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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Technology
Robert Booth and Dan Milmo

Competition watchdog role for ex-boss of Amazon UK ‘a slap in face’, say unions

Doug Gurr
Doug Gurr is a former country manager of Amazon UK. Photograph: Alicia Canter/The Guardian

The appointment of a former Amazon boss to lead the UK’s competition watchdog as it begins investigations into technology firms has been called a “slap in the face to workers” by trade unions and Trumpian by consumer activists.

The business minister Justin Madders was forced on Wednesday to deny the government was “in the pocket of big tech” after it hired Doug Gurr, a former country manager of Amazon UK and president of Amazon China, to chair the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA).

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