Special briefing: how to amend the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Bill

British Prosperity Unit Special briefing: how to amend the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Bill Fred de Fossard SPECIAL BRIEFING: HOW TO AMEND THE DIGITAL MARKETS, COMPETITION AND CONSUMERS BILL The Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Bill is one of the most significant pieces of economic policy introduced by the British Government since the UK’s departure from the EU. [...] The Prime Minister has put AI at the heart of his strategy with the United States; he spent years courting the tech sector while Chancellor of the Exchequer,5 and even tried to bring venture capital-style investing within the staid walls of the Treasury.6 Threats to the golden egg Despite this, the Government’s actual policy to the tech sector is more hostile than many would imagine. [...] In 2020, it introduced the digital services tax, a tax on revenues, rather than profits, aimed at the largest tech firms operating in the UK,7 and this year the government tabled the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Bill, which intends to reduce the dominance of big tech in the British tech industry. [...] This was followed by the CMA’s own long-term study into the digital advertising market, which was published in July 2019, and affirmed the government’s view that the tech sector was in need of regulatory intervention.13 The CMA found that Facebook and Google, the two biggest tech giants at the time, enjoyed an “unassailable” duopoly in the online advertising market.14 Set in the context of the afo. [...] The CMA and the FTC, in the United States, have even had to fend off accusations of collusion when it comes to mergers, following the unexpected attempt by the CMA to block the Microsoft-Activision merger, as the CMA has far more domestic power than the FTC, which is constrained by the American legal system.25 Specific issues with the CMA’s initial attempt to block the Microsoft-Activision deal fu.