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There was probably a relief to the British competition regulator to get a good review this week. Margherita della Valle, the Vodafone CEO sang her praise after receiving an approval for a merger of £ 16.5 billion with three UK, saying that the EU should follow the British approach.
Compliments are in the absence of supplying the competence of competition and market. Government forced Marcus Bokkerink as a chair because he didn’t think growth was taken seriously enough. His successor, Doug Gurr, former Amazon chief of UK, is neatly subject “A regulatory environment that stimulates the highest possible level of business investments.”
It is tempting to enroll in their political efforts by antitrust authorities instead of focusing on the market maintenance competitive. There is a lot of things about: China this week revived Antitrup’s Google Investigation and Nvidia Investigation to fight the US because of the tariff he threatened with Donald Trump.
In the meantime, the EU is tormented by whether its heavy antitrustic approach has held Europe from construction companies that can compete with the USA’s technological giants in China. Mario Draghi, former President of the European Central Bank, proposed In the last year in the report that the EU should cease to be careful in consolidation.
Forcing technocrats to at the same time follow multiple goals generally do not work well. “They are not suitable for making compromises that politicians face. They should do one job properly,” one lawyer for the competition says. The government had the last word about merging in the UK, but made the regulation independent in 2002: if it wants such powers, it should be said.
But regulators should not act in political and judicial vacuum, imposing their theories of economic damage without confronting the consequences of failure. Although it would be wrong for a government that is desperate to harass the growth of CMA for a change in its purpose, the latter should not be immune from attacks or any of its decisions.
It is fair to criticize that CMA has acted in recent years, especially after the break after Brexit 2021, when he no longer had to postpone himself for the EU at international folds. The questions came to the head of 2023 when it was finally approved Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard of $ 75 billion after 21 months of uncertainty, after it initially stood out globally blocking it.
This crystallized different complaints on CMA. One is that it takes a long time to make decisions and includes companies in what one lawyer calls “Miasmom uncertainty” without defining exactly what he cares. “They connect you in knots with a trillion of the questions and you eventually started,” says one executive director.
Another complaint is that at a global level he moved to Antitruist’s activism, even when the UK market was only a small part of the international merger. It is among the national regulators that has progressed a stricter approach to taking over US technological companies, including Lina Khan, who is now leaving as a chairman of the US Federal Commission for Trade.
The mood has changed and Gurr’s appointment is not a coincidence, given how heavy US companies have shoved behind the scene of the CMA attitude. Even one former CMA official says he lost part of the proportion and refrained it once, becoming opaque and official.
There are structural holes in the way CMA works. His antitrust decisions make the plates, with limited basics for the court appeal. This is contrary to the American system, which has been a few efforts of FTC to restrain the business under Khan upset by courts. It was also difficult to hire business people to sit with economists on Ploče.
The appearance is a body that has often worked slowly, inefficiently is a little need to address the outside world. This is not just a view of companies that would rather just continue taking over and not bothered, but even an enlightened elements of CMA itself. Sarah Cardell, Executive Director, said that he wants to be more transparent and less opponent.
Although CMA has to change, Gurr has not indicated so far that he intends to divert it from his fundamental role to strengthen the competition and serve the benefits of consumer. The government may want to push things further by inserting the goal of encouraging growth and investment in its formal mandate.
My advice is, don’t. That could make the title, but it would cause confusion, interfere with the CMA -ei reforms were not helpful. Technocrats are pushed in the right direction.
