Author: Tom Smith
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In defence of judicial review: The established UK appeal standard is the best approach for a dynamic digital economy
As readers of this blog will know, the UK’s Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers (“DMCC”) Bill seeks to create a brand-new ex ante regulatory framework for firms with ‘strategic market status’ (“SMS”), defined as firms that hold substantial and entrenched market power in a digital activity, that provides them with a position of strategic significance.…
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Fashionably late: The UK digital markets legislation starts its passage through Parliament
More than four years after the Furman Report, the British Government has laid its Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Bill before Parliament. However, what is perhaps more remarkable than the delays is how closely the Bill sticks to the CMA’s original recommendations. One can always quibble over some of the drafting, but overall this is…
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Spinning Amazon’s Flywheel: How Amazon’s Business Model Harms Competition
Regular readers of this blog may have noticed that we’ve been writing more about Amazon. We believe competition law has not yet fully grappled with its multifaceted business model, which has the Prime membership bundle of products at its core. Damien Geradin and I are therefore pleased to share our detailed paper on Amazon’s business…
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Interview with Tom Fish, Head of public policy and research at Gener8, and formerly Assistant Director at the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority
Tom Smith, Geradin Partners: November 2022 was an important month for the UK’s efforts to curb the power of big tech. The Chancellor announced in his Autumn Statement that the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumer Bill will be introduced into parliament in the 3rd parliamentary session (it is currently rumoured to be scheduled for April…
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The Responsible Online Commerce Coalition (ROCC): Businesses team up to ensure a level playing field in e-commerce
Amazon’s revenues reached half a trillion dollars in 2022, having increased tenfold in a decade. There are few companies as fascinating and impressive as Amazon and arguably no other company occupies such a central position in the modern retail economy in the US and Europe. Its famous e-commerce platform represents more than half of e-commerce…
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Amazon settles EU allegations regarding third-party sellers on Amazon Marketplace: some progress made but much remains to be done
The European Commission has accepted a set of legally-binding commitments offered by Amazon to settle two long-running antitrust investigations into whether Amazon has abused its dominant position in e-commerce. In doing so, the Commission will not issue a formal infringement decision and will not impose a fine. This is a significant outcome for these…
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Full steam ahead for the UK Digital Markets Unit
UK politics has been in a parlous state. Today the UK’s Chancellor of the Exchequer attempted to stabilize the country’s finances by announcing some eye-watering tax rises and spending cuts in the Autumn Statement. However, of more relevance to readers of this blog, he also made a significant announcement about the legislation required to implement…
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Big Tech’s financial services activities – and their forthcoming regulatory attention
Apple, Google and Amazon (and to a lesser extent, Meta) have been tentatively expanding into the financial services sector for years now. It has been very interesting to watch their strategies and it seems things are hotting up. Damien and I wrote an article on this topic, which was published in the European Competition Journal…
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Amazon/iRobot: The flywheel spins once more
It was reported last week that the US Federal Trade Commission has started investigating Amazon’s $1.7 billion acquisition of iRobot, the maker of Roomba smart vacuum cleaners. It seems to us that the UK and EU authorities will also have jurisdiction to investigate. Why should anyone (apart from iRobot’s shareholders) care about a large retailer…
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CMA music streaming market study: what’s going on?
Music streaming is a fascinating industry, and many people were looking forward to seeing how the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (“CMA”) had used its wide-reaching information gathering powers to uncover any problems. This is a huge and culturally-important industry for the UK, and it seems to operate in some weird and convoluted ways. There…