The current investigation into Google will show how they can work together in practice
Joining forces to tackle the challenges of digital markets: Regulatory authorities in the UK have already been working on cross-sectoral cooperation for some time in order to tackle the new challenges posed by the evolution of digital markets. In July 2020, the Digital Regulation Cooperation Forum (DRCF) was established to facilitate cooperation between the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), Ofcom, the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) and the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). The DRCF will allow these authorities to develop joined-up regulatory approaches, and to build shared skills and capabilities. As part of its plan of work for 2021, the DRCF pledged to focus on joint work between data protection and competition regulation.
The CMA and the ICO seek ways to work together: Yesterday, the CMA and the ICO issued a lengthy joint statement, in which they set out their view of how this relationship should play out. The two authorities believe that competitive digital markets generally lead to better privacy outcomes, and that strong privacy safeguards result in higher consumer benefit – however there are cases where goals may not align. For example, when seeking to overcome barriers to competition by providing third parties with access to personal data, or in cases where data protection requirements may favour large, integrated platforms over smaller suppliers. Where those tensions may be at play, the two authorities note that they can be overcomed by designing data access remedies in a data protection-compliant way, and by assessing data transfers on a case-by-case basis rather than adopting a rule of thumb whereby data transfers between different companies are always seen as problematic.
The Google case may provide a practical example of collaboration: The statement set out broad, general principles, and left plenty of room for interpretation as to how the collaborative approach will work in practice. The CMA’s current investigation into Google’s ‘Privacy Sandbox’ could soon provide a practical example. The CMA is assessing the implications for competition of the disabling of third-party cookies in the Chrome browser, while the ICO is assessing whether Google’s proposals comply with data protection and ePrivacy rules.
Source: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/ico-and-cma-set-out-blueprint-for-cooperation-in-digital-markets
