In Europe, the European Parliament overwhelmingly approved the Digital Markets Act (DMA), a list of ‘dos and don’ts’ for Big Tech. Across the channel, the UK is waiting to formally launch its much anticipated Digital Markets Unit. While over the Atlantic, the US Congress is poised to pass a bipartisan bill – the American Innovation and Choice Online Act – designed to prevent tech platforms like Google from favouring its products and services.
Despite intense lobbying from Big Tech, often through subversive, secretive means, to halt any efforts to change the status quo, smaller businesses and consumers have put pressure on lawmakers to act. Former Federal Trade Commission Chairman, Jon Leibowitz, highlighted the immense political power that large tech platforms have in America. Meanwhile, U.S. Congressman David Cicilline added that polling data shows American people overwhelmingly expect Congress to rein in Big Tech.
Participants noted how digital monopolies have eroded consumer choice and diminished the quality of products and services. Our CEO, Richard Stables, stressed how important it is for these pending legislative reforms to bring meaningful change to digital markets for the sake of preserving a rewarding consumer experience online – “If you enjoy vertical search in any way shape or form, if you don’t pass this [bill], it will all be gone within two, three years.”
However, for these regulatory tools to be effective, enforcement agencies must have the resources and technical capabilities to ensure large platforms don’t sneak their way out of compliance. A prominent Member of the European Parliament, Marcel Kolaja, is taking an active role in budget discussions alongside the lead negotiator of the DMA, Andreas Schwab, to ensure the European Commission has the resources to hire data scientists and other technical experts to sift through large amounts of data and formulate adequate remedies for digital platforms. This point was further echoed by Oxford Research Fellow, Rachel Brandenburger, and Stefan Hunt, Chief Data and Technology Insights Officer, at the CMA, who underlined the importance of having technical experts to cross check propositions made by tech platforms.
At the end of the day, ‘the proof is in the pudding’ and we’ll just have to see how much faster and more effective an ex-ante regulatory framework proves to be compared to the lengthy and inadequate existing competition rules. Our panellists certainly expressed a lot of hope and optimism for what’s to come, with Michael Koenig, Adviser on the DMA at the European Commission, saying “I’m optimistic that we now have the tools at hand to make things happen” and Congressman Cicilline vouching “Change is coming! Antitrust is back!” Watch this space.
*Webinar moderated by Khushita Vasant, Senior Correspondent for US Antitrust Enforcement and Litigation, MLex.