This is bad news for big tech companies: the UK’s newly created Big Tech regulatory authority will have the right to impose heavy fines on them for anti-competitive practices. This is revealed by our colleagues at TechCrunch, following an announcement from the UK Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS).

And the figures are exasperating since the penalties can reach up to 10% of the global annual turnover of a company if it does not respect the codes of conduct, but that is not all…

Big Tech regulator may impose fines on big tech companies

The UK does not laugh at the anti-competitive practices that certain large companies take advantage of, and in recent months the whole country has launched a new regulatory authority called Big Tech. Today we know a little more about the powers that the latter have , 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 10% of worldwide annual revenue, plus 5% of daily revenue for each day that violations continue.

An “additional investigation” can 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.

Before the establishment of a code, a more in-depth analysis of the concerns and the consultation of the parties must be carried out within the framework of a participatory approach. However, our analysis so far shows that there is an imbalance in bargaining power between platforms and publishers that affects publishers’ ability to negotiate terms, and that this imbalance could be corrected through code.

Big Tech will also be able to make an initial evaluation with the acquisition of a company by one of the large groups. For example, you will be able to prevent Meta from buying a smaller rival if you identify a significant competition issue related to a proposed merger… Apple has been warned…

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