The UK’s Competition & Markets Authority yesterday announced the formal launch of its new Digital Markets Unit. It will – the competition regulator says – “oversee plans to give consumers more choice and control over their data” and “promote online competition and crack down on unfair practices” in the digital market place “which can often leave businesses and consumers with less choice and more expensive goods and services”.
The new unit is part of efforts in the UK, and elsewhere, to better regulate the big digital platforms like Google and Facebook. That regulation includes increasing the responsibilities of platforms in relation to offensive, abusive and misleading content, and also stopping the biggest platforms from unfairly or inappropriately exploiting their market dominance and the user data they amass.