Proton CTO urges the UK to start enforcing competition laws against Big Tech before it’s ‘too late’
Proton CTO urges the UK to start enforcing competition laws against Big Tech before it’s ‘too late’
Publish Date: 2026-05-29 09:15:00
Source Domain: www.techradar.com
- The Coalition for App Fairness urges the UK to crack down on Big Tech
- Proton’s CTO criticized the lack of enforcement of existing competition laws
- Delaying enforcement may stifle innovation, critics warn
The makers behind one of the best VPN and secure email services are demanding that the UK government stop dragging its feet and start enforcing competition laws against tech giants like Apple and Google.
Speaking on the BBC’s Today Programme, Proton’s Chief Technology Officer Bart Butler publicly backed an urgent open letter sent this week to the UK Government and the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA).
The letter, coordinated by the Coalition for App Fairness and signed by major tech players like Epic Games, Mozilla, and DuckDuckGo, warns that the UK’s landmark Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act (DMCCA) is failing to deliver on its promises due to sluggish enforcement.
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For everyday users, this lack of regulatory action has a direct impact on daily internet life. Without proper competition, the coalition warns, consumers are often stuck with default, locked-in ecosystems that restrict choice, inflate prices, and limit access to stronger privacy and security features.
“Nothing more but words on a page”
Passed with overwhelming cross-party support, the DMCCA was designed to break the stranglehold that a small number of tech giants have over the UK’s digital economy.
However, critics argue that regulators are moving too slowly, allowing dominant platforms to entrench their monopolies across mobile browsers, search engines, and app stores.
“It’s now widely understood that Apple and Google wield extraordinary power over the online economy,” Butler stated following his BBC appearance, deeming legislation, like the DMCCA in the UK and the Digital Markets Act (DMA) in Europe, as “essential.”
Butler went on explaining that, without robust competition rules, these companies will “continue to stifle…
