Future Of British Business
Silicon Valley Faces UK Crackdown as Government Unveils Laws
- UK antitrust watchdog gets boost with new tech, consumer laws
- Proposals for the DMU regulator first laid out back in 2019
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Big Tech firms from Google to Meta Platforms Inc. face beefed up oversight and potential fines of as much as 10% of global sales for practices that hurt consumers, under sweeping new legislation set to be unveiled Tuesday by the UK government.
Under the proposals, a new Digital Markets Unit in the nation’s antitrust regulator will have powers imposing additional obligations on some of Silicon Valley’s biggest companies earmarked as having “strategic market status.” The new regime would target firms with entrenched market power in at least one digital activity and global sales above £25 billion ($31.2 billion), or UK revenue in excess of £1 billion.