Other concerns included Gurr’s “time management” (he seems set to continue in his role as director of the Natural History Museum); the CMA’s historic slowness in launching market investigations to protect consumers, despite its staff body having doubled to 1,200 members in 10 years; and, in particular, Gurr’s ties to Amazon.
MPs pressed him on whether he would step back from an upcoming decision on whether or not to impose bespoke and proactive regulatory rules reserved for companies with “substantial and entrenched market power” and annual sales of over £1bn in the UK, or over £25bn worldwide, known as “Strategic Market Status”, on Amazon’s web services subsidiary. This decision comes after an investigation found that Amazon and Microsoft alone dominate the UK’s cloud services market, which could be landing people with higher costs and less choice, as well as leading to less innovation and lower quality of service for businesses.
On whether he’d recuse himself from the Amazon decision, Gurr answered: “We will take it on a case-by-case basis.” (“You will understand why we are concerned by that answer,” replied Byrne.)
Throughout his responses to MPs, Gurr struck a humble tone, with a lot of nodding and thank yous. “Thank you, chair, for setting those points out so clearly; that is incredibly helpful,” he said, before launching into an explanation of “why growth matters.” (“You don’t need to plug that too much,” Byrne responded. “We are all pretty keen on growth on this side of the table, too.”) He spoke at length about the importance of business investment and the factors hindering it, as well as the need for a “predictable” regulatory environment. He emphasised his intentions to focus more on consumer protection.
Tim Cowen of Preiskel&Co told openDemocracy that Gurr’s appointment was “a bad look”, adding that the appointment process and selection had been “bizarre”.
The Business and Trade Committee raised similar concerns over the hiring process. In a report published after the hearing, it concluded that Gurr “has the professional competence and independence required to be appointable”, but issued a warning over the fact that he was the only candidate being considered. This is “not the hallmark of a robust recruitment process,” it said.
“We do not accept these criticisms,” a spokesperson for the Department of Business and Trade told openDemocracy. “Doug Gurr brings a wealth of experience from multiple sectors, and over the past 12 months has worked in lockstep with CMA leadership to reform the organisation. The Government has reaffirmed the CMA’s independence while ensuring it defends consumers, supports fair competition and helps to grow the economy.”
When openDemocracy followed up to ask the department whether Gurr was the only candidate considered for the role, a spokesperson declined to comment.
Representatives for the CMA declined to comment, and Gurr did not respond to a request for comment.
Representatives for the Commissioner for Public Appointments directed openDemocracy to the Department for Business and Trade, but confirmed that “the Commissioner was consulted – as required under the Code – on the Senior Independent Member for the panel.”
