UK Rushes Through Bill To Copy EU's Digital Markets Act
Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story:
After years of promising legislation against Big Tech firms such as Apple, the UK has now sped up the process to get Digital Markets Act clone passed before its general election.
Up to now, the UK's progress on its tub-thumping insistence it will control Big Tech has been slow to the point of ridicule. It announced a government department in 2020, but didn't start it until 2021. Then when it was started with at least 60 staff, the UK literally did not give it powers to do anything, not until 2023.
However, also in 2023, the finally active Digital Markets Unit (DMU) did get going with a Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Bill. While its stated purpose is to lead to establishing codes of conduct for Big Tech firms, it's a step toward emulating the existing Digital Markets Act in the EU.
[...] So far, it's all big talk. How the details will work has yet to be hammered out.
The bill was, though, just one of very many legislative bills making their way through the UK parliamentary system - until this week. On May 22, 2024, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak called for a General Election, and that immediately changed proceedings.
[...] Bills cannot be carried over from one Parliament to another, so the UK has been picking which it will rush through, and which it will abandon. Consequently, on May 23, Parliament debated and passed the bill.
[...] "We believe overall that this is a good Bill that takes the first steps to regulating the behaviour of the big tech companies, which is long overdue," said Baroness Jones of Whitchurch (Labour).
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