Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, whether he has made an assessment of the effect of Google's decision to pass the Digital Services Tax onto its advertising customers on the level of competition in digital advertising; and whether he has had discussions with representatives of Google on that issue.

The Digital Services Tax is a proportionate tax addressing widely held concerns with the tax paid by digital businesses. Pricing strategies reflect a range of factors and are a matter for businesses.

It is for the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), as the UK’s independent competition authority, to investigate specific markets and the behaviour of specific companies. The CMA’s recent market study found that Google and Facebook have market power in search, social media and online advertising markets. In response, on 27 November 2020, the Government announced it is establishing a new pro-competition regime for digital markets, housed in the CMA. We will consult on the form and function of the Digital Markets Unit in early 2021, and legislate to put it on a statutory footing as soon as parliamentary time allows.