- ⏰ 6 hours ago (Updated 5 hours ago)
- William Gabriel
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This is bad news for big companies in the technology sector: the recently created Big Tech regulatory authority in the United Kingdom will have the right to impose substantial fines on them in the event of anti-competitive practices. This is revealed by our colleagues from TechCrunch, following an announcement from the British Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS).
And the figures are maddening since the penalties can go up to 10% of a company’s global annual turnover if it does not respect the codes of conduct, but that’s not all…
Big Tech regulator will be able to impose fines on big tech companies
The United Kingdom does not laugh with the anti-competitive practices that certain large companies take advantage of, and in recent months, the whole of the country has set up a new regulatory authority called Big Tech. Today we know a little more about the powers held by the latter, as the UK Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport has revealed that Big Tech will have the power to impose fines of up to up to 10% of worldwide annual revenue, plus 5% of daily revenue for each day the violations continue.
An “additional investigation” may also be requested from the Competition and Markets Authority. The UK also intends to emulate Australia and Canada by ensuring that news publishers are “fairly compensated” for their online content.
Prior to the establishment of a code, further analysis of the concerns and consultation of the parties should be undertaken within the framework of a participatory approach. However, our analysis so far shows that there is an imbalance of bargaining power between platforms and publishers that affects publishers’ ability to negotiate terms, and that this imbalance could be corrected by a code.
Big Tech will also be able to make an initial assessment with a company acquisition by one of the large groups. For example, it will have the possibility of preventing Meta from buying a smaller rival if it identifies a major competition problem linked to a proposed merger… Apple has been warned…
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