The CMA’s new chair is a former tech exec who clashed with the regulator. No wonder large tech firms are feeling hopeful.
LONDON — Britain’s chancellor and business secretary sat calmly under the Davos lights on Wednesday morning as they tried to sell the U.K. as a top investment destination.
But just the night before, they’d shocked their country’s independent regulators by booting out the chair of the antitrust watchdog — and replacing him with a former tech executive.
The message and its timing were clear. Regulators needed to make “pro-business decisions, » Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds said.
“He recognized it was time for him to move on and make way for somebody who does share the mission and the strategic direction that this government are taking,” said chancellor Rachel Reeves of the departure of Marcus Bokkerink, chair of the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA).
Bokkerink was removed, or in Reeves’ words at Davos “decided to step down,” after coming across as “a bit of a blocker” last week at a roundtable her Treasury held with regulators to get them to boost economic growth, one government official said.
The official, granted anonymity to speak candidly, said businesses frequently brought up CMA as an issue. “We needed to send a very clear signal to the regulators that we weren’t messing about,” they added of the government’s approach to regulation.
Stepping in to replace Bokkerink in the interim is Doug Gurr, a former Amazon executive and veteran of clashes with the regulator he will now chair. No wonder large tech firms are feeling hopeful.
“The U.K. government is sending a clear signal, less over-enforcement please,” said Kay Jebelli, senior director for Europe at the Chamber of Progress, a U.S. trade group whose backers include Amazon, Meta, Apple and Google. “It’s good to have someone on the receiving end of CMA over-enforcement as the chair,” he added.
A looming fight with Big Tech
The CMA has long faced accusations of harming the U.K.’s attractiveness to tech firms with some of its decisions, such as initially blocking Microsoft’s takeover of gaming giant Activision Blizzard and undoing Meta’s purchase of Giphy.
More recently, it has turned its attention to partnerships between Big Tech and AI companies — an area in which it is seen to be out in front among its international counterparts, who will be following developments closely.
The world’s largest tech firms are also set to be on the receiving end of new powers the CMA took hold of in January to regulate digital markets. The authority opened an investigation into Google’s search business last week and a second probe was expected before the end of this month into Google’s and Apple’s mobile app stores, browsers and operating systems.
But those firms caution that the CMA’s new powers don’t sit comfortably with the government’s growth mission, something the CMA strongly disputes. “The regulator needs to take care to promote the innovation and growth that ministers have rightly asked regulators to prioritize,” warned big tech lobby group the CCIA last week after the Google announcement.
The CMA also worked closely with its U.S. and European counterparts, leading on investigations like that of Microsoft’s takeover of Activision, but with the election of Donald Trump the mood has shifted in the U.S. against other countries’ regulators enforcing and fining American tech firms.
Questions now turn to where Bokkerink’s departure leaves the CMA’s chief executive Sarah Cardell and its wider strategy which it published last week. Cardell said Bokkerink had “tirelessly championed consumers, competition and a level playing field for business. »
It also leaves those hoping for decisive CMA action against U.S. tech firms jittery. The CMA is shortly due to announce a provisional decision on an investigation into the cloud market, affecting Microsoft and Amazon.
“We urge the regulator to stay the course and take decisive action to create a fairer, more competitive cloud market that benefits businesses, consumers, and the wider digital economy,” said Nicky Stewart, from the Open CloudCoalition which is pushing for CMA action.
Sam Blewett contributed to this report.
