Open Markets Institute Europe Director Max von Thun gave oral evidence in the UK Parliament on the UK’s Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Bill (DMCCB) and submitted on behalf of Open Markets detailed written evidence on the DMCCB, which is currently being scrutinised by MPs.

The submission welcomes the DMCCB as an ambitious piece of legislation that will ensure the UK remains at the forefront of international efforts to rein in dominant tech giants and inject competition into digital markets. It also outlines a number of targeted improvements that would make the legislation stronger and more effective, while minimising opportunities for circumvention by Big Tech. 

These suggested improvements include:

• Significantly limiting the countervailing benefits exemption, which as currently drafted provides too much room for SMS firms to evade the Bill’s conduct requirements.

• Using a more objective backward-looking rather than forward-looking test to establish whether a firm has “substantial and entrenched” market power.

• Introducing a tougher merger control regime for SMS acquisitions, building on the reporting requirements in the Bill.

• Giving pro-competition interventions (PCIs) parity with conduct requirements, by enabling the CMA to launch PCI investigations parallel to the SMS designation process.

• Providing additional transparency for third parties, in order to minimise the risk that the Bill’s flexibility becomes an opportunity for Big Tech to lobby for weaker requirements.

Read full testimony below or download here and view recording here.