Tech giants need new competition rules, UK government report finds

DAMIEN MEYER | AFP | Getty Images

This photograph taken on September 28, 2017, shows a smartphone being operated in front of GAFA logos (acronym for Google, Apple, Facebook and Amazon web giants) as background in Hédé-Bazouges, western France.

Tech companies like Google, Facebook, Amazon, Apple and Microsoft are stifling competition and innovation and should be subject to new antitrust rules, a new U.K. government report on Wednesday said.

The 150-page document, commissioned by Britain’s finance minister, said the U.K.’s competition rules “must be updated for the digital age” to increase consumer choice and give users more control over their data. The report stopped short of calling for big tech companies to be broken up, an idea proposed last week by U.S. presidential candidate Sen. Elizabeth Warren.

“The digital sector has created substantial benefits but these have come at the cost of increasing dominance of a few companies which is limiting competition and consumer choice and innovation,” said Jason Furman, former chief economic advisor to ex-President Barack Obama, who chaired the group behind the report.