Digital Markets Act enforcement: Impact and next steps

 

Article 19 DMA Conference, Programme here. 

I thought it was a bit sci-fi, while writing the paper...

 

Europe: Investigations into cloud computing under DMA a welcome move

 Article 19, here.

Indeed, here.  

OpenAI strikes deal with Intuit to plug personal financial data into ChatGPT

 FT, here. 

A PROGRESSIVE ROADMAP FOR EXPANDING EUROPEAN DIGITAL SOVEREIGNTY

 C. Rikap, here. 

Commission launches market investigations on cloud computing services under the Digital Markets Act

 EC, here. 

Booking.com taken to court

 CCC, here. 

Competing Legal Futures – “Commodification Bets” All the Way From Personal Data to AI

 M. Giraudo et al., here.

"Our" AI&fun panel at the Article 19 DMA Conference

Now that the programme has been officially released, I can say a word about Thursday’s panel, where I shall present a paper that is highly tentative: when I wrote it, it verged on science fiction, yet events have already overtaken it. One striking aspect of the panel is that we have four papers on artificial intelligence, which is noteworthy in itself. The perspectives are varied yet complementary. And while today the Commission opened three investigations in the cloud sector, our discussion moves further downstream: we consider also whether AI-related services should be expressly recognised as core platform services, which DMA obligations genuinely already apply to AI-related services , whether they can be regarded as adequate, whether the DMA should be even more ex-ante, etc.

I suspect the session will be lively.  

Cloudflare CEO says Google is abusing its monopoly in search to feed its AI

 Fortune, here.

Replicate is joining Cloudflare

 Cloudflare, here. 

The Court fails to provide remedies to prevent Google from repeating its same illegal monopolization of artificial intelligence-related markets

 AELP, here. 

Google: Our Frankly Modest Proposal

 Here. 

[Gearing for a fight?] 

Rebalancing Europe’s Digital Power: Decentralisation as a practical route to Digital Sovereignty

 EDI, here. 

Anatomy of a Franco-German tech misfire

 Politico.eu, here. 

How to break up firms well

 Rebalance Now, here. 

It’s central planning, Silicon Valley-style

 M. Stoller, here. 

Interview Nextcloud - 1ère partie - GAIA-X est mort, vive EuroStack

 Clubic, ici.

German court rules Google must pay €572M for violating antitrust rules in price comparison sector

 TechCrunch, here.

Idealo selbst hier.

Team SCiDA here.

Breaking Down the EU’s Investigation into Google’s Search Policy

 M. Kikwood, here.

With a bit of mise en abyme, apologies!

Messaging Interoperability: WhatsApp enables third-party chats for users in Europe

 Meta itself, here.

A bit emotional myself, what  about you? 

Idealo vs. Google: Suchmaschine zu 465 Millionen Euro Schadenersatz verurteilt

 Heise.de, hier.

Google offers ad tech tweaks in EUR3 billion antitrust fight

 TheEdgeSingapore, here. 

Kann uns Trump das Internet abschalten?

 Ja? Nein? Antwort hier. 

Neues Bündnis fordert mehr Engagement für offene Netzwerke

 Hier. 

Aus der Plattformnische[n?] in den Mainstream

 Agora, hier. 

A Return of Industrial Policies? Only a Partial and Dystopic One

 G. Dosi, here. 

Eurosky Live

 Here.

Lina chez Jon Stewart

 Here.

Innovation durch Regulierung?

 Hier. 

Autoridade da Concorrência: 2025 Lisbon Conference

 Videos here. 

Just in time for a relaxing Friday class: watching (and commenting on) a couple of panels with my Students tomorrow 🍿🍿🍿

Facebook Marketplace gets new collaborative and social features, Meta AI integrations

 Here. 

Commission opens investigation into possible anticompetitive conduct by energy drink manufacturer Red Bull

 Here. 

Commission opens investigation into potential Digital Markets Act breach by Google in demoting media publishers' content in search results

 EC, here. 

Google augments AI shopping with conversational search, agentic checkout and an AI that calls stores for you

 TechCrunch, here. 

Making Platforms Accountable

 ORG, here. 

The dilemmas of delegation

 Ada Lovelace Institute, here.

Discussing a DMA draft paper next week in Brussels exploring related themes...

Lina Khan’s populist plan for New York: Cheaper hot dogs (and other things)

 Semafor, here.

Brazil’s Calibrated Revolution in Digital Competition

 V. Oliveira Fernandez, here.

Sovereignty-as-a-service: How big tech companies co-opt and redefines digital sovereignty

 R. Grohmann et al., here.

EU developers don't pass on App Store fee savings to users, says Apple

 AppleInsider, here.

Where to start? 

EU readies fresh investigation into Google over news publisher rankings

 FT, here. 

Irish watchdog opens content moderation probe on Elon Musk's X

 Euractiv, here. 

A new DMA Fan, you all: Sir Tim Berners-Lee!

 The Verge, here. 

Germany’s Tech Betrayal: How We’re Selling Our Sovereignty to US Giants

 B. Korz, here. 

Artificial Intelligence and Competitive Dynamics in Downstream Markets

 OECD Background Note, here. 

Competition in AI infrastructure

 OECD Background Note, here. 

Race for Compute

 Accel, here. 

2025-11-10 Berlin Freedom Conference: The Role of AI

 Here.

Music rights group scores landmark legal victory in copyright battle with OpenAI

 Charting GenAI, here. 

Landgericht München I hier and hierTranslation here (H/T Tobias Vossberg)

WebSummit 2025

 Day 1, here.

Brussels knifes privacy to feed the AI boom

 Politico.eu, here.

The New Geoeconomics of Hard Power Requires New Tools. Will Europe Update?

 C. Caffarra, here. 

Wikipedia urges AI companies to use its paid API, and stop scraping

 TechCrunch, here.

From Attention Merchants to Intention Architects: The invisible infrastructure reshaping human curiosity

 S. Fang, here.

The Man Who Tracks Silicon Valley’s ‘Nerd Reich’

 The Tyee, here.

EU Commission internal draft would wreck core principles of the GDPR

 Noyb, here. 

Building an independent, open and healthy digital environment for European consumers

By Robin...

 EP IMCO, here and here. 

 

Réconcilier concurrence et politique industrielle

 Ici.

OpenAI asked Trump administration to expand Chips Act tax credit to cover data centers

 TechCrunch, here.

CAMBRIDGE TAXONOMY OF DIGITAL TECHNOLOGY RISK

Here.. 

Rethinking Economic Power in the Digital Age

 UCL + Tommaso, here.

Leaked Digital Package on Simplification

 Here.

Tim Wu with Lina Khan: The Age of Extraction

 Video here.

Philippe Aghion, une trajectoire intellectuelle : grand entretien avec le prix Nobel d’Économie 2025

 Le Grand Continent, ici.

How Many More Cloud Scares Does Europe Need?

 R. Berjon, here.

Disruptive Innovation and Antitrust

 P. Larouche, A. de Streel, here.

Topic of my PhD in economics at fn. 6 

The Meta Fraud Tithe; AI Is Out-Negotiating SaaS

 AdExchanger, here.

Better Access: Data for the Common Good

 KGI, here. 

Google's Hidden Empire

 A. Blankertz, B. Rock, N. Shaxson, here. 

The 40-year economic mistake that let Google conquer (and enshittify) the world

 C. Doctorow, here. 

L’Autorité sanctionne Doctolib à hauteur de 4 665 000 euros pour avoir abusé de sa position dominante dans le secteur de la prise de rendez-vous médicaux en ligne et des solutions de téléconsultation médicale

 Adlc, ici. 

Gene Burrus on Google, AI, and the Future of Antitrust

 Podcast here.

A $60 Mod to Meta’s Ray-Bans Disables Its Privacy-Protecting Recording Light

 404 Media, here. 

India AI: Governance Guidelines

 Here. 

Microsoft superintelligence team promises to keep humans in charge

 Semafor, here. 

[So much wrong about this title that I wouldn't know where to start...]

The Era of Answer Engines

 Ofcom, here. 

MAGENTIC MARKETPLACE: AN OPEN-SOURCE ENVIRONMENT FOR STUDYING AGENTIC MARKETS

 Microsoft, here.

How Many More Cloud Scares Does Europe Need?

 R. Berjon, here.

FIRST BLOOM: INCREASED CONSUMER CHOICE AFTER EIGHTEEN MONTHS OF THE DMA The E

 BEUC, here.

Legal Corner: Apple’s “notarisation” – blocking software freedom of developers and users!

 FSFE, here.

AirPods Live Translation feature coming to the EU next month

 9to5Mac, here.

How long before the next "product can't possibly be launched in the EU because of annoying digital regulation"?

Amazon v. Perplexity

 Complaint here.

And what does Perplexity say? Here.

DOJ lists ‘innumerable’ ways Google could maintain an ad tech monopoly

 The Current, here.

Breaking: Google and Epic propose settlement to end years-long legal battle in the US

 AndroidAuthority, here.

The Authoritarian Stack

 Here.

AdTech: DoJ Proposed Remedies

 Here.

Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft will Daten aus US-Clouds holen

 Heise.de, hier.

Europe’s deep-tech engine could spur $1 trillion in economic growth

McKinsey (cough), here.

The future of merger control...

 ICLE, Video here.

Tech gatekeepers quizzed on data handling amid AI rollout

 MLex, here. 

The U.S. is becoming an Nvidia-state

 M. Wong, C. Warzel, here. 

Generative AI and the Future of the Digital Commons: Five Open Questions and Knowledge Gaps

 A. Noroozian et al., here. 

Private Enforcement of the DMA: Germany Takes the Lead with the 1&1 Mail & Media/Google (Gmail) Case

 J. Tamayo, here.

Did Google not want to allow access to OpenAI for competitive reasons?

 Quantable, here.

Open Access & Copyright in the age of AI

 Hertie, Bocconi, here

Better protection for players of video games

 ACM, Position Paper, here.

Google/AGCM-Enel X

 CdS- Final Cut, here.

Fellowship „Internationale Digitalpolitik“ - Wir suchen deine Ideen für die Internationale Digitalpolitik!

 Hier.

Traumopportunity!

Google dessine le monde : faut-il s’inquiéter ? Cartographie, pouvoir et dépendance numérique

 Avec Sébastien Soriano (!), ici.

Prix nobel de l'économie 2025 (grillé) à l'Assemblée nationale

 Vidéo ici. 

Débat intéressant car le néo-schumpétérisme à la Aghion rencontre ici le populisme économique à la française, tant à droite qu’à gauche. Les autorités de concurrence devraient également y prêter attention : il ne suffit pas d’écarter ces voix en les qualifiant d’économiquement illettrées, ni de se retrancher derrière quelques écrits et affirmer que toutes les implications d’un modèle n’ont pas été pleinement prises en compte. 

Alors qu’aux États-Unis, le mouvement néo-brandeisien a en partie intégré des revendications populistes et tenté de les traduire en actions concrètes de politique de la concurrence, en Europe nous en sommes restés bien éloignés jusqu’à présent. Les temps changeraient-ils ? Il existe une soif de réponses concrètes à de véritables problèmes ; c’est, en fin de compte, de cela que dépend la légitimité démocratique de la politique de concurrence. 

How OpenAI Uses Complex and Circular Deals to Fuel Its Multibillion-Dollar Rise

 

NYTimes, here. 

Determining Which Researchers Can Collect Public Data Under the DSA

D. Keller, here. 

Data Sharing Guidelines

 ACM, here.

[Very useful also for teaching purposes! We worked extensively on the Data Act this semester - a bit too late for us though, we have since moved to other topics]

Summit on European Digital Sovereignty.

 

Berlin 18 November and livestreamed here.

The DMA sits at the table - it isn't on the menu. 

We wonnen de rechtszaak tegen Meta

 Bits of Freedom, hier.

Kent v Apple: Collective actions and the future of platform competition

 T. Jones, here.

24. Spirituosen-Forum des BSI: „Künstliche Intelligenz – Gamechanger oder Hype?“

 BSI, hier.

User Privacy and Large Language Models: An Analysis of Frontier Developers' Privacy Policies

 J. King et al., here.

The "end of capitalism” or, rather, an intensification of capitalistic tendencies?

 Ask Tommaso Valletti and others, here.

"Ordinary folk in the streets of London" at 16:00 totally impressive. 

Interplay between the AI Act and the EU digital legislative framework

 EP Study, here.

District Court of Amsterdam Prohibits Meta from Using Personal Data for AI Training – Private Enforcement of DMA?

 S. Louven, here.

How AI Browsers Sneak Past Blockers and Paywalls

 CJR, here.

Développement durable : l'Autorité publie des orientations informelles relatives à la création d’une plateforme de collecte et partage de données relatives à l’empreinte carbone des fournisseurs dans le secteur de la grande distribution

 Adlc, ici.

International Criminal Court to ditch Microsoft Office for European open source alternative

 Euractiv, here. 

[Added value: no annoying, unsolicited "AI integration"] 

“Simplifying” European AI Regulation: An Evidence-based White Paper

 P. Hacker et al., here. 

Die Internetwirtschaft in Deutschland 2025-2030: Zukunftsperspektiven für digitale Infrastrukturen

 Arthur Little, hier. 

Antitrust Review Episode 49: In Conversation With Hiroo Iwanari

 Podcast here. 

Merger Guidelines Consultation

 Factual Summary, here.

Fusionskontrolle im Wandel: Neue Instrumente und veränderte Rahmenbedingungen?

 Bundeskartellamt, hier.

Competition Policy as a Driver of Economic Integration An EU Perspective | Lecture by Inge Bernaerts

 Video here.

‘4Ps’ updates to the CMA’s mergers guidance (CMA2) and mergers notice template

 CMA (?), here.

More full-time lobbyists influencing the EU’s digital policies, than there are MEPs in the European Parliament. What could possibly go wrong?

 Corporate Europe, here.

A Rights-Based Digital Fairness Act

 EDRi, here.

Largest study of its kind shows AI assistants misrepresent news content 45% of the time – regardless of language or territory

 BBC, here.

[Disclosure: my better half worked 20+ y. for the EBU] 

Let Them Eat Large Language Models: Artificial Intelligence and Austerity in the Neoliberal University

 M. Kenney, M. Lincoln, here.

EU Big Tech Laws: An Emerging Public Utilities Regulation

A. de Streel, here.

Judge sides with online publishers in Google ad tech antitrust case

 USAToday, here.

Generative AI and the EUDPR. Orientations for ensuring data protection compliance w hen using Generative AI systems.

 EDPS, here.

PayPal partners with OpenAI to let users pay for their shopping within ChatGPT

 TechCrunch, here. 

Investing in the EU Sovereign Tech Fund

 OFE, here. 

[Disclosure: Fellow] 

The Dark Side of Computational Antitrust: When AI is Used to Evade the Law

 

T. Davies, here. 

The European Commission Can and Must Act on Excessive Pricing

 A. Blankertz et al., here. 

Ireland, Meta, and lobbying: J'accuse!

 ICCL, here. 

 

 

2025 Stone Lecture in Economic Inequality

 L. Kahn, here (On Substack).

"Those others who said years ago what he’s telling you right now? They’re troublemakers, disgruntled outsiders obsessed with scandal and grievance. He gets why you ignored them. Hey, he did, too." ]

UK tribunal rules Apple abused dominant position in app markets

 PPC Land, here. 

Ryan Calo Wants to Change the Relationship Between Law and Technology

 

TechPolicyPress, Podcast here. 

Government rejects AI copyright law exception, upholds creator rights

 Mi3, here. 

Inside DuckDuckGo - can privacy win the browser wars?,

 Future Media, here.

Knowledge, technology, and growth: Joel Mokyr, Nobel laureate

 CEPR, here. 

Why they haven't matched him with a 'formal economist' or two dealing with innovation/knowledge for real (such as evolutionary economics), I wonder...

Empfehlungen für starke KI-Infrastruktur und digitale Souveränität Deutschlands - Auftaktsitzung der Expertenkommission „Wettbewerb und KI“

 BMWE, hier. 

Holding my breath ;-) 

Unlocking contestability and fairness in cloud and AI: A Review of the Digital Markets Act

 

Article 19, here (honoured that I could contribute to this). 

Rethinking Economic Power in the Digital Age

 UCL, here. 

See also here.  

Ryan Calo | Law and technology: A methodical approach

Video, here. 

Prompted NotebookLM (sigh) deep dive here, for those who like the genre.  

Bravi Aussies, what about our EU and national 'enforcers'?

 Reuters, here.

A topic for the next DMA High Level Group too? 

Orientierungshilfe zu datenschutzrechtlichen Besonderheiten generativer KI-Systeme mit RAG-Methode

 DSK, hier.

Google Search - A View from the Counsel's Table

 Video here.

[🙋 was the online Q on GenAI - thank you for the answer!]

A refreshing, 'irreverent perspective': Todd Davies

 SCiDA Podcast, here. 

Code shouldn't be law. 

How Android Auto reshapes the law of refusal to deal (and what it means in practice)

P. Ibáñez Colomo, here.

Who would've thought ;-)( here) ? 

An Innovation Nobel in Economics

 L. Kiesling, here.

AI, ANTITRUST, AND THE MARKETPLACE OF IDEAS

 M. Stucke, here.

Commission preliminarily finds TikTok and Meta in breach of their transparency obligations under the Digital Services Act

 EC, here.

Is ChatGPT Atlas safe? What you should know before you download it

 Proton, here.

CAT: Apple abused its dominant position

 Ruling here.

Safeguarding Media Freedom in the Age of Big Tech Platforms and AI

 OSCE, here. 

Directing Economic Growth: A common good approach

 M. Mazzucato, here. 

Commission carries out unannounced antitrust inspections in the ski equipment sector

 EC, here.

Amer here. 

The FSFE defends interoperability from Apple at the EU’s highest court

 Here.

Data-Center Power Use to Become Major Antitrust Issue

 WSJ, here.

Will GenAI Break Google’s Dominance in Search?

 ProMarket, here.

Ever heard of the App Fair Project on iOS? Precisely.

 DMA Complaint by A19 and GFF, here.

KI-Assistent auf Kosten der digitalen Souveränität

 NWZOnline, hier.

ChatGPT Atlas: A DMA casse tête?

 Guardian, here.

Rezension der Festschrift für Wolfgang Kerber „Wettbewerb, Recht und Wirtschaftspolitik“

 J. Mendelsohn, hier.

NotebookLM-generated easy intro here.

Integration von KI-Anwendungen in Suchmaschinen und ihre Auswirkungen auf die Meinungsvielfalt

 Die Medienanstalten, hier.

The Great Reckoning: What the West Should Learn from China

 Here.

The Future of Democracy

 A19, OMI, livestream here.

Innovation: missed chance, for now.

 

What about "real" innovation economics? 

Panel 5 - The Gate Keepers’ Gate Keeper: GDPR and the Digital Markets Act.

 CEDPO, here. 

The Antitrust Case Against AI Overviews

 M. Singh, here.

Pope: In this age of communication, nobody can say 'I did not know'

 

Vatican News, here.

Cartography of generative AI

 Here.

Why America Builds AI Girlfriends and China Makes AI Boyfriends

 ChinaTalk, here.

Antitrust Law and Oligarchy: The Intersection of Markets, Democracy, and Power

 Here.

Timing was, well, bad (into Friday evening my time, European after all and cherish my off-work time) - followed 1/3 of it and was very stimulating: hopefully there'll be a recording soon. 

AI Acquihires: Competition Risks, Talent Battles and Economic Spillovers

 

https://cartography-of-generative-ai.net/

CEPR, here.

I particularly appreciated Jonathan Kanter's opening remark, which subtly questioned part of the very premise of the webinar: perhaps what we now need less are abstract theoretical models, and rather more empirical grounding. Even those participants steeped in theory conceded that the empirical dimension has been somewhat lacking.

Secondly, the Commission’s representative made a valuable point: we should move beyond our preoccupation with “killer acquisitions” and “acquihires” to examine broader structural trends at the "wholesale" level. In particular, attention should turn to the emerging web of quasi-trusts formed through cross-investments etc. among major players. This evolving network of reciprocal stakes has become almost too intricate to trace.

Finally, my Students and I suggest that we already look closely at how these firms are positioning themselves also downstream. Google, for instance, is carving out a strong presence in the market for AI-based "learning/curiosity' applications, notably in education. Thus, in class we recently debated how long it may take before Notebook LM becomes enshittified. How can/should the DMA help in this respect? 

Apply AI Strategy

 EC, here.

Japan’s Agile AI Governance in Action: Fostering a Global Nexus Through Pluralistic Interoperability

 CSIS, here.

"Whereas the European Union positions AI strictly as a human tool and thus perceives a risk in AI evaluating humans, Japan is more accepting of a horizontal relationship between humans and AI" where would you prefer to live? 

Google fights to prevent search remedies from inhibiting its AI ambitions

 Here.

Cory Doctorow discusses Enshittification with Lina Khan

 Video here.

Final decision to designate Google as having SMS in general search services, comprising its general search and search advertising activities.

 CMA, here.

DMA Implementation: Two years later...

 Videos here.

THE BITS OF FREEDOM RULING: THE FIRST STEP IN PRIVATE DSA ENFORCEMENT

 Geradin & Co., here.

Fusionskontrolle im Wandel Neue Instrumente und veränderte Rahmenbedingungen?

 Arbeitskreis Kartellrecht, hier.

Feds, Google clash over data sharing as search monopoly remedy takes shape

 CourtHouseNews, here.

OpenAI, unhappy with Judge Mehta's remedies (and much more?), comes to the EU and meets the Commission

Bloomberg, here. 

OpenAI here ("A US federal court last fall condemned Google’s illegal search monopoly, and will soon issue a decision on how to remediate that long-standing monopoly").  

I asked John Sallet about missed remedies and impact on GenAI yesterday at this event 

Listen to him at a previous event here,  

Joint Guidelines on the interplay between the DMA and the GDPR

DMA/GDPR's cercle de lecture 

 Here.

The Italian Tech Week

 Videos here.

Meta will listen into AI conversations to personalize ads

 The Register, here.

A Research Agenda for the Economics of Transformative AI

E. Brynjolfsson et al., here. 

The price is wrong! California goes Bob Barker on algorithmic price rigging

 The Register, here.

What a Dutch Court Ruling Against Meta Signals for Private DSA Enforcement

 R. Jahangir, here.

Algorithmic Antitrust: California's New Pricing Law

 FKKS, here.

AI Act Single Information Platform

EC,  here.

Announcing DTI’s Data Trust Registry

 Here.

How Google's AI Overviews are affecting Australian news websites

 ABC, here.

How to Overturn an Oligarchy

 

M. Stoller, here. 

 

 

 

 

 

On this side of the Atlantic, the CMA: "It is plausible that to the extent Activision content is
added to Game Pass, the price of Game Pass subscriptions may increase
commensurately and therefore the purported benefit from the Merger may not
ultimately accrue to UK consumers to the extent claimed, or even at all" - so: price increase for UK consumers ok, because of added Activision content? 

The Supreme Court didn’t save Google from Epic, and now the clock is ticking

 The Verge, here. 

Market Study on Artificial Intelligence and Competition

Competition Commission of India, here. 

Litigating and Legislating Against Algorithmic Collusion | 2025 Tech Conference

 Video here. 

Fireside Chat with Barry Lynn, Open Markets Institute | 2025 Tech Conference

 Video here. 

2025 Lear Conference: Videos uploaded

 Here.

Teaching material à gogo for your classes, thank you Paolo!

Returning federal antitrust enforcement to a more hands-off approach, the very approach that allowed unchecked market power to take root?

 

Please, don't, Mr. President, here. 

OpenAI’s platform play

 Platformer, here

Italy becomes the first in Europe to set national AI rules

 JDSupra, here.

Action brought on 4 July 2025 – Meta Platforms v Commission (Case T-435/25)

 Here. 

I'd love to intervene 😊  

We Need to Break Up Big AI Before It Breaks Us

 Time, here. 

"Datenschutz (Opt-out statt Opt-in, Innovationsfreundlichkeit)" und weitere 'Weisheiten'

 Hier.

The overlooked front in the browser wars

 DuckDuckGo, here. 

Digital platform regulation: are we all included in the digital economy

 Bruegel, Video here. 

What is a digital ad tax?

 Brookings, here. 

Way past its prime: how did Amazon get so rubbish?

 C. Doctorow, here. 

OpenAI promises more ‘granular control’ to copyright owners after Sora 2 generates videos of popular characters

 The Guardian, here. 

Who were those academics and other economists lavishly paid to say this would never happen, BTW?

 

Coordination and Power

 

F. Gernone, here.

This is a very basic AI generated video overview produced by Notebook LM - potentially lowering your barriers to entry (these days, experimenting using it with my Students and also with you, dear Wavesblog Readers). The paper offers antitrust folks still reliant on IO economics a different and original lens through which to view things — and that, in itself, is already something decidedly worthwhile!

Algorithmic pricing and competition in G7 jurisdictions

 OECD, here.

Amazingly timely, thank you! Next week topic...

 

 

Updated Compendium of approaches to improving competition in digital markets

 G7, here.

Meta won’t allow users to opt out of targeted ads based on AI chats

 ArsTechnica, here.

Jon Leibowitz and the FTC's role during the early Google Era

 The Monopoly Report, here. 

[Watchers, basically...] 

Court tells Meta to give Dutch users algorithm-free feed option

 DutchNews, here. 

Plumbers, Populists, and the Role of Public Opinion in Antitrust

 S. Sullivan, here. 

FTC accuses Zillow of paying $100 million to ‘dismantle’ Redfin

 The Verge, here. 

ECOSYSTEMS, ANTITRUST ERRORS & THE NUMERATOR BIAS

 Stucke&Ezrachi, here.

Territorial Control of Data and Compute in Generative AI: A New Paradigm of Competitive Advantage

 F. Marty, T. Warin, here.

SCiDA's podcast: Episode 1

 Here. 

Are AI Companies Cooking the Books? w/ Sarah Myers West

The Maybe, here.  

USA vs Google Ad Tech remèdes : céder ou fermer AdX, une question que se pose Google depuis 2020

 F. Masmi-Dazi, ici.

Meta to mine AI interactions to help target advertising - not in the EU

 FT, here.

Epic Games says Apple’s new install process cuts user drop-offs by 60%

 TechCrunch, here.

An Economy of AI Agents

 G. Hadfield et al., here.

Munich Regional I Court preliminarily indicates OpenAI liable for copyright infringement of song lyrics. Decision on Nov. 11, 2025

 Here.

Are the European TDM Exceptions Applicable to GenAI Training? Despite the Three-Step Test?

 M. Senftleben, here.

The Economics of the DMA: Insights from the European Commission’s Expert Workshop

 SCIDA, here.

[Disclosure: I submitted an evol econ paper to the conf but it was turned down - it happens, cheer up - soon in ORDO;  a very friendly lawyer was kind enough to describe the paper as groundbreaking - sure it isn't but I had fun writing it!]

Teresa Ribera at the Transatlantic Forum on GeoEconomics

 Video here.

A Proposed Framework for a "Buy European" Regulation of Strategic Digital Procurement

 Eurostack, here.

It's more regulation ;-)

How to Regulate the Cloud: A Blueprint to Address the Market Failures and National Security Risks of Cloud Computing

 CDN.Vanderbilt, here.

Data Act in der Praxis – „Game Changer“ oder „Rohrkrepierer“?

 Podcast, hier.

CNAM v. Sanofi

 Cour de cassation. ici.

Microsoft looks to build AI marketplace for publishers

 Axios, here. 

Big Tech addressing a market failure? What about dual roles? 

Nvidia's $100 billion OpenAI play raises big antitrust issues

 Reuters, here. 

I remember a time when these were the topics discussed in the EU too...

Response of Alphabet Inc. (Google) to European Commission consultation on the first review of the Digital Markets Act

 Here.

From Dashboards to Data Acquisition: Charting the Social Media Monitoring Market

 IDDP, here.

Unofficial translation of the Brazil DMA Bill

Here.

Why Meta Thinks It Can Challenge Apple in Consumer AI Devices

 WSJ, here.

The Digital Markets Act turns 1: one year of pushing for Device Neutrality

 FSFE, here. 

Joint Section Comment to the EC on their First Review of the Digital Markets Act

 ABA Antitrust, here. 

Sanzione per oltre 936 milioni complessivi a Eni, Esso, Ip, Q8, Saras e Tamoil per intesa restrittiva della concorrenza

 AGCM, here. 

If it's good enough for Big Oil and Big Tobacco, it's good enough for Cupertino.

 Infrequently.org, here. 

Meta to launch ad-free subscription to Facebook and Instagram in UK

 Independent, here. 

Sidelined UX Research: Lessons From Meta’s Senate Hearing

 here.

Judge Alsup grants preliminary approval of $1.5 billion settlement, largest in copyright history, in class action filed by Bartz v. Anthropic.

 ChatGPTiseatingtheworld, here.

Conference Debrief – Highlights from the UK Digital Markets Competition Regulation Forum 2025

 SCiDA, here.

Without a Payment Ban, What Can We Expect from the US v. Google Data Sharing Remedies?

 A. Cooper, here.

Latest iOS beta hints at notifications on non-Apple watches

 The Verge, here. 

Commission opens investigation into possible anticompetitive practices by SAP regarding maintenance and support services for its popular business management software

 EC, here. 

Consultation on the 2025 Review of the Digital Markets Act (DMA)

 SCIDA, here.

The Digital Markets Act is good for European consumers and must be protected: EU consumer groups’ response to Apple

 BEUC, here.

Electric Eyes

 Antimonopoly.ca, here.

AI Competition Law '25 a first survey

 P. Picht, here.

GERECHTSHOF AMSTERDAM: META AND 5(2) DMA

 Hier.

A clean, just and competitive European Industry Policy Conference 2025

 Video here. 

Como promover uma lei de concorrência digital justa no Brasil

 P. Bello et al., aqui.

How Google Paid the Media Millions to Avoid Regulatory Pressure

 TechPolicy, here.

Commission requests information under Digital Services Act from Apple, Booking.com, Google and Microsoft on financial scams

 EC, here. 

Sixth AI Pact webinar on the General-Purpose AI Models and Code of Practice

 DigitalEU, Video here.

Remedies Should Account for the Past to Protect the Future

 

Plaintiffs, here.

Remedies Trial Update, Septembeer 23, 2025: Four industry witnesses, and a somber reminder that this trial is about the future of journalism

 USvGooleAds, here. 

Examination of technology: Immersive technologies

Digital Platform Regulators Forum, here. 

Brazilian DMA at the UN General Assembly!

 President Lula, here. 

Digital agriculture

 EPO, here. 

Canada TikTok Privacy Investigation

DPAs, here.

California Finalizes Regulations to Strengthen Consumers' Privacy

 CPPA, here. 

FSFE’s Statement in Intervention: Apple v European Commission (Case T-1080/23)

 Here. 

Will Google’s AI Overviews Swallow the News?

 Preiskel & Co, here. 

De vervanging van regels door macht en de toenemende beïnvloeding van de vrije wil

 M. Snoep, hier. 

Inside the EU's Courtroom Playbook on Competition w/ Fernando Castillo de la Torre

 The Binary Agora, here. 

Appraising the Google Search Antitrust Remedies

 E. Hovenkamp, D. Melamed, here.

Even moderate "traditionalists" are unhappy...

Google Developer Verification Policy and the DMA

 F-Droid, here.

Smart resilience

 Human forward, here.

The treatment of innovation in EU merger control at the crossroads

 White & Case, here.

Tech went all in. Now what?

 

Here. 

It's Groundhog Day for a Google Breakup

 Big Tech on Trial, here. 

DMA: Apple's (first 5) waiver requests turned down, more to come?

 EC, decision here. 

Anything in the DMA preventing the EC from being flooded by Apple's waiver requests :-)?  

How Wikipedia Can Save the Internet With Advertising

 R. Berjon, here. 

How AI startups are fueling Google’s booming cloud business

TechCrunch, here.

N.B. "Neither Lovable nor Windsurf have signed a preferred cloud provider agreement" 

Why oh why this clarification ;-)? 

DOJ vs Google: Back to Court for Remedies to Break Digital Ads Monopoly

 K. Montoya, here. 

Remedies Trial Update, September 22, 2025: Google's proposed remedies are like "putting a band-aid on a severed limb"

USvGoogleAds, here. 

Making Europe an AI continent

 EPRS, here.

Everything you need to know about the closing stages of Google’s ad tech antitrust trial

 DigiDay, here.

Insider v. Google

 Here.

Google brings Gemini in Chrome to US users, unveils agentic browsing capabilities, and more

 TechCrunch, here

You had one job. Judge Mehta (actually, three): to fix the online search market. 

Google and PayPal team up on agentic commerce

TechCrunch, here.

Safeguarding collective redress: the ECJ’s ASG 2 Judgment and its implications for antitrust damages in Germany

 Hausfeld, here.

Microsoft and Google Under Scanner For Clubbing AI with office suite in India!

 Financial Express, here. 

Crafting the Regulatory Ecosystem for AI: Competition 2.0

 N. Cunha Rogrigues, here. 

Goals of the AfCFTA Competition Protocol Digital Market Competition Regulations: Lessons from South Africa’s Online Intermediation Platform Market Inquiry (OIPMI), the EU’s DMA and the US Experiences with Digital Platform Giants

V. Kedogo Kigwiru and Z. Georgieva, here.

“One Year After the Draghi Report" Keynote address by Professor Mario DRAGHI

 Video here.

Draghi's speech here. 

Von der Leyen's speech here.

Remarks at 2025 Anti-Monopoly Summit

 L. Khan, here. 

Video of the Summit, day 1 here.

Künstliche Intelligenz als soziotechnische Entwicklung

 H. Ruschemeier, hier.

Penske v. Google

 Here.

How to Build a Post-American Liberal Order

P. O'Brien, here.  

International Competition Law: My Syllabus, Unbound

 Course Description

Competition policy has long been regarded as an essential framework for any economy based on market exchange. Its logic is not confined to capitalist systems; rather, it establishes the conditions under which markets can function at all. Traces of such principles can already be discerned in the Roman world two millennia ago, anticipating many features of modern regimes. In recent years, competition has also been valued as a mechanism for stimulating innovation across a wide range of fields, extending far beyond its important role in driving price rivalry.

Unlike other areas of law, there has never been a codified body of international competition law. Yet practice has always carried a strong cross-border dimension. The case of Google in Europe is emblematic: multiple abuses of a dominant position by a U.S. company not only harmed European consumers but also affected European firms, as well as other companies operating within the EU. Many of the latter were themselves U.S. firms.

Traditionally, transatlantic cooperation between the European Union and the United States provided an anchor for international enforcement. These two jurisdictions have also been at the origin of several international initiatives in the field, most notably the creation and promotion of the International Competition Network. The OECD, though a more limited “club” of states, has likewise played an influential role in shaping cross-jurisdictional competition policy.

In recent months, however, the pace of history has accelerated. Established alliances have weakened, autocracies have flourished, and new partnerships among democratic blocs are bound to shape global competition policy in novel ways.

This course begins with a brief historical excursus before moving swiftly to the current order. The beginning of modern legislation in the field of competition policy is usually identified with the enactment of the Sherman Act in the United States in 1890, often regarded as the foundational statement of modern antitrust principles. These principles directly influenced the provisions of the Treaty of Rome, which founded the European Economic Community in the late 1950s. Competition was enshrined there into core legal provisions, as it was seen as an important tool to achieve the European single market—a pivotal project, all of which was to be based firmly on the rule of law.

In the closing decades of the twentieth century, competition policy spread widely, with antitrust legislation being adopted in almost every jurisdiction, including China. Yet rather than being strengthened, it often lost force under the prevailing neoliberal ideology. That system rested on a stylised belief that markets tended to function well on their own, requiring only minimal intervention in cases of market failure. The result was a competition policy that became hesitant, overly cautious, and in many respects ineffective.

Today, however, we are entering a post-neoliberal phase. This shift poses new challenges for competition policy, which must be re-imagined and made more effective in order to confront the multiplication of monopolies, particularly in key sectors such as digital technologies and global platforms.

The course will adopt a pragmatic, case-based approach, relying on inductive reasoning rather than abstract theory. From the outset, students will be actively engaged with leading cases and encouraged to draw broader lessons from them. Class sessions will provide ample opportunity for discussion and group work. The material provided will focus on case analysis and critical reflection, always with an eye to the broader context of profound change. What has been done in the past may prove of limited use for the future, and it is precisely this transition that the course aims to address.

Learning Outcomes

By the end of the course, students will be able to:

• Understand what competition policy is and how it is designed to shape the functioning of a market economy.
• Recognise how the principles of competition policy are being transformed in light of the digital economy, the growing role of data as a source of value, and the rise of AI.
• Apply these principles to future-oriented scenarios, whether from the perspective of a business, a policy-making role, or a consultancy context.
• Use competition policy concepts in a strategic way, linking theory to practical challenges.
• Identify avenues for further study and research in competition law and policy.
•  

Assessment

Active participation is both mandatory and strongly encouraged, as it forms an integral part of the final grade. Students will be expected to contribute through presentations and small group assignments conducted throughout the course.

The final examination will be written ("paper and pen") and divided into two parts:

• a theoretical section with three open-ended questions;
• a case-based section, consisting of one question relating to a case discussed during the course.

Course Materials and Weekly Assignments

There is no single textbook for this course. Instead, students will receive weekly assignments consisting of readings and case materials. Each class session will build directly on this material, which together forms the required study corpus for the final exam. Weekly study and active participation are therefore not only encouraged but are in themselves the most effective preparation for the assessment.