Tag: ex ante regulation
-
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…
-
Why it is now clear that the Australian ex ante regime will be much closer to the proposed UK regime than the EU Digital Markets Act
On 11 November 2022, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (“ACCC”) released the fifth interim report for the Digital Platform Services inquiry (the “Interim Report”). This report recommends a range of new measures to address harms from digital platforms to Australian consumers, small businesses and competition. The diagnostic of the ACCC is not different from…
-
The DMA has been published: Now the real challenges start
The Digital Market Act (“DMA”) has been published today. It is a remarkable instrument in many ways. Since the publication of the Commission proposal in December 2020, it took less than 1.5 years for the Council and the Parliament to agree on the final text. The supersonic adoption of the DMA was due to several…
-
Embracing rather than fighting digital regulation: Microsoft’s vision for the future
Yesterday, I attended a presentation by Brad Smith, Microsoft’s President and Vice-Chair, at an event organised by Brussels think tank Bruegel. I have listened to Brad Smith a few times in the past, but yesterday he was really at his best. He is a truly impressive public speaker and I liked the message he was…
-
The UK’s Digital Markets Unit: we’re not making any progress, but we promise we will “in due course”
In the UK’s slow journey towards its Digital Markets Unit (“DMU”) regime, the Government has published its formal response to last summer’s consultation document (the “Response Document”). We now know that the necessary legislation will not be included in the next session of Parliament, and therefore will not be enacted within the next year, but…
-
When Brexit means falling behind: The probable death of the DMU regime
Everything had started well with the excellent Furman report, which emphasized the need to adopt an ex ante regulatory regime that would apply to Big Tech firms in the UK. That report had indeed found that competition rules would not be sufficient to control these firms’ market power. The UK had the lead and was…
-
The leaked “final” version of the Digital Markets Act: A summary in ten points
Last week, a version of the Digital Markets Act dated 13 April 2022 was leaked. This version is based on the political agreement reached by the Commission, the Council of Ministers and the European Parliament on 25 March 2022. This “final” version (subject to some final adjustments) comprises a fair amount of new language compared…
-
Ne bis in idem and the DMA: the CJEU’s judgments in bpost and Nordzucker – Part II
[This is the second blog post on the principle of ne bis in idem and the DMA. You can read here our first post setting the scene and discussing EU case-law on ne bis in idem] Yesterday’s post discussed at length the CJEU’s judgments in bpost and Nordzucker, and how they signal a shift in…
-
The Interim Report of the CMA’s Market Study on Mobile Ecosystems : A Great Piece of Work
On 14 December 2021, the CMA published the Interim Report of its Market Study on Mobile Ecosystems. This is a massive (445 pages + annexes) piece of work, which is – as always with the CMA – extremely well done. The purpose of this Interim Report is for the CMA to share the content of…
-
The DMA should stay true to its principles, or it could fail
As readers of this blog know, the core idea behind (and the principle underpinning) the DMA proposal is that a small number of large digital platforms have become “gatekeepers” in that they operate one or more important “gateways” for business users to reach end users. In this context, the DMA rightly proposes to impose on…