Debate around the proposed takeover of Activision Blizzard by Microsoft and AI safety dominated July’s headlines. What these two examples both have in common is tech regulation – and each situation requires a careful balancing act.
On the one hand, the tech sector must be free to drive innovation. On the other, consumer interests must be protected. Curbing monopolies keeps the market competitive, but can it be done while retaining investment from major tech players into the UK?
The role of government and regulators is to tread this tightrope and find a way for the tech sector to flourish while serving society as a whole.
Since Microsoft announced plans to acquire Activision for $68.7bn in 2022, there’s been an ongoing struggle between the tech giants and regulators, including the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) in the US and the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA). The CMA has expressed concern that the deal would damage competition and make Microsoft too powerful, particularly in the cloud gaming space....