Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Bill

Debate between Lord Offord of Garvel and Baroness Morgan of Cotes

Committee stage
Monday 5th February 2024 Grand Committee

[Lord Offord of Garvel (Con)]

I am happy to clarify that in writing.

[Baroness Morgan of Cotes (Con)]

My Lords, I am grateful to my noble friend the Minister for his response, which I will come back to in a moment.

I thank the noble Lords, Lord Clement-Jones and Lord Bassam, for their support for my amendment. It is small but, I hope, would be highly effective if it were accepted. The noble Lord, Lord Clement-Jones, and I spent a long time debating the Online Safety Act last year. It is clear that online marketplaces are not covered. My noble friend the Minister mentioned user-to-user sites and search engines. They are obviously online marketplaces and highly significant businesses—I have mentioned Amazon but there are others—and I do not think the Department for Business and Trade should be agnostic about harmful materials sold on these sites.

I thank the noble Lords who have spoken on Amendment 110 for the sensitivity that they have shown on this difficult topic. I am grateful to my noble friend for the offer of a meeting to look at the scope of the Bill before Report. I will of course withdraw Amendment 110 at this stage, but I look forward to that meeting and further discussions on this important topic.