Home Tech Ex-Amazon UK boss’ competition watchdog role ‘a slap in the face’, unions say

Ex-Amazon UK boss’ competition watchdog role ‘a slap in the face’, unions say

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Ex-Amazon UK boss' competition watchdog role 'a slap in the face', unions say

The appointment of a former Amazon boss to lead the UK’s competition watchdog as it begins investigations into technology companies has been branded a “slap in the face to workers” by unions and Trumpian by consumer campaigners.

Business Minister Justin Madders was forced on Wednesday to deny the government was “in the pocket of Big Tech” after it hired Doug Gurr, former country manager of Amazon UK and president of Amazon China, to chair the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA). ).

He replaces Marcus Bokkerink, who agreed to resign on Tuesday after the government demanded ideas from regulators to boost economic growth.

Announcing the recruitment of Gurr, who will be acting chairman for up to 18 months, business secretary Jonathan Reynolds said he wanted to see the CMA “supercharge the economy with pro-business decisions that drive prosperity and growth”.

It means a top Amazon executive from 2011 to 2020 will oversee the watchdog as it launches a series of investigations into technology companies under a new competition regime in digital markets. The regime allows UK authorities to require dominant tech companies to change the way they operate to boost competition. The first investigation is into Google, and more investigations into competitive conditions at other companies will be announced in the coming months.

Speaking in parliament, Madders said: “Competition is vital to driving investment and growth and the CMA’s operational independence will be maintained.”

But Andy Prendergast, GMB national secretary, said Gurr’s appointment to a “body aimed at tackling unfair market monopolies is a slap in the face to workers”.

“We urge ministers to think again,” he said. “Amazon repeatedly and blatantly disregards workers’ rights, and its dominance of the market has suffocated our main streets.”

Rob Harrison, co-editor of Ethical Consumer, a consumer campaigning cooperative, said: “It’s like something out of the Donald Trump playbook. Amazon is a de facto monopoly in online book sales and dominates other areas where it operates.

“The CMA was starting to look like a proper regulator that didn’t seem to be in companies’ pockets. “Now it appears that the government is taking a step back in its attempt to properly regulate technology monopolies.”

Amazon has been contacted for comment. has He previously said he is committed to ensuring that workers “are treated with fundamental dignity.” and respect.”

The appointment comes five years later Rachel Reeves wrote a pamphlet which named Amazon, as well as Google and Faceboo,k as “platform capitalism monopolies” that “block competitive markets, evade taxes, and impose oppressive control over their employees.”

“Today, his government is putting one of Amazon’s people in charge of our key regulator, the CMA,” said Martha Dark, co-chief executive of Foxglove, a nonprofit technology campaigning organization. Dark raised fears about a possible conflict of interest between what is best for Britain and what is best for Amazon.

The Open Markets Institute (OMI), an antitrust think tank, described the move as a “strategic mistake” that would harm economic growth in the UK.

“Replacing the CMA chair with a former Amazon executive, at a time when a handful of American tech monopolies are tightening their grip on AI, is a huge strategic mistake that will hurt, rather than help, growth and innovation in the UK,” said Max. von Thun, director of Europe and transatlantic partnerships at IMO.

He said the CMA had been at the forefront of global efforts to beat back monopolies, as well as gaining new powers to tackle the technology sector.

Madders was asked in the House of Commons on Wednesday whether the CMA would “hold powerful tech giants to account for the benefit of customers”. He responded: “We are absolutely clear that we need to protect consumers, but we also need to drive growth.”

Gurr was born in Leeds to New Zealand parents, grew up partly in Kenya and went to Cambridge University. He began his career as a mathematics teacher in Denmark before taking up various positions in the civil service under the government of John Major.

He spent six years at consultancy McKinsey and then was development director at Asda, when it was owned by US retailer Walmart, before joining Amazon in 2011. He ran the group’s business in China, commuting from his home in Yorkshire, before heading up the Amazon store. UK division for four years from 2016.

Reeves said on Wednesday the decision to replace the CMA chairman was linked to differences of opinion over the regulator’s approach to growth. At an event at the World Economic Forum in Davos, he said Bokkerink had “recognised that it was time to move on and make way for someone” who shared “the mission and strategic direction” the government was taking.

Bokkerink warned against the risk of competition authorities becoming “vulnerable to short-term expediency or vested interests”.

Other regulators are rejecting accusations that they are to blame for the burden companies face.

Financial Conduct Authority chief executive Nikhil Rathi said in many cases the regulator was simply following government orders.

Those orders have included ensuring banks were enforcing sanctions, supporting mortgage customers during the cost of living crisis and providing a wealth of data in a matter of weeks to show whether banks were discriminating against customers based on their political beliefs. after NatWest’s row with Nigel Farage.

“People say it’s the FCA, but we were actually doing what (the government) asked us to do,” Rathi told the House of Lords financial services regulation committee on Wednesday.

The CMA and Gurr have been contacted for comment.

Additional reporting by Kalyeena Makortoff and Sarah Butler

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