was billed as this revolutionary new tool that the CMA could wield, has arrived three years too late and is becoming a bit of an albatross around its neck," he said. "It's up against huge players like Google, Apple, Amazon, with a lot of political connections, and now - in a new political reality - somehow has to try to extricate itself with the minimum amount of damage." The CMA's delicate balancing act is made harder by U.S. President Donald Trump's muscular defence of U.S. business interests, and Scanlan said the regulator would want to see what would happen with Google there. TOUGHER PROPOSALS Some of the measures the CMA is proposing, such as choice screens for consumers to easily opt for alternative search engines, have been around for decades. Others, such as changing the ranking of results to limit Google favouring its own services, could have more impact if they are confirmed in the CMA's final decision in October. Tom Smith, a competition lawyer at Geradin Partners and a former CMA legal director, said there was a question mark over political support for some of the regulator's tougher proposals, but thought it was trying to stick to its guns. "Given the new context, it's still implementing the regime properly," he said, adding that the U.S. Department of Justice had proposed measures that could lead to a breakup of Google, particularly in its search and advertising businesses. "The idea that the CMA is going too far by putting in a choice screen, it's quite ludicrous." Despite that, Alphabet-owned Google warned it may not bring new features and services to Britain if the regulator goes ahead with the proposals, and said "proportionate, evidence-based regulation" was needed if Britain was to grow its economy. Google, which employs around 7,000 people in Britain, accounts for more than 90% of all general search queries in the country, with more than 200,000 businesses relying on its search advertising to reach their customers. But according to submissions to the CMA from the likes of flights and hotel website Skyscanner and the recommendation platform Checkatrade, that dominance may have enabled it to favour its own services over their offerings, and they want regulatory intervention. Silicon Valley has been wary of the CMA since 2023, when it blocked Microsoft's $69 billion acquisition of the "Call of Duty" maker Activision-Blizzard. Having sparked fury from the U.S. companies, it then tore up its own rule book to approve the case after Microsoft made some changes. Its second investigation under its new powers is examining mobile operating systems, targeting Google and Apple. Previous CMA investigations had pointed to Amazon as the subject of the third strategic market status investigation that was due to be announced this summer. On Tuesday, however, the CMA pushed the third case back to next year. (Writing by Paul Sandle. Additional reporting by Sarah Young. Editing by Kate Holton and Mark Potter) Sign in to access your portfolio
CNBC
24-06-2025
- Business
- CNBC
Google could face changes to search in the UK as regulators crack down
Google could face changes to its online search services in the U.K. after regulators raised concerns over the tech giant's dominance. The Competition and Markets Authority on Tuesday said it is consulting on a proposal to give Google "strategic market status," a designation under new competition rules for tech firms that hold entrenched power in a certain market. The watchdog was granted expanded competition and merger control powers this year as the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act came into force. Similar to a European Union law known as the Digital Markets Act, the legislation gives the CMA the ability to directly enforce consumer protections on tech giants and take action — including fines of up to 10% of global annual revenues for breaches. The CMA laid out a roadmap of measures for Google if its strategic market status designation is successful, including: In response to the CMA's decision, Google on Tuesday said the outcome of such changes "could have significant implications for businesses and consumers" in the U.K. "The CMA has today reiterated that 'strategic market status' does not imply that anti-competitive behaviour has taken place — yet this announcement presents clear challenges to critical areas of our business in the UK," Oliver Bethell, Google's senior director for competition, said in a statement. "We're concerned that the scope of the CMA's considerations remains broad and unfocused, with a range of interventions being considered before any evidence has been provided." Bethell added that Google plans to "continue working constructively with the CMA" to avoid such measures from being imposed. It comes as regulators around the world have increasingly been looking to rein in Big Tech players over their significant market power. In April, a U.S. judge ruled that Google holds illegal monopolies in two markets for online advertising technology, paving the way for antitrust prosecutors to seek a breakup of its ad products. Meanwhile, an advisor to the European Union's top court last week recommended it dismiss Google's appeal against a record 4.1-billion-euro ($4.8 billion) antitrust fine.
South Wales Guardian
06-06-2025
- Business
- South Wales Guardian
Amazon UK commits to working harder to tackle fake reviews
The retail giant has committed to 'robust processes' to quickly detect and remove fake reviews alongside sanctions for rogue sellers and businesses as part of work by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) to curb the customer hazard. Amazon has also promised to tackle concerns around 'catalogue abuse', where sellers hijack the reviews of well-performing products and add them to an entirely separate and different product in order to falsely boost the star rating. In practice, this could mean a consumer thinks they have found a pair of five-star headphones when the majority of reviews are for an unrelated item. Amazon has agreed to sanction businesses that boost their star ratings via bogus reviews or catalogue abuse, including bans from selling on the website. Sanctions will also be applied to users who post fake reviews, who could be banned from posting reviews altogether. The site has also promised to provide clear and robust mechanisms to allow consumers and businesses to report fake reviews and catalogue abuse quickly and easily. The undertakings relate to the reviews, review counts and star ratings for products visible to consumers when searching Amazon's UK online store. They follow an investigation by the CMA into Amazon over concerns that the company was breaching consumer law by failing to take adequate action to protect people from fake reviews – including not doing enough to detect and remove fake reviews, act on suspicious patterns of behaviour, or properly sanction reviewers and businesses taking part in fake review activity. The CMA estimates that around 90% of consumers use reviews when making purchasing decisions, and that as much as £23 billion of UK consumer spending is potentially influenced by online reviews annually. Fake reviews are now explicitly banned under the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act (DMCCA). Amazon's undertakings follow Google changing its processes for tackling fake reviews, including sanctions for repeat offenders, in January. CMA chief executive Sarah Cardell said: 'So many people use Amazon, from buying a new bike lock to finding the best coffee machine – and what's clear is that star ratings and reviews have a huge impact on their choices. 'That's why these new commitments matter and help set the standard. They mean people can make decisions with greater confidence – knowing that those who seek to pull the wool over their eyes will be swiftly dealt with.' The CMA will now scrutinise whether review platforms, businesses who list products on them, and reviewers themselves, are complying with the strengthened laws around fake reviews. An Amazon spokesman said: 'We invest significant resources to pro-actively stop fake reviews ever appearing on our store, including on expert human investigators and machine learning models that analyse thousands of data points to detect risk. 'Last year we pro-actively blocked more than 275 million fake reviews, with more than 99% of all products in our store containing only authentic reviews. 'We also suspend, ban and take legal action against those who violate our policies and have teams dedicated to taking action against bad actors that attempt to solicit fake reviews for products.'
