Friday, December 28, 2018

Wednesday, December 19, 2018

Comparative approaches of the United States and the European Union to the monopoly/abuse of dominance problem

E. Fox, here. 

Competition Policy in the European Union and the United States: The Treatment of Dominant Firms

B. Kovacic, here. 

Prime and Punishment

The Verge, here. 

Why US Antitrust Law Should Not Emulate European Competition Policy

G. Manne, here. 

AG Racine Sues Facebook for Failing to Protect Millions of Users' Data

Office of the Attorney General for the District of Columbia, here.
Complaint here. 

Travel agents seek EU antitrust probe into Lufthansa pricing

Reuters, here. 

Amazon and Facebook Reportedly Had a Secret Data-Sharing Agreement, and It Explains So Much

Gizmodo, here. 

Google Keeps Yelp, Consumer Watchdog Out of EU Court Appeal

Bloomberg, here. The Order here.

The Web (in this part of the world?) now belongs to Google, and that should worry us

ArsTechnica, here.
And Google says it was just a bug, here. 

As Facebook Raised a Privacy Wall, It Carved an Opening for Tech Giants

NYTimes, here. 

CMA tackles loyalty penalty charges

CMA, here. 

A Painting Given to Eric Clapton Cannot be Used on Album Cover Rules French Supreme Court

The 1709 Blog, here. 

Vorwurf an Google: Microsoft Edge mit unfairen Mitteln verdrängt

Heise.de, hier and here and here. 

AG Bobek opinion on embedded plugins

EUCJ, here (and here)

Tuesday, December 18, 2018

The Tactics & Tropes of the Internet Research Agency

New Knowledge, Whitepaper here; slide deck here.

Google still claimed to be blocking search rivals on Android, despite Europe’s antitrust action

TechCrunch, here. 

UK watchdog says Big Tech pose biggest threat to banks

Reuters, here. 

Structuralist Innovation: A Shaky Legal Presumption in Need of an Overhaul

D. Auer, here. 

YES, BIG PLATFORMS COULD CHANGE THEIR BUSINESS MODELS

Wired, here. 

Warren bill would get feds into generic drug manufacturing

Politico, here. 

GOOGLE ANDROID: RECORD-BREAKING FINE ON ANTI-COMPETITIVE PRACTICES UNDER ARTICLE 102 TFEU

A. Chirita, here. 

THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION’S ANDROID DECISION AND BROADER LESSONS FOR ARTICLE 102 ENFORCEMENT

N. Banasevic, here. 

AMAZON AND THE LAW OF THE JUNGLE

S. Vezzoso (this blog's author), here. 

A PRELIMINARY ASSESSMENT OF THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION’S GOOGLE ANDROID DECISION

P. Akmar, here. 

WITH UNCERTAIN DAMAGE THEORY COME UNPREDICTABLE EFFECTS OF REMEDIES: “LIBRES PROPOS” ON THE ANDROID CASE

F. Marty, J. Pillot, here. 

Google Android Antitrust: Dominance Pivots and a Business Model Clash in Brussels

R. Picker, here. 

DRAFT ETHICS GUIDELINES FOR TRUSTWORTHY AI

EC's HIGH-LEVEL EXPERT GROUP ON ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE, here. 

THE IP RIGHTS EXEMPTION TO THE AUSTRALIAN COMPETITION LAW RULES TO BE REPEALED

Clifford Chance, here. 

Commission approves plan by France, Germany, Italy and the UK to give €1.75 billion public support to joint research and innovation project in microelectronics

EC, here.
Statement here.

Trento also involved: Fondazione Bruno Kessler.

Mercedes-Benz customers benefit from new data services

Daimler, here. 

CMA proposes reforms to improve competition in audit sector

CMA, here. 

Modernisation of EU consumer protection rules: A new deal for consumers

EP ThinkTank, Briefing here.

The IRA, Social Media and Political Polarization in the United States, 2012-2018

P. Howard, B. Ganesh, D. Liotsiou, J. Kelly & C. François, here.

Strategic Review of Retail Banking Business Models

FCA, Final Report, here; Annexes here. 

COMCO Secretariat agrees with Apple about a TWINT-friendly solution

WEKO, here. 

GOOGLE’S SECRET CHINA PROJECT “EFFECTIVELY ENDED” AFTER INTERNAL CONFRONTATION

The Intercept, here. 

Monday, December 17, 2018

The folly of trolleys: Ethical challenges and autonomous vehicles

Brookings, here. 

Amazon Targets Unprofitable Items, With a Sharper Focus on the Bottom Line

WSJ, here. 

The End of the Ad-Supported Web - What if we got the business model of the web wrong?

Unlock, here. 

Shaping competition policy in the era of digitisation: Contributions Received

EC, here.
All of them in one single, searchable pdf file, here (930 pp.). You're welcome.

Commission fines BEH Group € 77 million for blocking access to key natural gas infrastructure in Bulgaria

EC, here. 

Apple Pay und nun?

IT-Finanzmagazin.de, hier. 

Year in a Word: Techlash

FT, here. 

UK Fintech Revolut Receives EU Banking Licence through the central bank in Lithuania

Financemagnates.com, here. 

ApplePay ist digitale Wegelagerei

H. Bender, hier. 

Judge Koh rejects Qualcomm's bid to introduce new evidence related to Intel's success with Apple, Qualcomm's new 5G agreements

FOSS Patents, here. 

Commission fines Guess €40 million for anticompetitive agreements to block cross-border sales

EC, here. 

It’s time for a Bill of Data Rights

M. Tisné, here. 

Vom Datenschutz zur human-zentrierten Datenwirtschaft

M. Beyer-Katzenberger, hier (s. 71 ff.), hier.

DEMOCRACY UNDER THREAT: RISKS AND SOLUTIONS IN THE ERA OF DISINFORMATION AND DATA MONOPOLY

House of Commons, Canada, Report of the Standing Committee on Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics, here. 

Tuesday, December 11, 2018

Freigabe des Zusammenschlusses der CTS Eventim AG & Co. KGaA mit der FKP SCORPIO Konzertproduktionen GmbH

Bundeskartellamt, Fallbericht hier. 

Google 2018 Hearing

Live here.
For a piece of history, you can compare with Eric Schmidt's 2011 Hearing, Video here. 

On the privacy-conscientious use of mobile phone data

Y. de Montjoye et al., here.. 

Comments on Developing the Administration’s Approach to Consumer Privacy

NTIA, here. 

Tencent: WeChat Is More Than A Product, It’s ‘An Ecosystem’

AdExchanger, here. 

The Business of Selling Your Location

NYTimes, Podcast here.

Investigation of generic ‘cartel’ expands to 300 drugs

WashingtonPost, here. 

Apple Pay finally launches in Germany

TechCrunch, here. 

Competition Cases Involving Platforms: Lessons from Europe

N. Petit, here. 

BEUC: Eine Europäische Strategie für die Daten und Platformwirtschaft (in 3 Bildern)


Image

Image



Image

Economic dependence: what can we learn from the industrial organization approach?

P. Bougette, O. Budzinski, F. Marty, here. 

Apple Pay in Deutschland – Fragen und Antworten

Heise.de, hier. 

EU's Vestager may investigate Apple Pay if there are formal complaints

Reuters, here. 

Written Testimony

S. Pichai, Before the House Judiciary Committee, Hearing on “​Transparency & Accountability: Examining Google and its Data Collection, Use, and Filtering Practices” December 11, 2018, here.

Delete All Your Apps

Motherboard, here.

Tuesday, December 04, 2018

Fortnite-maker aims for Steam’s head with Epic Games Store

TechCrunch, here.

Google personalizes search results even when you’re logged out, new study finds

The Verge, here.

Internet giants pose existential threat to banks: BIS chief

Reuters, here.

When Considering Federal Privacy Legislation

N. Chilson, here.

Experian/ClearScore

CMA, Provisional findings report here.

(What I find a bit surprising is the playing down of the PSD2-Open Banking effects)

Apple/Shazam: Data Is Power, But Not a Problem Here

N. Zingales, here.

Some Considerations on Intelligent Online Behavioural Advertising

G. Noto La Diega, here. 

Antitrust by Design – Kartellrechtliche Technik-Compliance für Algorithmen, Blockchain und Plattformen?

S. Louven, hier. 

The State of European Tech 2018

Orrick, here. 

EU's Vestager Urged to Probe How Tech Giants Cash In on Ads

Bloomberg, here.
Brave's letter here.
Transcript of the FTCHearing mentioned here, but you can also enjoy the video 🍿.

Apple Lawsuit Could Impact How Courts View Antitrust Cases

Legal Tech News, here. 

Datenschutzbehörde: STANDARD-Angebot entspricht DSGVO

Der Standard, hier. 

Wednesday, November 28, 2018

Didi Chuxing ‘lost control’ of safety, Chinese government says

FT, here.

Joint industry letter on the ePrivacy Regulation

#moretechnologicalapproach



@ashk4n

Former FTC official says Facebook representative made false statements to international leaders about how the company handles personal data

CNBC, here. 

COMPETITION LAW AND STATE-OWNED ENTERPRISES: ENFORCEMENT

D. Healey, here. 

Zero-price markets: Updating the Analytical Toolkit

M. Botta, Presentation here.

  1. 1. COMPETITION POLICY IN ZERO-PRICE MARKETS UPDATING THE ANALYTICAL TOOLKIT MARCO BOTTA Joint meeting of the OECD Competition and Consumer Policy Committees Paris, 28th November 2018 Max Planck Institute for Innovation and Competition | Munich
  2. 2. Outline 2 • Updating the competition analytical tools: 1) Relevant market. 2) Market power. 3) Anti-competitive conducts. 4) Potential remedies. • Conclusions – questions for further debate. 
  3. 3. Limits of the SSNIP test 3 • The relevant market is traditionally defined via the SSNIP test. • Problem: what is “small, but significant price increase” in a zero-price market? • ‘Free effect’ : when the reference price is zero, consumers will automatically switch to any competing product in case of price increase ➢ excessively broad definition of the relevant market. • Multi-sided markets: SSNIP test will limit market definition to one side of the market. 
  4. 4. Alternative tools to define therelevant market 4 • Alternative tools follow a similar logic as the SSNIP test: 1) SSNIC (i.e. increase consumers’ costs): + data / attention ➢ + consumers’ costs. 2) SSNDQ (i.e. decline product quality): + data / attention ➢ - product quality. • Limits of the alternative tools in zero-price markets: 1) Quantification: +5% amount of personal data / attention? 2) Heterogeneous consumers’ preferences: what type of data/attention should we take into consideration? 3) Positive effects: + data transferred can increase the product quality. 4) SSNIC and SSDQ do NOT catch multi-sided markets. 
  5. 5. Market power in zero-price markets 5 • Market power within the relevant market: element to trigger enforcement of competition policy (e.g. unilateral conducts, merger control, vertical agreements). • Traditional definition of market power: ability of the firm to raise prices above the competitive level. • ‘Free effect’ : in zero-price markets firms can never raise prices above 0 ➢ consumers would always switch to other products = NO firm has market power. • The market share has limited relevance to assess market power in zero- price markets. 
  6. 6. Factors to estimate market power in zero-price markets 6 • A number of factors can be assessed to estimate the degree of market power in zero-price markets: 1) Attention degree: users’ attention on the Internet is a ‘scarce’ resource. 2) Direct and indirect network effects: number of users; product quality. 3) Multi-homing and switching costs. 4) Access to data ➢ possibility to purchase data from third parties. 5) Sunk investment costs. 6) Degree of innovation: a) Relevance of innovation in the market; b) Evidence of past radical innovations; c) Evidence of past entry. 
  7. 7. Updating anti-competitive conducts 7 • Assessment of anti-competitive conducts based on ‘price’ should be revised in zero-price markets. • Cartels fixing the price at zero: shift from a per se prohibition to an effect analysis. • Predatory pricing ➢ what is ‘predatory’ in a zero-price market? 1) Fallacies in accordance with the current legal standards: a) EU: presumption of predation when prices are below average marginal costs. b) USA: requirement of likely recoupment in the same market. 2) Recoupment requirement should be always required, BUT extended to other ‘sides’ of the market. 
  8. 8. Updating anti-competitive conducts 8 • Exploitative conducts in zero-price markets (EU): 1) Excessive pricing (i.e. asking ‘too much data’) ➢ NOT relevant. 2) Discriminatory pricing ➢ NOT relevant. 3) Unfair contractual clauses: relevant in zero-price markets a) Clauses ‘unilaterally’ imposed by the dominant firms (e.g. social network unilaterally modified the data protection terms). b) ’Unfair’: clauses ‘un-related’ to the product, and outside the ordinary commercial business practices (e.g. users’ data are transferred to third parties without the user’s consent). c) Relationship with consumer and data protection law: open question. 
  9. 9. Competition law remedies in zero-price markets 9 • Zero-price markets pose new challenges to the application of the traditional antitrust toolkit ➢ infringement decision + fine is NOT an effective remedy. • Structural v. behavioural remedies: 1) Structural remedies (e.g. un-bundling; divestiture of a subsidiary): NOT efficient ➢ negative effect on direct network effects and product quality. 2) Behavioural remedies: the NCA ‘guides’ the firm in terms of competition law compliance: a) Tailor-made ➢ designed in cooperation with the firm (i.e. commitments); b) Possible periodic revision ➢ adaptation to the market dynamics. c) Need of monitoring. d) Risk of market regulation ➢ overlap with data protection and consumer law. 
  10. 10. Behavioural remedies in zero-price markets 10 • Examples of behavioural remedies in zero-price markets: 1) Increase consumers’ awareness (e.g. increase transparency of the contractual terms; info about the personal data collected); 2) Setting minimum standards of data protection terms (e.g. max. duration of data storage); 3) Giving consumers the opportunity to periodically revise the consent to the processing of their personal data; 4) Right to data portability. 
  11. 11. Relationship with sector-regulation 11 • Antitrust remedies can clarify unclear aspects in data/consumer law protection. • Cooperation between NCA and data protection /consumer law authorities: 1) Exchange of information during the investigations; 2) Joint sector-inquiries; 3) Consultation in designing behavioural remedies. • Competition v. consumer / data protection remedies: 1) Advantage: antitrust remedies ensure higher degree of deterrence. 2) Disadvantage: definition relevant market and market power. 
  12. 12. Conclusions – questions for further debate 12 • Are SSNIC and SSNDQ effective tools to define the relevant market? • What aspects should be taken into consideration to assess market power in zero-price markets? • How should the assessment of anti-competitive conducts be adjusted to the peculiarities of zero-price markets? • What type of competition law remedies could be introduced in zero-price markets? • What are the possible forms of cooperation between NCAs and sector regulators when it comes to designing the remedies? 
  13. 13. 13 Thank you very much for your attention! marco.botta@ip.mpg.de 

The regulation of personalised pricing in the digital era

M. Bourreau and A. de Streel, here. 

In Support of Privacy Engineering

IEEE, here. 

Google CEO Sets Date for House Panel After Senate No-Show

Bloomberg, here. 

‘Principles of the Law Governing the Internet’

Members of the national Parliaments of: the Argentine Republic; the Kingdom of Belgium; the Federative Republic of Brazil; Canada; the French Republic; Ireland; the Republic of Latvia; the Republic of Singapore; and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, here. 

What Facebook Really Doesn’t Want You to Talk About

Bloomberg, here. 

Britain may block Experian-ClearScore credit data merger

Reuters, here.

PSD2 sparks rise in UK reported tech and cyber incidents

Out-law.com, here. 

Disinformation and ‘fake news’ (and FB privacy and antitrust)

House of Commons, Digital, Culture, Media and Sport International Grand Committee, here (both videos and transcripts). 

New Parents Complain Amazon Ads Are Deceptive

WSJ, here and here. 

Monday, November 26, 2018

Marginally Everywhere

R. Woocock, here. 

Apple v, Pepper

Oral argument transcript, here.

Personalised Pricing in the Digital Era

Note by the European Union, here.

RECHTE AN DATEN

J. Kühling, F. Sackmann, hier.  S. auch Positionspapier, hier. 

Quality considerations in the zero-price economy

Note by Germany, here and the EU, here.

RGPD : 45 000 Européens ont rejoint un recours collectif contre les géants du web

Numérama, ici.

PayPal / iZettle merger raises competition concerns

CMA, here. 

„Kommission Wettbewerbsrecht 4.0"

Stellungnahme der Bundesrechtsanwaltskammer. hier. 

Brussels launches probe into airline ticket system groups

FT, here. 

Privacy in the Age of Artificial Intelligence

TRPC, here.

Why the U.S. Is Beyond the Gilded Age

MSN.com, Video here. 

Why a French ruling against a small mobile ad firm has ad tech on the defensive

Marketing Land, here. 

ICO tells Washington Post it offers invalid cookie consent under GDPR

IAPP, here. 

Wie KI-Forscher sich die nötigen Trainingsdaten verschaffen

Heise.de, hier. 

Glen Weyl: “We need to find ways to organize collectively to exercise our rights online”

LINC, here. 

Superintendência-Geral recomenda arquivamento de investigação contra o Google

CADE, aqui.
Super interesting aqui, aqui, aqui, aqui, aqui e mais aqui. 

Kreditscoring: Urteil aus Finnland wirft Fragen zur Diskriminierung auf

Algorithmwatch.org, hier. 

3D printing and intellectual property futures

T. Birtchnell, A. Daly, T. Rayna and L. Striukova for the UK IPO, here. 

Vectaury: IAB statement and @johnnyryan's comments

Here. 

Das Ende des Bargelds – bald auch in Deutschland?

Handelsblatt, hier. 

How the GDPR will Help Europe Win the Race for AI

Yo-Da, here. 

Best of frenemies? Reflections on privacy and competition four years after the EDPS Preliminary Opinion

C. D'Cunha, here. 

AIRLINES FACE CRACK DOWN ON USE OF ‘EXPLOITATIVE’ ALGORITHM THAT SPLITS UP FAMILIES ON FLIGHTS

Independent, here. 

A study of the implications of advanced digital technologies (including AI systems) for the concept of responsibility within a human rights framework

K. Yeung, here. 

China’s Orwellian Social Credit Score Isn’t Real

Foreign Policy, here. 

Arreglar el desastre de Internet

El Pais, aquì. 

Rule by robots is easy to imagine – we’re already victims of superintelligent firms

The Guardian, here. 

Edward Snowden Explains Blockchain to His Lawyer — and the Rest of Us

ACLU, here. 

NFC im iPhone: Lufthansa erstes bekanntes Unternehmen, das die Schnittstelle nutzt

ComputerBild, hier. 

Sabbiere, Innovazione e Concorrenza: Il Caso Fintech

S. Vezzoso (autrice del blog), qui. Primissima bozza, commenti più che graditi!

Sunday, November 25, 2018

Friday, November 23, 2018

Thursday, November 22, 2018

„Die Gefahr besteht, dass wir ein Zwei-Klassen-Internet schaffen“

FAZ, hier. 

You Snooze, You Lose: How Insurers Dodge The Costs Of Popular Sleep Apnea Devices

NPR, here. 

Google Spleen

Ici. 

Competition in (data) privacy: ‘zero’-price markets, market power, and the role of competition law

S.Y. Esayas, here. 

The Norwegian Ski Federation before the EFTA Court

Ruling here, more here. 

Comparison sites cry foul over Google Shopping service

The Register, here, 

Visa, Mastercard offer tourist card fee cut in EU antitrust probe

Reuters, here. 

Update on the German Facebook Case


COMPETITION LAW AND STATE-OWNED ENTERPRISES

OECD  Secretariat, here. 

Quality considerations in digital zero-price markets

OECD Secretariat, here. 

Personalised Pricing in the Digital Era

Note by the United Kingdom to the OECD, here. 

How tech companies deceive you into giving up your data and privacy

 F. Lützow-Holm Myrstad, TedTalk here.

More about Cayla, here. 

Competition and fairness in a digital society

M. Vestager, here. 

Inside Tech’s “Kill Zone”: How to Deal With the Threat to Edge Innovation Posed by Multi-Sided Platforms

H. Singer, here. 

The dos of data: data trusts

The Economist, Podcast  here (at 08:22).

Algorithmic Price-Setting by Platforms

J. Nowag, here. 

How Facebook’s P.R. Firm Brought Political Trickery to Tech

NyTimes, here. 

Google, our "God"?

Competition Lore with Caron Beaton-Wells and Hal Varian, Podcast here. 

Nielsen/Ebiquity Merger

CMA, Final Report here. 

The war on cash in Belgium and The Netherlands: a state of play on contactless mobile payments

FinExtra, here. 

France is ditching Google to reclaim its online independence

Wired, here. 

Conclusions from the Cryptoassets Taskforce

FCA, here. 

The CNIL’s VECTAURY Decision and the IAB Europe Transparency & Consent Framework

IAB, here. 

Break up Facebook (and while we're at it, Google, Apple and Amazon)

R. Reich, here. 

La CNMC incoa expediente sancionador contra Adidas España por posibles prácticas restrictivas de la competencia

CNMC, aquì.

Open Letter to Commissioner Vestager from 14 European CSSs Re Google Shopping

Wednesday, November 21, 2018

Apple reportedly buys AI startup focused on building on-device machine learning software

The Verge, here. 

Data Governance in Connected Cars: The Problem of Access to In-Vehicle Data

W. Kerber, here. 

BIG DATA AND COMPETITION POLICY

A. Claici, here, pp. 423-457.

Personalized Prices in the Digital Economy

J.-J. Ganuza and G. Llobet, here. 

The Economics of the Gig Economy – with an Application to the Spanish Taxi Industry

M. Silos Ribas, here., pp. 305-342.

ECONOMIC ANALYSIS OF THE DIGITAL REVOLUTION

Book, here.

Beijing to Judge Every Resident Based on Behavior by End of 2020

Bloomberg, here. 

Resolution on the right to privacy in the digital age

UN, here. 

Want Faster Airline Customer Service? Try Tweeting

NYTimes, here. 

Google: Three Thoughts

R. Picker, here. 

La irrupción de las fintech en el sector bancario generará precios más asequibles, según la CNMC

EuropaPress, aquì. 

We Need to Move Beyond Competition Policy

Forbes, here. 

Platform Accountability and Contemporary Competition Law: Practical Considerations

P. Verveer, here. 

How a small French privacy ruling could remake adtech for good

TechCrunch, here.


Monday, November 19, 2018

There is a ‘third way’ for Europe to navigate the digital world

FT, here. 

Datenschutz-Folgenabschätzung zeigt hohe Risiken bei Microsoft Office ProPlus Enterprise

Privacy Company, hier. Video here.

Paula Forteza : « Les citoyens doivent participer à la régulation des plates-formes numériques »

Le Monde, ici. 

How Software Is Helping Big Companies Dominate

J. Bessen, W. Frick, here. 

Microsoft/GitHub

Decision here.

What Are We Learning about Artificial Intelligence in Financial Services?

L. Brainard, here. 

DATA MOBILITY: The personal data portability growth opportunity for the UK economy

Ctrl-Shift for the UK  the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS), here. 

Amazon: EC Investigation to Focus on Whether Amazon Uses Data to Develop and Favor Private Label Products

Capital Forum, here. 

ePrivacy-Verordnung (ePVO): Tickende Zeitbombe für Ihr Online-Marketing? – So bereiten Sie sich vor!

PIWIK, hier. 

The intensity of judicial review in complex economic matters—recent competition law judgments of the Court of Justice of the EU

J. L. da Cruz Vilaça, here.

Décision: VECTAURY

CNIL Décision n°MED-2018-042 du 30 octobre 2018, ici.

And this "much older" blog post for some context.

KI als Markenzeichen für Deutschland

Bundesregierung, Presse Mitteilung hier. Bericht hier.

Is technology re-engineering humanity?

The Economist, here. 

Want To See Your Dystopian Future? Look at China

C. O'Neil, here. 

WIPO Conference on the Global Digital Content Market

Videos here. 

Tuesday, November 13, 2018