14 minute read
competition
Time to Act?
The arrival of big tech – and the way it captures and uses data – has transformed the digital marketplace, But it has also allowed the world’s largest companies to shut out competition and create dupe versions of popular products. The Digital Markets Act, which is set to come into force in 2023, could be a game-changer
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Alexa Robertson
IN A GLOBAL first for big tech, new regulation is being enacted that could mark the end of online monopolies by the big tech firms. The Digital Markets Act will introduce restrictions in the EU to radically change how these tech giants can handle users’ data and promote their services.
Data has become one of the world’s most valuable resources. And while the big five companies – Amazon, Meta, Apple, Alphabet (Google) and Microsoft – have until now used their huge data resources to cut potential competitors out of the market, the Digital Markets Act promises to shake things up.
The Act will come into force in the EU in October 2023, says the Institute of Analytics, with other nations considering similar approaches to the same challenges. It will outlaw certain data practices that have consolidated power online, such as Amazon allegedly cloning best-selling products into its own range or forcing in-app purchases within search websites.
DAVID AND GOLIATH
Under the new regulation, tech companies will be required to make their digital platforms more open and transparent, as well as allowing interoperability where it is in the interests of the customer.
“This legislation came as an attempt to control the big five tech companies and their behaviours, particularly their monopolistic behaviours, and what we call their gatekeeping behaviours,” says Dr Clare Walsh, Director of Education at the Institute of Analytics. “We have an acknowledgement that when a company gets big, it has advantages of scale. But there’s a risk that can be perceived as them doing some shady things, such as evading monopoly laws and counterfeit laws.
“The intention of this regulation is to grant consumers and businesses new freedoms to use technology in the way they expect and want,” she adds. “This will undermine the big tech hegemony that has held the digital market, such as isolated systems and platforms that have locked users into using one-brand products.
“It will also undo restrictive practices that have closed the opportunity for competition.”
Through the Act, Europeans can uninstall App Store and install their own choice of apps, or uninstall Safari or Google. That’s a big change
DUPED?
Walsh points to fake, or dupe, products, which capitalise on big tech data to undercut the price of original products with very little of the development costs.
“If you’re a small company and you want to sell a product, you really have to have it on Amazon these days,” she explains. It’s quite difficult to reach out to the market if you’re not.
“Amazon, meanwhile, has access to all of the data on you, your company and your sales. And when you see these TikTok videos where influencers claim to have found an effective dupe version of an expensive product, that’s not accidental.
“Amazon has the ability to look at the sales data and create identical rival products, which they can then sell.
“And they will, of course, undercut your prices, because they haven’t had to do any of the product development. They haven’t had to advertise and create a demand for the product.”
Walsh says such practices make it “impossible” for small companies to compete because, as soon as they become successful, they are being brought down by cheaper versions of their products.
“There have been a number of legislative attempts to hold Amazon to account in the
law courts, but it’s just not working. If a small company can go to its government, rather than go face-to-face with big corporations’ lawyers, it will be far easier for them to address it.”
Another key aspect of the Digital Markets Act is to give consumers the right to uninstall all apps from their devices. As it stands, many versions of Apple devices, for example, do not allow for the removal of certain apps.
“The language around this is very dull, which I think is why many people aren’t paying attention, but uninstall rights are really important,” says Walsh. “There are some apps that you cannot uninstall from your phone, in particular, the App Store (Apple UK), which basically gives Apple complete and total control over who can and cannot have an app sold on their site.
“It gives the app the ability to charge much higher transaction fees, because you have to go through its payment portal.
“Through the Digital Markets Act, Europeans are going to be able to uninstall the App Store and install their own choice of apps, or uninstall Safari or Google. That’s a big change.”
NEW OPPORTUNITIES
Legislators are hoping the new Act will help level the playing field in the digital marketplace, although Walsh believes it will also provide an exciting opportunity for smaller businesses to connect with new customers.
“It really is only the big five that come under these legislations; nobody else has to worry. If I were a small business, I would be starting to look at opportunities to create add-ons and tie in or create alternative products and services, particularly in manufacturing,” she says.
Walsh is optimistic that the introduction of the Digital Markets Act may be the start of a longer-term change that will encourage consumers to seek out manufacturers that adopt more ethical, more sustainable business practices.
“Persuading people to adapt their behaviours is probably challenging – especially after going through a pretty major recession – but this is part of a much wider suite of legislation that’s coming in to start controlling these companies,” she explains.
“Take Google, for example. I think the definition of a monopoly used to be any company that controls 25% to 30% of a particular market. Because Google is also the search engine behind Safari – which is the default search engine used on Apple iPhones – it controls something like 90% of searches on iPhones in the US, which is ridiculous.
“There was a time when we would never have tolerated that kind of monopoly because it obviously had a negative effect on competition and fair practice.
“I think this is a turning point in the way governments relate to these companies, because they’ve had enough. They are beginning to start bringing them under governmental control, which they have been talking about for a long time.” n
s3: An effective cybercrime preventer
Malcolm Mason, Professional Services Consultant – Cloud and Data at Sure Business, discusses the benefits of the immutable S3 data storage
OVER RECENT YEARS, the digital
economy has transformed how we all do business. As technology evolves, it continues to become the lifeblood of innovation, growth and sustainability.
Data is critical to the success of a business, and data compromises can have catastrophic effects, including loss of revenue and reputation, breaches in compliance and regulation and damaging litigation.
It is therefore little wonder that businesses are highly protective of their data as the number of moving parts grows exponentially, exposing vulnerabilities across the expanding attack surface area.
That’s why at Sure Business we have introduced our Simple Storage Service (S3) as a secure, reliable way to store business data using the latest technology on the market.
CYBERSECURITY ARMS RACE
Cybercrime tactics have adapted to target mission-critical systems and data. Ransomware attacks are now a major threat to operational performance and business survival.
This has created an ongoing ‘arms race’ between cybercriminals and the IT industry – and as each one ups their game, the stakes get even higher.
This is how S3 storage and backup offers significant additional value, particularly where data immutability – also known as tamper-proof protection – is embedded.
S3 is a highly secure, scalable, reliable and affordable storage and archiving solution that is simple to use, accessible from anywhere and compatible with cloudbased and on-premises IT systems. When combined with immutability features, an additional layer of protection is added to ensure data cannot be tampered with.
SO, HOW DOES S3 STORAGE WORK?
S3 stores data files as ‘objects’ in S3 ‘buckets’ that are then managed using an intuitive cloud-based interface.
Sure Business’s S3 solution platform provides a highly secure and robust storage infrastructure for any data that is in need of protection.
Data versioning is protected with logical retrieval, restoration and preservation of all achieved information. This enables
S3 ensures criminals (and loose-fingered employees) are not able to tamper with or delete information
swift recovery from system failures and unforeseen downtime, where the service defaults to the most recently updated information of whatever document, file or record required.
The S3 protocol is gaining widespread popularity across cloud services, data protection applications and software-as-aservice (SaaS) solutions. Implementing this solution is a smart business decision due to its enhanced data protection capabilities, simplicity of operation and commercial accessibility and viability.
The standout critical feature is the immutability element of the service, which ensures criminals (as well as loose-fingered employees) are not able to tamper with or delete information, in line with data retention policies.
SCALABLE, RELIABLE, FUTURE-PROOF
Sure Business customers can integrate our S3 services with existing infrastructures as a core building block of formalised IT security processes, policy and governance.
S3 storage integrates with our cloudbased recovery-as-a-service (RaaS) backup and business continuity solution, offering peace of mind and operational assurance.
It also works with wider backup technologies designed for long-term archiving, including Sure’s own protection offering for Microsoft 365 services – OneDrive, SharePoint, email and Teams.
Crucially, with S3 storage there’s no devil in the detail. The solution is simplicity itself, with an easy-to-use interface and a simple charging structure offering exceptional value for money.
Sure Business’s data and security consultants are always available to discuss any aspect of your data storage, archiving and security needs. As a team of locally based experts, we understand the unique requirements of organisations across our islands and provide a bespoke service to meet all customer needs. n
FIND OUT MORE
If you’d like to know more about Sure Business’s S3 data storage and our other services, email contactus@sure.com
In conversation: Martin hall
Highvern’s Chief Executive reflects on a year that has seen the business thrive in a turbulent economic climate
HIGHVERN HAS JUST been through its
greatest evolution since its management buyout in 2016, building it into one of the most respected independent financial services providers in the Channel Islands.
Over the space of 12 months, the business has grown from a Jerseycentric business to a multi-jurisdictional organisation nearly double the size, collecting multiple awards along the way.
Few businesses have seen such success in the midst of the uncertain and constantly changing economic climate. Highvern Chief Executive Martin Hall discusses why 2022 has been the business’s most successful year yet, and the lessons learnt along the way.
How would you describe 2022 from a personal and a business perspective?
It has certainly been a transformational year in both respects. Twelve months ago, Highvern was a successful trust, family office and fund administration business but largely based in a single offshore jurisdiction. A year on, we offer our clients more services across six jurisdictions, all focused on the private capital markets in their various guises. From our start point, that’s some achievement.
My role has transformed in response to this growth, with us now having clients and more than 125 colleagues spread across so many more places. It means I spend a much higher proportion of my time travelling, which has always been something I relish.
Talking to people, finding out what they want to achieve and what I, or Highvern, can do to support that, is what is currently driving me.
What have been your year’s highlights?
Our organic growth has continued very strongly, which is positive proof that Highvern is a great business at its core. The recently announced acquisition of Genesis Trust & Corporate Services in the Cayman Islands brought two extremely strong businesses together, and the collaboration already taking place is really encouraging.
We announced our acquisitions in Guernsey and Switzerland, which feels some time ago now, and integration has been quick and smooth, to the credit of all colleagues involved.
In Ireland, our team is already winning significant client work, and the UK office has gained its first clients.
So, overall, that’s a positive outlook.
How much of Highvern’s growth was planned and how much was opportunity?
While we have grown rapidly, it has all been planned and done in a controlled way.
One thing we will never do is compromise what our clients expect of us. We knew we wanted to balance the diversification with a mix of acquisition and greenfield investment, and we carefully selected the businesses and teams based on making sure the fit was right.
We’re very happy that our homework has paid off in the way that it has.
What was the greatest hurdle in expanding across so many jurisdictions over such a short time?
It’s really no different to any other challenge in business; you make sure you constantly prioritise and re-prioritise so you’re dealing with the most important tasks.
Most of my career has been spent with responsibility for teams in different countries and I enjoy exploring the cultural differences and challenges that this throws up.
One of the key messages that all members of the Highvern team know is that we are completely agnostic on where the best ideas come from; a big part of our job is to make sure that they receive the oxygen they deserve.
It has certainly been a transformational year – we now offer our clients more services across six jurisdictions
How are you ensuring that Highvern retains its values, reputation and highquality service?
We do that in so many ways, but I like to think it’s because we keep things simple and consistent.
It’s a good story, too, which we share with new colleagues and clients – from our name, which captures a permanent sense of quality and aspiration, through to our mission statement, which is not about what we are, but what we do: setting new standards.
If this is what we aim for each day, the rest will take care of itself.
After such a successful year, what is Highvern’s next move?
What we do next will continue to be based on controlled and measured decisions. We have already taken some interesting technology investment decisions that we’ll implement in 2023 and we’re continuing to invest in hiring value-add expertise in all our locations, alongside continuing to invest in our existing staff.
What do you see as the biggest challenges in your sector right now?
The usual response to this question is the increasing regulatory environment we operate in. While this remains true, if handled right it can also be net positive, enabling our industry to become stronger.
The global economic and political environment is less controllable, so monitoring those developments remains as important as ever.
I’m sure that all businesses are also wrestling with the effects of inflation at the moment, so it’s important that we take the approach of balancing our support for clients and colleagues.
As a multi-jurisdictional business, how do you approach the question of travel, given that there is so much focus on climate change?
We are very conscious of the impact of our international travel, but it’s a fact of human nature that personal contact beats talking through a screen, so again it’s a question of finding the right balance.
Highvern has a very active ESG committee, run by colleagues and generously funded, making sure that we align our activities with as many of the UN sustainability goals as we can.
Our group-wide travel policy also encourages employees to consider the environmental impact of any business travel and offers incentives for those travelling in a more sustainable way.
We were delighted this year to be able to announce that Highvern in Jersey was climate positive in 2021 as a result of investment in the Durrell Rewild programme – a goal we will be looking to replicate across the wider group.
What is your mantra in business?
My own favourite used to be ‘keep it simple’, but more recently I think it has become ‘never be satisfied’.
This is not to say that we don’t pause and take stock of our achievements and celebrate success, but there are always ways to get better at what we do. n
FIND OUT MORE
To find out more about Highvern, visit highvern.com
