The UK's antitrust regulatory agency, the Competition and Market Authority (CMA), is preparing to exercise the power granted by the government to further regulate major technology companies such as Meta, Google, Amazon, and Apple.
In order to better regulate, CMA plans to establish a dedicated antitrust team and develop "Strategic Market Position (SMS)" standards. The CMA stated that the group will further improve the division work, so that the CMA can strengthen supervision on "a few enterprises".
According to the policy report released by CMA on Thursday (January 11th), some large companies will be required to share more data and features with competitors, open up features that third parties cannot use, and curb self promotion within their platforms.
Promotion of regulatory measures
This news has attracted widespread attention in the industry. CMA is expected to conduct three to four investigations in the first year of the new regulations coming into effect.
CMA Director Sarah Cardell pointed out, "Today's overview document not only provides clear information for UK lawmakers, but also provides information for digital companies and broader stakeholders about the methods CMA intends to adopt."
At present, the UK government strongly supports the jurisdiction of CMA. For example, CMA has gained the legal power to tailor rules for large technology companies, and companies may be fined up to 10% of their global revenue in the event of potential violations of the rules.
Two years ago, CMA established the Digital Markets department and proposed specific requirements to comply with the constantly changing social media and technology related markets. This means that as the Digital Markets department gains greater authority through legislation reviewed by Congress, large technology companies must strictly comply with the regulations that will be introduced.
Last year, after reviewing Microsoft's acquisition of Activision Blizzard and the transaction between OpenAI and Microsoft, CMA planned to establish a digital market competition mechanism with the goal of creating an environment for emerging technology companies to introduce breakthrough innovation and increase consumer choices and product supply.
CMA indicates that the implementation of relevant measures can better safeguard the interests of consumers rather than other companies.