Billion-dollar regulatory fines fail to dent Big Tech Tech For the world’s biggest tech firms, regulatory penalties are no longer a consequential financial event. Alphabet, Apple, Meta and Amazon were fined a combined $7.8bn (£6.2bn) in 2025 for breaches of competition and privacy rules, according to a new Proton report. And while that sounds like a hefty number, in practice, it would have taken [...]
CMA pushes back on Google’s AI overviews Tech The UK’s competition regulator has fired an early warning shot at Google’s AI-powered search, in a move that suggests the era of unfettered scraping and summarising may be coming to an end. The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) on Wednesday set out proposed rules that would force Google to loosen its control over how search works in the UK. [...]
Mark Kleinman: Reeves’ ISA reforms pose more risk than reward Business Mark Kleinman is Sky News’ City Editor and the man who gets the Square Mile talking in his weekly City AM column Reeves’ ISA reforms pose more risk than reward If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. That sounds like the right epithet to apply to the Treasury’s approach to reforming individual savings accounts (ISAs), one of the [...]
Ministers to change UK merger rules in bid to speed up deals January 18, 2026 Whitehall is preparing a fundamental reset of the UK’s merger control regime, as ministers seek to accelerate deal-making and strip back some red tape for businesses. The Department for Business and Trade is expected to outline plans this week that would significantly change how the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) reviews takeovers and sector-wide competition [...]
Mark Kleinman: What’s in store for the Square Mile in 2026? January 8, 2026 Mark Kleinman is Sky News’ City Editor and the man who gets the Square Mile talking in his weekly City AM column Not great, not awful: a fair summary of my corporate predictions for 2025. On the plus side, I was right to forecast a bid for ITV, or at least part of it, and correct that Thames [...]
F1 fans left furious after Viagogo ticket failure December 15, 2025 Dozens of Formula 1 fans who spent enormous sums, including one couple who spent £16,173, have been left furious after Viagogo tickets failed to deliver promised entry to the Abu Dhabi post-race concerts, City AM understands. The concerts – headlined by Benson Boone, Metallica, Post Malone and Katy Perry – were explicitly advertised on the [...]
Less jargon, more advice: FCA rises to pro-growth challenge December 10, 2025 With a flurry of announcements ahead of the new year, the FCA is rising to the government’s growth mandate, writes Ali Lyon. For many of the men and women in charge of the UK’s largest financial regulator, a grey cloud will have hung heavy over any festivities last Christmas. Just a day before the seasonal [...]
Ticket touts face UK crackdown after Oasis outrage November 18, 2025 UK ministers are set to outlaw the resale of tickets for live events at prices above their original face value, in a move aimed at tackling professional touts and secondary ticket platforms like Viagogo and StubHub. The crackdown, due to be announced this week, represents the most aggressive intervention yet in a market long criticised [...]
Google ‘disappointed’ by CMA’s Android and Chrome ruling October 22, 2025 Google has criticised the UK competition watchdog’s decision to give its mobile platform “strategic market status” under sweeping new digital regulation. The Big Tech giant dubbed the move “disproportionate”, arguing that it risks undermining innovation. The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) confirmed on Wednesday that Google’s mobile services, including Android, the Play Store, Chrome and [...]
In focus: Getty and Shutterstock merger gets CMA probe October 20, 2025 The $3.7bn (£2.7bn) merger between Getty Images and Shutterstock is to be the subject of an in-depth probe from the UK’s competition watchdog after ‘substantial concerns’ were flagged. The deal, which was first announced in January, had already attracted the eye of the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) in June but will now be looked into [...]