Britain's competition regulator has finally come up with a plan to control Google's huge search business. However, a shift in the political wind in favour of big tech and the money it invests makes it more threatening and intimidating.
The Competition and Markets Authority spent years setting up a regime to intervene in the operations of tech giants such as Google, Apple and Amazon, saying it needed special expertise and powers to drive competition in the digital economy.
But after Britain received new powers, the Labour government said its need to grow the economy meant tough regulation was now out. The CMA, chaired by a former Amazon executive, has touted a targeted approach as the way to meet its goal of reining in big tech without throttling investment from an industry that has spent tens of billions of pounds in Britain.
On Tuesday, it proposed designating Google as having "strategic market status" in search, giving it the power to impose conditions on the U.S. tech firm such as changing the way it ranks search results or offering users more choice.
Competition experts said the designation was no surprise, coming long after similar moves in the United States and the European Union.
Nonetheless, the CMA's first designation is being closely watched by tech groups, lawyers, and business owners to see how it operates in the new political climate.
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