UK seeks to curb Google and Facebook dominance with digital ad rules

Google and Facebook are set to face stricter regulatory rules in the UK next year.

Britain will impose a new competition regulatory regime next year to prevent Google and Facebook using their dominance to push out smaller firms and disadvantage consumers.

The code will be enforced by a dedicated unit within the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), which this year said it needed new laws to keep the tech giants in check.

Google and Facebook dominate digital advertising, accounting for around 80% of £14bn (€16bn) spent in 2019, Britain’s competition regulator said.

The two US companies have said they are committed to working with the British government and regulator on digital advertising, including giving users greater control over their data and the ads they are served.

While “unashamedly pro-tech”, Britain’s digital secretary Oliver Dowden said there was a growing consensus that the concentration of power in a small number of companies was curtailing growth, reducing innovation and having negative impacts on the people and businesses that rely on them.

The newly created Digital Markets Unit, which will begin work in April, could be given powers to suspend, block, and reverse decisions made by technology firms and to impose financial penalties for non-compliance.

Companies will have to be more transparent about how they use consumer data and restrictions that make it hard to use rival platforms will be banned, the British government said, adding that the rules will also support the news industry, rebalancing the relationship between publishers and platforms.

It marks the latest attempt to rein in big tech across Europe. Earlier this month, a group of 165 companies and industry bodies called on EU antitrust enforcers to take a tougher line against Google, saying the tech giant unfairly favours its own services on its web searches.

• Reuters