Friday 26 November 2021 2:32 pm

The head of Britains antitrust watchdog said he plans to pick his battles with tech companies carefully relying on EU counterparts to take the lead where necessary.

Andrea Coscelli, chief executive officer of the UKs Competition and Markets Authority, told Bloomberg he might let other agencies lead the way on tech regulation because some merger probes are better suited to certain courts and jurisdictions than others.

You cannot expect when there is a problem, every single agency to go after it, because we all have to make choices, Coscelli said.

Theres quite a lot of good stuff on tech thats happening in Brussels that will have a direct positive benefit for UK consumers, he added, noting that the EUs case on Amazons marketplace should have wider benefits despite the CMA not pursuing a similar case.

It comes after the EUs General Court fined Google 2bn in an anti-trust case hours after the UKs supreme court voted down a privacy case which would have seen 4.4m Brits receive payouts totalling 3bn.

Europes campaign to regulate big tech is spearheaded by MargretheVestager, the EUs competition policy lead, with the Commissions efforts casting a shadow over Britains approach to regulation. Vestager is in the process of taking on Amazon Marketplace over concerns the site gives its own products preferential treatment over other retailers.

Meanwhile, the UKs CMA today announced plans to go after Google over proposals to remove third party cookies from peoples browsers. The competition authority wants to ensure that Google does not restrict external companies from accessing user data in a way that harms competition in digital advertising markets.

In pursuit of a more joined up approach to tech regulation Coscelli will next week meet with the worlds top antitrust enforcers in London in order to discuss digital markets regulation. G-7 regulators are expected to discuss a cross-border framework for enforcing competition rules.

Read more: EU agree common position to curb US tech giants

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UK antitrust chief relies on EU in global drive to regulate big tech - City A.M.