January 21, 2025
Britain is facing a clash with Donald Trump and the new president’s cabal of Silicon Valley executives as UK regulators launch a competition crackdown on big tech.
The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) is poised to announce an in-depth investigation into Apple and Google ’s grip on the smartphone market, the second case the regulator has launched in a month.
It risks heightening tensions between the UK and Mr Trump, who was flanked by tech bosses during his inauguration and is being pressed to fight back against overseas regulation.
The CMA’s digital markets unit is expected to announce a “mobile ecosystems” investigation in the coming days that would look at issues such as the companies’ power in areas including smartphone browsers and app stores.
The investigation could see Apple and Google classed as having “strategic market status”, which would allow the regulator to impose what it considers to be pro-competitive rules or even fines.
Similar competition crackdowns moves in the EU have been challenged by Apple, which claims they inhibit innovation and put customers at risk.
Tim Cook, Apple’s chief executive, has reportedly complained to Mr Trump about EU fines , while Mark Zuckerberg, Meta’s chief executive, has said the company plans to “work with President Trump to push back on governments around the world”.
Brussels regulators have reportedly put major decisions on investigations into Apple, Meta and Google on hold – in part to assess the temperature of the Trump administration.
Cristina Caffarra, a competition economist, said: “If anyone tried anything that had the potential to make real change we now know there would be unknown retribution as Trump has indicated he would protect American platforms from Europe, and they bent the knee.
“There were four men in the front row [at Mr Trump’s inauguration] worth nearly a trillion dollars, it’s very clear he will protect them in some way.”
She added that Britain had “made a late start” in competition enforcement compared to Europe.
A spokesman for the Chamber of Progress, a Washington group representing tech companies, said: “Donald Trump certainly won’t be as permissive as Joe Biden was when it comes to foreign enforcers targeting US companies.”
Marc Andreessen, the venture capitalist who has been working closely with the Trump team, said last week that there were “enormous challenges” in the UK.
“Many foreign governments are now much more hostile to American tech than they were 20 years ago,” he told the New York Times. “We face enormous challenges in Europe. Enormous challenges even in the UK. There’s just these extremely draconian anti-tech, anti-business, anti-American policies.”
Members of Mr Trump’s administration have previously hit out at overseas competition authorities. Jamieson Greer, his new trade representative, last year criticised Korean competition regulations that “discriminate against US companies”.
Mr Trump himself criticised a £3.9bn EU fine on Google during his first term, saying: “They truly have taken advantage of the US, but not for long!”
The CMA announced an investigation into Google last week over concerns it was raiding news websites without permission to train artificial intelligence systems.
In response, Google said that it supported millions of businesses and that “overly prescriptive digital competition rules would end up stifling choice and opportunity for consumers and businesses” .
At the time, the regulator said it planned to announce another investigation by the end of the month.
