Monday, September 19, 2016

Bundeskartellamt hat keine Einwände gegen App-basiertes Girokonto der Sparkassen

Bundeskartellamt, hier.

"Die gemeinsame Vereinbarung der Sparkassen darüber, die Basisversion des App-Kontos kostenlos anzubieten, könnte eine wettbewerbsbeschränkende Vereinbarung darstellen...Im Rahmen seines Aufgreifermessens hat das Bundeskartellamt entschieden, kein Verfahren gegen die teilnehmenden Sparkassen einzuleiten. Das gemeinsame Vorgehen der Sparkassen erscheint in diesem Fall gerechtfertigt, da so insbesondere auch kleinere Institute die Möglichkeit haben, über die App Neukunden zu gewinnen. Darüber hinaus erscheint es in dem derzeitigen Marktumfeld unumgänglich, die Basisversion eines App-Kontos kostenfrei anzubieten, so dass die Vereinbarung – wenn überhaupt – den Wettbewerb nur geringfügig beschränkt."

Salesforce Einstein delivers artificial intelligence across the Salesforce platform

TechCrunch, here

More on Lundbeck v Commission: some comments on the comments #ourreadersask

P. Ibanez Colomo, here

Do no harm, don't discriminate: official guidance issued on robot ethics

TheGuardian, here.

Friday, September 16, 2016

Japan report finds Apple, Google hinder app sales competition

Nikkei, here

Grenzüberschreitende Nutzung von digitalen Inhalten erleichtern

vzbv, hier

La blockchain dans les industries créatives : peut-on accroître la transparence tout en préservant la vie privée des utilisateurs ?

LINC, ici

Opérations de visite et saisie inopinées dans le secteur de la fabrication et la distribution des sandwichs

Autorité de la concurrence, ici

Experiments in Intellectual Property

C. Buccafusco, C. Sprigman, here.

"Inventing a new pharmaceutical or producing a movie takes years of intellectual effort. The creativity that researchers can study in the laboratory, however, may involve minutes or even seconds".

General Court’s pay for delay judgment in Lundbeck – some guidance, but worries remain

S. Gallasch, here

Artificial Intelligence: The Economic and Policy Implications

S. Athey, Video here

The Commission’s proposed TDM exception: Who’s to benefit?

M. Caspers, here

Data Ownership and Access to Data

Max Planck Institute for Innovation and Competition, Position Statement, here

Using Behavioral Science Insights to Better Serve the American People: Implementation Guidance

The White House, here.

Thursday, September 15, 2016

EU court confirms Thomson Reuters coding settlement

...Reuters, here.

T-76/14, here.

An Antitrust Review of a Bayer-Monsanto Merger

A. Grunes, M. Stucke, here.

FTC Approves Final Order Preserving Competition in Markets for 79 Pharmaceutical Products

FTC, here.

Fusion hängt von Bayers Bereitschaft zu Zugeständnissen ab

WiWo, hier

Using Behavioral Science Insights to Better Serve the American People

The White House, Executive Order, here.
Also "White House Summit on Behavioral Science Insights", here (live soon)

Anti-Surge Pricing


UN High-Level Panel On Access To Medicines Issues “Landmark” Report

IP-watch, here.

Report of the United Nations Secretary-General’s High-Level Panel On Access To Medicines

New EU Telco Rules

Arstechnica, here.

Competition and the Digital Single Market

M. Vestager, here.

E-Commerce Sector Inquiry: Preliminary Report

Press Release, here. Fact sheet here. Preliminary Report here.

Digital content:
- "the information provided during the sector inquiry... shows that multiple business models and a great diversity of licensing practices are available and indeed used, which can cater for the needs of both right holders and digital content providers";
-"Little substantive evidence was provided on the importance of pre-sale arrangements to fund new products by respondents, in relation to the products included in the sector inquiry."

E-Commerce Sector Inquiry: Second Batch of Results

EC press conference by Commissioner Margrethe Vestager, 15 September 16.30h, here (not live bc of satellite technical problems...).

"If it is agreements between companies that are restricting e-commerce across Europe’s national borders, then you can expect competition enforcement to follow", speech11.09.2015.

My personal "highlights" (from today's press conference):

- investigation into online video games and geo-blocking still ongoing;
- E-commerce sector inquiry and pay-tv case "very, very distant relatives": former much broader (more "generic"), considering also consumer goods where there are ("obviously") the same restrictions but many more (I´d add that, with regard to digital content, restrictions in the licensing agreements well beyond geo-blocking have been identified by the EC);
- E-commerce sector inquiry as a source of information for the legislator (possibly, copyright - and geo-blocking regulation).

Bookatable-Reaktion auf Kartellrechtsbeschwerde

Ahgz.de, hier.

Wednesday, September 14, 2016

Saturday, September 03, 2016

Creative Commons Wants To Step Into Lawsuit Over Definition Of 'Noncommercial' In A CC License

TechDirt, here.

Is a big Google search update happening? Chatter thinks so

SearchEngineLand, here.

ICANN’s globalization creates peril and promise

TechCrunch, here.

CCI rejects ‘predatory pricing’ allegations against Ola

IndianExpress, here.

Nintendo’s DMCA-backed quest against online fan games

ArsTechnica, here.

Should You Become a Platform?


M. Van Alstyne and M. Jamison, here (p.30 ff.).

Chatbots are a creation channel for storytelling

VentureBeat, here.

Apple, Ireland and the Spanish connection

rte.ie, here.

EC on Pokémon Go and data protection

Ein "Reinheitsgebot für ehrliche und vertrauenswürdige Internetdienste".

Heise.de, hier.

EU-Kommission überprüft WhatsApp-Übernahme durch Facebook

Focus.de, hier.

Thursday, September 01, 2016

Niantic responds to Senate inquiry into Pokémon Go privacy

TechCrunch, here.
Letter here.

AI Wants to Be Your Bro, Not Your Foe

MIT Technology Review, here.
One Hundred Year Study 2016 here.

Development of the audiovisual markets and creation of original contents

Lear for Mediaset, here

Entgelt für Online-Übermittlung von Tickets ist unzulässig

Heise.de, hier

Elsevier’s New Patent for Online Peer Review Throws a Scare Into Open-Source Advocates

Chronicle, here

Visa seeks bank volunteers for blockchain-based payment trial

Finextra, here.

Maybe you don’t have as much choice as you think

TheGuardian, here

Online tool allows users to inspect banks’ privacy notices

iapp, here

Neue Regelungen im BuchPrG zur Preisbindung von E-Books und zur grenzüberschreitenden Preisbindung

Preisbindungsgesetz.de, hier