Hello, welcome to another MLEX podcast. My name is James Panicki from Mlex's Asia-Pacific team. It's great to be with you again this week.

Now, even if the word ad tech doesn't mean much to you,

you'll no doubt be familiar with a concept of advertising popping up on your screen when you type

something into a search engine or simply clicking around on social media. You'll also know that

every time you search for something or click on a link, your data is being collected to help

target advertising at you.

Globally, Google and Facebook are the two companies that dominate this market, and the

UK is certainly no exception, which is why the publication of the UK Competition Regulators'

final report into AdTech has attracted plenty of international headlines

and may even pave the way for future regulatory steps in other jurisdictions.

Of course, for now it's all a thought bubble. The report is purely a recommendation to government,

yet it should be enough to sound alarm bells with big tech companies back in the US.

We'll talk about some of the regulatory proposals that have emerged from this document

with our reporter Victoria Ibitoye in just a moment.

But first, for an overview, I'm joined from London by Simon Zakaria,

a senior MLEX reporter who covers antitrust.

Now, Simon, what were some of the big ideas,

some of the big themes that emerged from this report?

So this was the Competition of Market Authority's final report

from its market study into online platforms and digital advertising,

and it launched the study a year ago. And it was basically designed

to assess the general ad tech market, but in particular ended up focusing on the market power

...