The UK Government has revealed plans to empower a tech watchdog to issue billion-pound fines.

Through the recently created Digital Markets Unit (DMU), the Government aims to protect small businesses, boost competition, and provide consumers with more control over how their data is used.

With the new powers, it will be able to fine major tech giants, such as Facebook and Google, if they are found to have breached consumer and business protection rules. These fines could potentially be up to 10% of the company’s global turnover, or 5% of the daily global turnover for every day an offence continues.

In the case of companies like Facebook owner Meta or Apple, this could potentially run into billions of pounds.

Furthermore, senior managers could also face civil penalties if their companies they work for don’t comply with investigations.

The tech watchdog will also be able to arbitrate disputes between tech platforms and UK news providers, helping publishers receive fair compensation when their content is used on digital platforms.

“The dominance of a few tech giants is crowding out competition and stifling innovation,” said Digital Minister Chris Philip.

The new rules include requiring tech companies to be more transparent with how their platforms work, informing businesses of any changes that would affect them.

For example, these include any adjustments the companies make to their algorithms, which could potentially steer traffic away from certain sites or posts.

The new rules will also help make app stores fairer, making terms more transparent to help developers compete.

In addition, the new rules will help people opt out of targeted advertising and make it easier to change default search engine on their phones.

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There are also plans to designate tech giants with ‘strategic market status’. This will require them to report takeovers before completion in a bid to curb their ability to buy up competing companies.

Consumer Minister Paul Scully said: “The customer is always right, but sometimes they don’t get a choice. We’ll stop companies from using their power to harm customers, whether they’re limiting shoppers’ choices to certain software on their devices or making it hard for people to decide how their data is used.”

Created last year, the DMU is part of the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA). According to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS), the DMU will have its powers backed by legislation in “due course”.

Currently, there is speculation that a draft bill will be mentioned in the Queen’s speech next week.

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