Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment she has made of the impact of graphics processing unit scalping on UK (a) competition policy and (b) businesses.
Under UK competition law, responsibility for investigating anticompetitive practices falls to the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), the UK’s competition authority. The government has ensured that the CMA has significant powers and expertise to investigate anti-competitive practices, and as an independent authority, the CMA has discretion to investigate competition cases which, according to its prioritisation principles, it considers most appropriate. The CMA may also carry out detailed examinations of why particular markets may not be working well and take remedial action to address features of markets which restrict competition.
GPUs are used for a number of applications and supply has been impacted by an ongoing global shortage. The current shortage is due to a confluence of unexpected events, including unprecedented pandemic-driven shifts in demand within a global market. HMG recognises the severity of the current chip shortage, the widespread international ramifications and the difficulties it has created for a number of UK firms and individuals. HMG are engaging affected UK sectors and key international partners to identify any available domestic or international mitigations.