UK slaps Google Search with special market status, making way for stricter regulations

UK slaps Google Search with special market status, making way for stricter regulations

The United Kingdom’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) on Friday designated Google with a special status in the market for online search that would enable the regulator to enforce stricter regulations. The CMA has designated Google as having “strategic market status” in the search and search advertising markets, which means the company has such “a…

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#UK competition probe of mobile browsers finds Apple-Google duopoly is ‘anti-innovation’

#UK competition probe of mobile browsers finds Apple-Google duopoly is ‘anti-innovation’

A U.K. competition authority investigation of Apple and Google’s mobile browsers has concluded that the mobile duopoly’s policies are “holding back innovation” and could also be limiting economic growth. “Mobile browsers are apps which provide the primary gateway for consumers to access the web on their mobile devices, and hence for businesses to reach them…

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#Vodafone and Three’s B merger cleared by UK regulators — with conditions

#Vodafone and Three’s $19B merger cleared by UK regulators — with conditions

The U.K.’s antitrust regulator has greenlighted the longstanding planned merger between two of the country’s biggest telecommunication operators. Vodafone and Three constitute two of the U.K.’s four infrastructure-owning mobile network operators (MNOs), alongside O2 and EE. As such, when the duo revealed plans to merge in a $19 billion transaction last June, it was always likely…

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#UK competition probe of mobile browsers finds Apple-Google duopoly is ‘anti-innovation’

#Apple’s mobile browser policies and Google pact are ‘holding back innovation,’ UK regulator says

An inquiry group setup by the U.K.’s antitrust authority has provisionally found that Apple’s policies are “holding back innovation in the browsers we use to access the web on mobile phones.” While the report focuses substantively on Apple, it also highlighted a revenue-sharing agreement with Google, noting that the duo “earn significant revenue” when Google…

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