Tech companies mainly control the world we live in, and it would not be wrong to say that, to some extent, they have also been controlling our lives. However, UK's Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) is looking to change that as the body has introduced a new bill to ensure that the tech companies breaching the rules written in the bill face massive fines.

UK's latest Digital Consumer Bill is a step in the right direction to break the dominance of tech giants such as Apple, Google, Amazon, and more

So, what will this new bill do? Well, based on information from the bill, companies with "strategic market status" in digital services must comply with the rules written in the bill, or the Digital Marketing Unit (DMU) will be free to impose a fine. Interestingly, UK's Competition and Marketing Authority did not name any companies in the bill. However, there is a threshold based on an annual turnover. The threshold states that companies with a global turnover above £25 billion or domestic turnover above £1 billion will be monitored. This means that Apple, Google, Amazon, and a few other companies will be under scrutiny.

But what will these companies be required to do? The UK government has said that the DMU could ask the monitored companies to be more upfront and transparent about how app stores and review system works, and the agency itself would have the authority to impose certain conditions. This means that DMU could ask Apple and Google to be more lenient in their policies, which would involve allowing for 3rd party app stores or sharing data with other companies in the same industry.

Under the new bill, Apple, Google, and other companies will also have to make it easier for users to cancel their contracts. Companies would need to send a reminder to the user when their trial or introductory offer is coming to an end, and on top of that, the companies would need to provide a seamless way of getting out of contracts as well.

This bill is a big thing because if Apple and other companies fail to abide by the rules listed in the bill, DMU will have the authority to slap a fine totaling up to 10% of their global turnover. So, for instance, if Google earned £225 billion last year, the fine would be around £22.5 billion, which is not a small amount by any means.

The bill will be heard in the parliament today and, based on the hearing, could come into effect pretty soon. We will keep you posted as we hear more, but this is certainly a good move by the UK government as it will ensure that companies like Apple and Google are not freely abusing the power they have in their hands.

Source: Gov.uk