Friday, May 08, 2015

Beware – Price Fixing by Algorithms

Shumaker, Loop & Kendrick, here

Multi-Sided Platforms [versus vertical integration]

A. Hagiu, J. Wright, here

Money and Privacy – Android Market Evidence

M. Kummer, P. Schulte, here

Sixth Annual Conference on Internet Search and Innovation

Searle Center on Law, Regulation, and Economic Growth, June 4-5 2015, Agenda here.

Google, Dominant in Search, Tries Disruptor Role in Wireless and Broadband

NYT, here

2014 report on the application of the European Charter of Fundamental Rights

EC, here.

Curbing the New Corporate Power

Boston Review, Debate, here.

Android and iOS apps on Windows: What is Microsoft doing—and will it work?

ArsTechnica, here.

The double duality of two-sided markets

A. Lamadrid de Pablo, here

There’s A Lot To Like About Europe

Consumerwatchdog.org, here.

Q1 2015: Android not just leading in traffic, but now revenue

Operamediaworks, here.

Uber joins the Bidding for Here, Nokia's Digital Mapping Service

NYT, here

Booking.com on rate parity settlement: "We wouldn’t have proposed it otherwise"

Skift.com, here

Thursday, May 07, 2015

Le Groupement National des Indépendants (GNI) gagne contre Expedia

Hotellerie.de, ici.

"dit que, faute de contrepartie suffisante, les clauses visant à l’obtention automatique des meilleurs conditions tarifaires et promotionnelles, dans les contrats des hôtels incriminés situés sur le territoire français, sont constitutives d’un déséquilibre significatif au sens de l’article L442-6 1 2e et sont nulles", voir TNooz.

(L442-6 1 2e:
Engage la responsabilité de son auteur et l'oblige à réparer le préjudice causé le fait, par tout producteur, commerçant, industriel ou personne immatriculée au répertoire des métiers...de soumettre ou de tenter de soumettre un partenaire commercial à des obligations créant un déséquilibre significatif dans les droits et obligations des parties).

CA Supreme Court on pay for delay

Cipro I & II, here.

"We summarize the structure of the rule of reason applicable to reverse payment patent settlements. To make out a prima facie case that a challenged agreement is an unlawful restraint of trade, a plaintiff must show the agreement contains both a limit on the generic challenger‘s entry into the market and compensation from the patentee to the challenger. The defendants bear the burden of coming forward with evidence of litigation costs or valuable collateral products or services that might explain the compensation; if the defendants do so, the plaintiff has the burden of demonstrating the compensation exceeds the reasonable value of these. If a prima facie case has been made out, the defendants may come forward with additional justifications to demonstrate the settlement agreement nevertheless is procompetitive. A plaintiff who can dispel these justifications has carried the burden of demonstrating the settlement agreement is an unreasonable restraint of trade under the Cartwright Act."

"The Hatch-Waxman Act illustrates the law of unintended consequences."

Live Streaming Apps: Piracy’s New Frontier?

Privacy-net.com, here.

Zero Rating and the Open Internet

M. Baker, here.
Letter to India's PM N. Modi, here

Rival music services say Apple's App Store pricing is anticompetitive

TheVerge, here.

"Apple’s rules disallow companies from redirecting users to the browser to get the lower subscription price" : does it vaguely reminds of a narrow APPA?

Open source is 'only reliable way' to preserve human history, argues Vatican

Theinquirer.net, here.

Super-scholars: MPAA offers $20,000 for academic research in copyright battle

TheGuardian, here.

Competing with Complementors: An Empirical Look at Amazon.com

F. Zhu, Q. Liu, here.

Egalité d'accès de tous les professionnels aux réservations du refuge du Goûter (Mont Blanc)

Autorité de la concurrence, ici.

(Un grand bravo à l'Autorité, mais elle a encore du boulot, dans la vallée de Chamonix - un monopole skiable).

Le Conseil d'Etat demande l'avis de la Cour de justice européenne concernant Relire

Livreshebdo.fr, ici.
Décision ici

Verbandsklagerecht bei Datenschutzverstößen

Deutscher Bundestag, hier.

Wednesday, May 06, 2015

Ökonomische Aspekte der Digitalisierung

J. Haucap, hier

Hugendubel übernimmt ebook.de

FAZ.net, hier

Entente dans le secteur de la commercialisation de la viande de volaille (poulet, dinde, canard, lapin, etc.)

Autorité de la concurrence, ici. Décision ici.

"En raison des circonstances très particulières de cette affaire, l'Autorité a considéré que l'engagement collectif de mettre en place une interprofession dans un calendrier contraint, pris par des industriels représentant l'essentiel du marché est susceptible d'avoir, pour le respect durable des règles de la concurrence dans le secteur de la viande de volaille, une plus grande efficacité que des sanctions pécuniaires calculées selon la méthode habituelle."

Deutsche Verbraucherschützer klagen gegen Facebook

Heise.de, hier.

A Digital Single Market Strategy for Europe

EC, here.

"The Commission will...comprehensively analyse the role of online platforms (search engines, social media, app stores, etc.) in the market. This will cover issues such as the non-transparency of search results and of pricing policies, how they use the information they acquire, relationships between platforms and suppliers and the promotion of their own services to the disadvantage of competitors – to the extent these are not already covered by competition law. It will also look into how to best tackle illegal content on the Internet."

Staff working paper here.

"The accumulation and use of data by certain market players can contribute to their market power, in particular in their relationship with the data suppliers", p. 53.

"Some platforms act as a marketplace and a retailer at the same time. These platforms may use the transactional data acquired from business users of the marketplace segment to enhance the performance of the platform's retail arm. This can lead to discrimination in listing between platforms' own services and third party services. Companies may also complain that they do not get access to the data collected through transactions linked to their "products", p. 55.

"some platforms simply forbid companies from selling more cheaply elsewhere (including the seller's own website, other platforms and all offline distribution channels). The issue has already been examined by various competition authorities", id.

"Given the dynamics of the markets created and served by platforms, and the relatively short time that they have been in existence, more work is needed to gather comprehensive and reliable evidence on how different types of platform work and their effects on their customers and the economy as a whole. On the basis of such an evidence base, an assessment can be made of the nature of the problems that may arise from their pivotal role in the digital economy and whether existing regulatory tools are sufficient to tackle them, or whether new tools need to be developed" id.

EC launches e-commerce sector inquiry - factsheet

Friday, May 01, 2015

John Oliver on Patents Trolls

Video here

Loyalty Rebates after Intel: Time for the European Court of Justice to Overrule Hoffman-La Roche

D. Geradin, here

Economic Arguments in the Amex Trial: Considering Market Definition and Market Power with a Two-Sided Platform

H. McFarlane, here.

Not on my network! App exclusion and the net neutrality debate

Ipdigit.eu, here

Online Geographic Price Discrimination – Switzerland’s Experience

R. Corazza, here

Maximising impact in the new economy – The use of interim measures in France

A. Wachsmann, Presentation here.

The need for a new Copyright Act: a case study in law reform

R. Arnold, here.

Apple Invites Developers To Test Its New “App Analytics” Service

TechCrunch, here.

Google reportedly acquired the most European tech companies in 2014

VentureBeat, here.

Brasil prohíbe la aplicación Uber

ElPais, aquì.

Australian Copyright Censorship Bill Could Block VPNs and Circumvention Information

EFF.org, here.
Bill and explanatory memorandum here.
See also this information sheet by the AU Copyright Council.

Thursday, April 30, 2015

Newsonomics: The Guardian is trying to swing Google’s pendulum back to publishers

NiemanLab, here.

Brussels to probe online search listings

FT, here.

"Brussels will this year launch a probe into online platforms such as Amazon and Google examining the way they list search results and how they use customer data...The investigation will look at the role of paid for links and advertisements in search results, along with the ability of individuals and businesses to move from platform to platform"

Apple rejette les applis pour Apple Watch qui donnent l'heure

Numerama, ici

Tuesday, April 28, 2015

Facebook Is Shutting Down Its API For Giving Your Friends’ Data To Apps

TechCrunch, here.

No Mistake About it: The Important Role of Antitrust in the Era of Big Data

A. Grunes, M. Stucke, here

Oracle under antitrust probe in South Korea

The Korea Herald, here

Artificial Intelligence & Collusion: When Computers Inhibit Competition

A. Ezrachi, M. Stucke, here

Leistungsschutzrecht: VG Media will angeblich 6 Prozent des Google-Umsatzes in Deutschland

Heise.de, hier.

Online Vertical Restraints Special Project Report

ACCC, here

Across Platform Parity Agreements (APPAs): CMA Private Motor Insurance Market Investigation

A. Crisholm, Presentation here (download).

Facebooks Datenauswertung: Verstecken kann sich niemand mehr

FAZ, hier

Uber lanza desde España el servicio de comida en casa en 10 minutos

ElMundo, aquì

Guardian and FT among news publishers across Europe taking €150m 'handout' from Google

Pressgazette.co.uk, here.

Rate parity: The (US) battle to determine how you buy hotel rooms

ChicagoTribune, here

The Sticky Case of Sticky Data: An Examination of the Rationale, Legality, and Implementation of a Right to Data Portability Under European Competition Law

P. Moura, here

Google announces Patent Purchase Promotion, an experimental marketplace for outbidding patent trolls

VentureBeat, here

Friday, April 24, 2015

Invention as a combinatorial process: evidence from US patents

H.Youn, D. Strumsky, L. Bettencourt, J. Lobo, here

HOTREC General Assembly’s statement on the decisions taken on 21 April 2015 on the commitments of Booking.com

Hotrec, here

Google slams Australian piracy site-blocking legislation

ZDNet, here.

Intellectual Property and Competition in the Pharmaceutical Industry

AGCM, Conference presentations available here

Shaken, not stirred. Competition Law Enforcement and Standard Essential Patents.

A. Italiener, here

What's Next For Comcast? After Failed TWC Merger, Cable Giant Faces Regulated, Cord-Cutting Future

IBTimes, here.

See also AAI's statement here

Europe Looks to Tame Web’s Economic Risks

WSJ, here (via Google search).


Xiaomi is copying its China playbook to win over India’s smartphone market

QZ.com, here

The Basics Of Open Patent Licensing

TechCrunch, here

What Signals From Twitter Does Google Care About?

SearchEngineLand, here

Microsoft Office reaches 100 million downloads on iOS and Android

TheVerge, here

Wednesday, April 15, 2015

The Search for Harm

GooglePolicyBlog, here.

Android has helped create more choice and innovation on mobile than ever before

Googlepolicyblog, here

EU Commission sends Statement of Objections to Google on comparison shopping service; opens separate formal investigation on Android

Press Release, here.
Commissioner Vestager's statement here.
Minutes of the meeting of the Commission here (on Android: "She pointed out that Google had led development of the Android mobile operating system since 2005, and the majority of smartphone and tablet manufacturers used this system, having concluded agreements with Google to obtain the right to install Google's applications on their devices. She explained that the Commission's in-depth investigation would focus on whether, by doing so, Google had breached EU antitrust rules by hindering the development and market access of rival mobile operating systems, applications and services to the detriment of consumers and developers of innovative services and products").

Tuesday, April 14, 2015

Europe to accuse Google of illegally abusing its dominance

FT.com, here.

"Ms Vestager on Wednesday will also launch a separate formal investigation into Google’s Android operating system for smartphones.
The Commission probe will examine whether Google imposes uncompetitive terms on handset makers that ultimately favour its own lucrative apps such as YouTube. Google rejects any allegations of wrongdoing and says Android is an open platform distributed free."

2nd Circ. Wary Of Anti-Competitive Intent In Namenda Plan

Law360.com, here

Eau de Fracking? Companies Try to Trademark Scents

WSJ.com, here