"The current administration has signaled that it is very pro-business and wants to make it as easy as possible for these new fintech business models such as prediction markets and crypto to operate."
After an extensive two-and-a-half-year investigation, the CMA published its findings in July 2025. The report was explicit: Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Microsoft together account for roughly 80% of the UK's cloud services market, a duopoly so deeply entrenched that the watchdog recommended both companies be designated with strategic market status.
The penalty the bureau is proposing would either be three times the value of the benefit derived from Google's allegedly anticompetitive practices or, "if that amount cannot be reasonably determined," three per cent of Google's annual worldwide gross revenues. Google said that could leave it paying up to $91-billion - a sum it described as "shocking, gargantuan" and "unprecedented in Canadian history" because it is hundreds of times larger than the biggest criminal fines ever imposed.
Apple and Google, the two companies that collectively control how more than six billion people access the internet from their pockets, are now facing coordinated antitrust enforcement actions across North America, Europe, Asia, and beyond. The simultaneous pressure marks a structural shift in how governments worldwide approach platform power.
The crunch moment in Google's antitrust battles with the Justice Department over its ad tech stack looms ever closer, with Justice Leonie Brinkema expected to issue her remedies ruling by the close of Q1. While these deliberations take place in the chambers of a courtroom in the Eastern District of Virginia, developments elsewhere underscore the political undercurrents at play, namely the push to limit Big Tech's power.
Consumers have grown so weary of AI-generated content and straight-up slop, they're taking extra time to find work made by real people. And some brands are going even further. Instead of airbrushing flaws, they're celebrating them - even going so far as to seek out imperfections in the influencer marketing deals they're planning. The dirty countertop or overflowing garbage can in the background is no longer grounds for a reshoot; it's a way to let viewers know that what they're watching is, well, real.
The government has named former Amazon executive Doug Gurr as its preferred candidate to become permanent chairman of the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), cementing a leadership change designed to align the regulator more closely with its pro-growth agenda. Peter Kyle confirmed that Gurr, who has held the role on an interim basis since January last year, will be put forward for a full five-year term, subject to a non-binding hearing by the Commons business and trade select committee.
Limy's tech aims to show brands how AI agents are driving sales for their businesses - and optimize AI to drive even more sales. Limy integrates directly with a brand's content delivery software to detect when AI agents visit that advertiser's site and which prompts led to a purchase. Based on these insights, brands can improve how they show up in popular large language models by allocating more ad spend to specific prompts that perform better among agents.
Notice that Google doesn't refute the allegations. The exact details of the EU investigation haven't been reported, but Google is no doubt still feeling burned after evidence surfaced in the DOJ's 2023 search antitrust trial about its opaque search ad pricing. Jerry Dischler, then GM and VP of Google Ads, testified that Google would increase ad prices by up to 10% when it needed to meet investor revenue expectations. He jokingly referred to the practice as "shaking the couch cushions."
Gail Slater, the top antitrust enforcer at the Justice Department, announced Thursday that she has left her post, just weeks before the agency's next major tech monopoly trial against entertainment giant Live Nation is set to begin. "It is with great sadness and abiding hope that I leave my role as AAG for Antitrust today," Slater posted from her personal X account. Slater thanked the staff of the Antitrust Division and called the role "the honor of a lifetime." In a statement, Attorney General Pam Bondi thanked Slater for her service, but did not directly address questions about what precipitated her departure or who would take over as the acting leader of the Division.
The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) originally fined DSG Retail £500,000 ($673,000) in 2020, the maximum financial penalty allowed under the Data Protection Act 1998 (DPA 1998) - the relevant legislation at the pre-GDPR time. Its monetary penalty notice (MPN) was upheld by the Court of Appeal's first-tier tribunal but later reversed by the upper tribunal [PDF], which sided with DSG Retail and, if that decision was final, would have effectively nullified the ICO's fine.
