The United Kingdom will launch a digital competition authority next year

The United Kingdom is introducing a Digital Markets Unit, a competition authority especially for tech companies. Among other things, the government body must give consumers more control over their data and monitor the ease of switching to other digital services.

The announcement specifically cites Google and Facebook as examples of ‘market dominating companies’, whose behavior is to be monitored by the body. The main points mentioned are the promotion of competition, choice and control over user data, better accessibility of advertising opportunities for small businesses and the strengthening of the position of news publishers in relation to online platforms. There is not yet a concrete ‘code’ that the body must enforce.

As part of enforcement, the Digital Markets Unit may have the ability to suspend, block and reverse decisions made by tech giants if they fail to comply with the code. There will also be the potential to impose fines. Why these facets of the plan have not yet been established is not clear from the text. The unit will commence operations in April of 2021.

Last year it was announced that the United Kingdom would be scrutinizing the dominant position of Facebook and Google.