The government's new legislative programme is not expected to include a bill to provide statutory underpinning to the Digital Markets Unit that is based within the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), the Financial Times has reported.
The decision is a serious blow to global efforts to curb the dominance of internet companies, including Google and Meta, and poses a sharp contrast with the policy of the European Union, which is moving towards enforcing stricter controls on technology giants to prevent them from using their dominance to push out smaller firms and disadvantage consumers.
The government announced its plans to set up the Digital Markets Unit (DMU) in 2020, a year after the CMA began a probe into the influence of US technology platforms and how they collected and used personal data and consumers' interests.
The DMU was expected to be given powers to devise codes of conduct for tech companies and impose fines of up to 10 per cent...