Friday newspaper round-up: Black Friday, tech regulator, pensions, Royal Mail
Black Friday is expected to smash online sales records this year as struggling retailers slash prices in a desperate attempt to drum up trade after a lost November on the high street. The discount day has become the biggest shopping event of the year but the stakes are far higher this time round as coronavirus restrictions mean some retailers have shops closed in three of the four home nations. - Guardian
A new tech regulator will work to limit the power of Google, Facebook and other tech platforms, the government has announced, in an effort to ensure a level playing field for smaller competitors and a fair market for consumers. Under the plans, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) will gain a dedicated Digital Markets Unit, empowered to write and enforce a new code of practice on technology companies which will set out the limits of acceptable behaviour. - Guardian
Decommissioning Britain’s old nuclear sites will cost taxpayers £132bn and take 120 years, the Public Accounts Committee has said. The process will be hampered by what the spending watchdog called “decades of poor records” leading to a “perpetual” lack of knowledge about nuclear materials and old power stations, compounded by “weak oversight” from the Government. - Telegraph
The chief executive of one of Britain’s biggest traditional pension funds has warned that tens of thousands of its members will be £34,000 worse off on average as a result of planned changes to the retail prices index. Morten Nilsson, head of the BT Pension Scheme, condemned the move as “a massive transfer of wealth” from defined benefit scheme members to the government and accused ministers of backtracking on earlier statements. - The Times
The postal regulator appears to have cleared the way for the government to relax the statutory commitment of Royal Mail to deliver six days a week to all addresses in the UK. An Ofcom review of Royal Mail’s universal service obligation, enshrined in law, found that most homes and businesses will experience little impact in cutting deliveries to five days a week. - The Times