When Marcus Bokkerink won his phone on Monday evening in January, he did not know that it would cost him his work.
Gareth Davies, permanent secretary of the business department, informed it that a statement would be published the next day, saying that Bokkerink had resigned from his post as president of the British competition regulator. Its replacement would be the former boss of Amazon UK Doug Gurr. He was not presented as optional.
Following months of government frustration with the Competition and market authority In order not to do enough to support growth, the ministers had decided that it was time to take measures, according to people knowing the incident.
While the telephone call occurred, business secretary Jonathan Reynolds was by plane for Davos to parade the government’s pro-growth identification information before the CEOs of large technological companies and financial services, according to an ally.
Bokkering’s defense was, play A, designed to “run the heads” and “attract people’s attention” to the government’s desire to intervene, said an event manager. “If you spoke to business leaders, you would know they all thought that the CMA took too long [and] spanked with decisions. »»
After taking off, an amazed bokkerink summoned a video council meeting by video. During the following hours, several members proposed to resign to protest against what they considered as the raw tactics of the government, according to two people knowing the events.
In the end, after almost 24 hours of discussions, Bokkerink decided that it was preferable for the agency to concede and stop.
The CMA, Bokkerink and the Department of Affairs and Commerce have all refused to comment on the details of the incident.
Bokkerink’s departure has followed months of mounting pressure from Sir Keir StarmerThe government of the state, when it sought to align the sprawling weapons of the state with its central mission to launch economic growth.
The first sign that the CMA was in the government’s reticle came in October when Starmer said that the leaders gathered for the International Summit of Investments in the United Kingdom that “we will make sure that each regulator of this country, in particular Our economic and competition regulators takes on growth as seriously as seriously as this play does. ”
Bokkerink was in the room, nestled among the leaders of Alphabet and Brookfield.
A few weeks later, another salvo arrived in the form of a letter from Reynolds and Chancellor Rachel Reeves sent the day before Christmas which asked the main regulators to submit five pro-growth initiatives to strengthen the confidence of companies.
The CMA’s response three weeks later by repeating what was in the agency’s recently published annual plan project was considered “particularly disappointing,” said an official. “Jonny and Rachel wrote to all regulators before Christmas. The CMA of all has not correctly read the assignment. »»
The government was also unhappy that the agency published its response, frustrating control of ministers on the story, according to people knowing the situation. The withdrawal of Bokkerink arrived a few days later.
With him, the ministers are already tightening the reins of the agency. This week, the government has published its “strategic buffoon” which defines its expectations for the management and priorities of the CMA. The previous iteration of November 2023 contained passages highlighting the “strong and independent voice of the agency”. The section was visibly lacking in this week’s missive.
What has been included are the instructions according to which the regulator must “unambiguously reflect the need to improve the attractiveness of the United Kingdom as an international investment destination”.
The business department highlighted a speech by Reynolds announcing the Bouvillon on Thursday, in which it declared that the government “believed in effective and independent institutions”.
Gurr, the new interim president who should become permanent, insisted this week that the group would still protect consumers despite its modified objective.
But it is obvious that the ministers want the next chapter of the AMC to be less aggressive.
“The regulatory pendulum tends to swing in both directions over the years,” said Tom Smith, a former legal director of the AMC who is now associated with Geradin Partners.
“For a long time, the authorities of the competition intervened quite rarely. Then, they started to intervene more often to expiate to allow agreements. . . This has led to excessive market power, “he added. “Now the pendulum has failed.”
Gurr told the FT that the agency brought “no change in the bases, the fundamental mission, the objectives, but I do not underestimate how impactable the quality of the process is.”
The regulator has undertaken to accelerate the merger surveys of the AMC – the objective of many cases – considerably reducing its periods of merger notification and its deadlines for simple transactions.
The former Amazon leader had direct experience in the AMC merger process during the technology giant fight with the regulator on his minority investment in Deliveroo, which was finally authorized in 2020.
Gurr stressed that there is no conflict of interest with his former employer, which he left four years ago.
Beyond the attention that the activity of the agency’s mergers attracts, the CMA also tries to put organizational headaches behind.
The same week that Bokkerink was ousted, it appeared that the antitrust regulator was in the process of trying to reduce staff figures by 10% After a “budgeting error”. The error was discovered last summer. Several people involved in surveillance are no longer at the agency, depending on people knowing the situation.
The ACM has also spoken to the government for years if some of its less important commercial units should remain under its umbrella, according to people with knowledge of the discussions.
These include the subsidy council unit, which monitors the way subsidies are given by the public authorities and the role of the AMC as an appeal body for other regulators such as Offat , said the people.
Gurr said it was “”In the end, the government how they choose to structure and set up regulators “, but such changes had not been at the center of conversations in the past three weeks.
The CMA is nevertheless in a difficult place. While the director general Sarah Cardell had trouble showing that the agency takes seriously the government’s growth mandate, the regulator has also just received new powers under the digital market regime to settle in the fields where Big Tech dominates, like online research.
The guard dog Announced the surveys within the framework of the new legislation last month in Google and Apple. An independent CMA panel recommended a similar probe on Amazon.
The government said in its new Bouvillon this week that the AMC should use its new powers “flexibly” and “unlock growth opportunities across the United Kingdom”.
“”I was approached [by the government] And I had two very simple questions, ”recalls Gurr. “What problem are you trying to solve and why do you devil do you think I’m the answer?”
