Abstract
AbstractIn 2020, a new platform‐regulatory model was initiated in the United Kingdom. The main focus of this article is on the development of the Digital Regulators Cooperation Forum (DRCF), set up to regulate the continually changing challenges posed by major platforms. The British model has drawn on UK competition regulation, collegial governance of international banking, and international ‘agile’ regulation debates. The backdrop to this ‘neo‐regulatory' development has been Brexit (the UK's withdrawal from the European Union). In late 2021, for the first time, the DRCF became a serious focus of parliamentary scrutiny, with recommendations for reform. Assessment of its effectiveness now largely awaits the enactment of statutory powers by the UK Parliament regarding first, ‘online harms’, and second, the use of pro‐competitive regulation in digital markets. Whether the DRCF's model will have exemplary appeal beyond the United Kingdom is an open question.
Highlights
This article analyses the current restructuring of platform regulation in the United Kingdom in response to the multifold challenges posed by major platforms
This agenda has crystallised during the geopolitical reorientation of the British state, which has been driven by Brexit, the UK's formal withdrawal from the European Union (EU) on 31 December 2020, following the June 2016 referendum on EU membership
It asked the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) to establish a Digital Markets Taskforce (DMTF), which was joined by Ofcom and the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO)
Summary
This article analyses the current restructuring of platform regulation in the United Kingdom in response to the multifold challenges posed by major platforms. British regulatory innovation undoubtedly has specific national characteristics, the UK's policy agenda is not unique It has aligned with an international consensus that ‘ex ante regulation is needed to address the market dominance of the very largest digital platforms’ The World Economic Forum (WEF, 2018, 2020), a non‐governmental, agenda‐setting global business lobby, calls for transformed governance structures and policy‐making models and espouses ‘agile governance’ Both bodies' thinking, applicable to digital platforms, has been influential in the United Kingdom, which in November 2020 became a signatory of the OECD's Agile Nations Charter (HM Government, 2019, 2020).. The Aukus defence pact announced on 15 September 2021 between Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States—aimed at China's containment—typifies Britain's new search for tailored alliances
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