Line to launch cryptocurrency exchange in Singapore

FT, here. 

The first "known" financial technology

Morgan Museum, NYC

(Small) Variations on a Theme: This blog's author Lund Presentation on "FinTech, TechFin, Competitive Markets: What Could Possibly Go Wrong?", here. 

Tommaso Valletti: “Gigantes tecnológicas devem ser mais investigadas”

Jornal Economico, aqui.

Concentrations: la Commission ouvre une enquête approfondie sur le projet d'acquisition de l'activité nylon de Solvay par BASF

Ce, ici.

Künstliche Intelligenz: Bundestag-Enquete soll Risiken und Chancen von KI ausloten

Heise.de, hier.

Strategic Review of Retail Banking Business Models

FCA, here.

The state of the Internet in France

Arcep, here.

Commerzbank ist offen für Apple – „Google Pay ist für uns nur der Anfang“

Handelsblatt, here.

Deceived by Design

Norwegian consumer protection agency, here.

Let’s make private data into a public good

M. Mazzucato, here.

Experian secures FCA accreditation to supply Open Banking and PSD2 services

FinExtra, here.

Amazon, the Brand Buster

NYTimes, here.

Der Marktmachttransfer bei digitalen Plattformen: zur Anwendung von Art 102 AEUV auf mehrseitige Märkte in der Internetökonomie

S. Holzweber, hier.

Data-Driven Mergers under EU Competition Law

A. Chirita, here.

EU Competition Law Enforcement vis-à-vis Exploitative Conducts in the Data Economy: Exploring the Terra Incognita

M. Botta and K. Wiedemann, here.

Erster DSGVO-Bescheid: Zugang zu alten Bankdaten muss gratis sein

Der Standard, hier.

FTC Commissioner Rohit Chopra at the EU Digital Clearing House

FinTech,TechFin, Competitive Markets: What Could Possibly Go Wrong?

S. Vezzoso (this blog’s author), presentation here. Please email me if you have any comment.

On The Future Of A PayPal-Owned Hyperwallet

Pymnts, here.

Bias detectives: the researchers striving to make algorithms fair

Nature, here.

Potential Antitrust Issues Lurking in Blockchain Technology

Orrick, here.

What happens if Apple loses its Supreme Court App Store antitrust appeal?

The Verge, here.

Big Tech’s Big-Time, Big-Scale Problem

G. Manne, J. Hurwitz, here.

Opinion of the European Banking Authority on the implementation of the RTS on SCA and CSC

EBA, here.
"In the event that the ASPSP does not have a system that enables it to adequately respond to the confirmation request sent by the provider initiating the payment, then the ASPSP should give PISPs the possibility of accessing the necessary data themselves, so as to allow them to make their own judgements on the sufficient availability of funds."

"Given that PSD2 does not limit the types of payment transactions a PISP is allowed to offer, and given the provisions in Articles 4(15) and 66(1) of PSD2 in particular, the EBA would like to clarify that a PISP has the right to initiate the same transactions that the ASPSP offers to its own PSUs, such as instant payments, batch payments, international payments, recurring transactions, payments set by national schemes and future-dated payments."

“ TECHNOPOLY” and what to do about it: Reform, Redress and Regulation

ResPublica, here. 

The regulatory mistakes that let Facebook and Google buy ad dominance

Axios, here. 

Super Platforms, Big Data, and the Competition Law: The Japanese Approach in Contrast with the US and the EU

T. Takigawa, here. 

Lessons from the Recent Commission’s Decision on Google. To Favour Oneself or Not, That is the Question

B. Mäihäniemi, here. 

Virtual Competition

N. Colombo, here. 

The Sound and Fury of Patent Activity

R. Feldman, M. Lemley, here. 

Amazon—An Infrastructure Service and Its Challenge to Current Antitrust Law

L. Khan, here (pp. 99 ff.), here. 

Digital Dominance

Edited by Martin Moore and Damian Tambini, here. 

‘Direct’ and ‘indirect’ effects of enforcement

DotEcon for CMA, here. 

No Fair Hearing for the DoJ in the AT&T-Time Warner Decision

C. Sagers, here. 

Data Nationalization in the Shadow of Social Credit Systems

F. Pasquale, here. 

Report on Competition Policy 2017

EC, here. 

Projet conjoint sur les algorithmes et leurs enjeux pour l'application du droit de la concurrence

Autorité de la concurrence, Bundeskartellamt, ici. 

Supreme Court to review Apple app store commissions case

FT, here. 

Egyptian Competition Authority imposes interim measures on FIFA for World Cup TV rights

Egypttoday.com, here. 

Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs: Structured Dialogue with Margrethe Vestager

Video, here (from 15:17:30).

15:40:09 "the banking sector is developing because of FinTech, new ways of doing payments, new ways of doing banking and that will push the banking sector into restructuring"..."as I see it...the banking sector is in much better shape now than it was just a few years ago"

U.S. top court mulls Apple's App Store commissions in antitrust case

Reuters, here. 

Cryptocurrencies: looking beyond the hype

BIS, here.

Alexis Bledel, Kurt Russell, Beau Knapp to Star in Money Laundering Thriller 'Crypto'

Hollywood Reporter, here. 

CYBG plays up tech advantages in £1.7 billion takeover deal for Virgin Money

FinExtra, here. 

Salesforce deepens data sharing partnership with Google

TechCrunch, here. 

Diana Moss and Joshua Wright discuss AT&T-Time Warner Merger

C-SPAN, Video here. 

THE COURT’S DECISION TO LET AT&T AND TIME WARNER MERGE IS RIDICULOUSLY BAD

TheVerge, here. 

Economics and Antitrust

ABA Antitrust, Spring 2018, here. 

A community-driven project has proposed a model privacy bill for India that puts citizens first

Scroll.in, here. 

The Blockchain: A Data Structure With a Weird Cult Attached

D. Gerard, here. 

D’Enron aux fintech en passant par les subprimes : peut-on sanctionner ex post les abus de marché ?

F. Marty, ici. 

French media plan to meet with government over Google-GDPR concerns

Digiday, here. 

Fintech's Adyen Shows the Long Path to Unseat Giants of Finance

Bloomberg, here. 

Shutting down ePrivacy: lobby bandwagon targets Council

Corporate Europe, here. 

How Judge Leon blew it with U.S. v AT&T

The Washington Post, here. 

Preview of the upcoming discussions at ASCOLA 2018 NYC

Here.

And forget the distinction between the main track and the parallel sessions: great topics everywhere!

(mine included, of course 😊. I hope I’ll do it justice.  First draft of my paper coming soon. Abstract:
‘The use of technology to support the production and delivery of financial services has a long history, spanning from the written records of financial transactions in Mesopotamia, to much more recent developments, such as the first use in 1995 of the World Wide Web to provide online account checking, and the introduction of high‐frequency trading. In the last ten years, however, the adoption of digital technology in the financial sector, generally known as FinTech, has undergone a dramatic acceleration, both in the West and the East. In the latter, arguably, the magnitude of the transformative powers at work is most visible. Ant Financial Services Group, a spin‐out of e‐commerce platform Alibaba, lately achieved a market value of around €127 billion ($150 billion) based on the success of its digital payments system Alipay and money market fund Yu'e Bao. Tencent's popular instant‐messaging app WeChat incorporates an online payment service, WeChat Pay, which is used by a substantial proportion of its one billion monthly users. A strong trend towards mobile payments is also experienced in other countries, such as India. Ongoing transformations in the financial sector are significant and global, which creates opportunities and challenges for consumers, traditional and non‐traditional financial service providers, and regulators alike. Incumbent banks have expressed concerns about the disruptive potential and the dangers of Big Tech, which the Paper calls TechFin adopting the definition of Alibaba's CEO, Jack Ma. While banks brace themselves for potentially unsettling market developments, financial regulators discuss the impact of new technologies on processes and business models, as well as the need for a changed supervisory methodology. The challenge for most financial regulators is to ensure that the multiple benefits offered by these new technologies are realized without hampering consumer protection and compromising the stability of the financial system. The Paper embraces a different perspective and explores some of the likely consequences of FinTech in terms of market structure and competition. Keeping the literature strands on platforms in the background, we analyse the current push towards the “platformization” of banking services. If the financial sector moves towards production and distribution models where the banks see their pivotal role diminished, this is certainly of concern to financial regulators, who should at the very least adapt their supervisory methodologies to the new situation. From a competition policy perspective, however, it is important to identify the types of market structure that could better satisfy consumers' banking and financial needs. The Paper makes the point that the analysis of the possible impact of the FinTech revolution on competition dynamics in the financial sector is particularly relevant especially to make sure that the benefits of innovation are harnessed for the good of consumers. This perspective is solidly ingrained in the “long term” view of competition policy.’)

Venmo is discontinuing web support for payments and more

TechCrunch, here.

If You’re A Facebook User, You’re Also a Research Subject

Bloomberg, here.

Oeconomicae et pecuniariae quaestiones

Le Vatican (pas de blague!), ici. 

Bitcoin’s astronomical rise last year was buoyed by market manipulation, researchers say

Washington Post, here. 

Is Bitcoin Really Un-Tethered?

J. Griffin, A. Shams, here. 

The History of Innovation in Antitrust Law,

Disco, here. 

Pharmacies Accuse Drug Maker of Anticompetitive Contracting to Restrict Biosimilar Market

Akerman, here. 

Policy Recommendations on Augmented Intelligence

AMA, here. 

AAI AGAIN URGES FEDERAL CIRCUIT TO PREVENT COPYRIGHT OVERREACH IN SOFTWARE MARKETS (ORACLE V. GOOGLE)

Amicus Brief, here. 

The Government's Loss In AT&T-Time Warner Was A Waste Of Taxpayer Resources

H. Singer, here. 

Two Companies Won, American Democracy Lost

G. Sohn, here. 

Why Facebook and Google should pay you for your data

The Boston Globe, here. 

Digitalisation of money and the future of monetary policy

P. Bofinger, here. 

Snapchat is finally opening its app to developers — and has clearly learned from Facebook’s mistakes

Recode, here. 

Microsoft reportedly working on rival Amazon Go tech for cashier-free stores

The Verge, here. 

La donnée, une marchandise comme les autres ?

H. Isaac, ici. 

Comment définir et réguler les « données d’intérêt général » ?

B. PAILHÈS, ici. 

Le Big Data en agriculture

V. BELLON-MAUREL ITAP, P. NEVEU MISTEA, A. TERMIER  et F. GARCIA, ici and here. 

Données et règles de concurrence

A. Perrot, ici. 

Modèles économiques des données : une relation complexe entre demande et offre

P. Belleflamme, ici. 

Misinformation & missing information: a fix for fake news

Bruegel, here. 

Adyen share price doubles on market debut

FinExtra, here. 

Small wonder it had to go to trial!

FT, here. 

Antitrust law never envisioned massive tech companies like Google

R. Levine, here. 

Radical Markets: Uprooting Capitalism & Democracy for a Just Society

G. Weyl, Talk at Google moderated by its Chief Economist, here. 

AT&T Shellacs the Government in Time Warner Merger Case

R. Picker, here. 

Bitcoin Technology Opens Up Kenya's $20 Billion Informal Economy

Bloomberg, here. 

Amazon’s Clever Machines Are Moving From the Warehouse to Headquarters

Bloomberg, here. 

Data Ethics Framework

UK Government, here. 

Singapore to develop code for ethical use of AI and personal data

FT, here. 

Google, Carrefour Partner On eCommerce

Pymnts, here. 

Cryptomanced entity goes to Cade against banks

Devdiscourse.com, here. 

Ofgem issues statement of objections under the Competition Act to Economy Energy, E, and Dyball Associates

Ofgem, here. 

German Federal Court of Justice hands down landmark judgment in Cement Cartel Case

CDC, here. 

La Liga quiere usar móviles de particulares como espías a través de su aplicación

El Pais, aquì. 

Unlockd falls in face of Google threat and enters administration

Financial Review, here. 

Yahoo! fined £250,000 after systemic failures put customer data at risk

ICO, here. 

Le Conseil de la concurrence (LU) exempte l’accord mis en place par Webtaxi S.à.r.l. sur le marché de la réservation préalable de taxis

Décision n. 2018-FO-01, ici. 

Bedeutung digitaler Infrastrukturen in Deutschland. Chancen und Herausforderungen für Rechenzentren im internationalen Wettbewerb

R. Hintemann, J. Clausen, hier. 

Competition Commission of India may suggest structural changes in Walmart-Flipkart deal

Economic Times, here. 

Slower Productivity and Higher Inequality: Are They Related?

J. Furman, P. Orszag, here.

A helping hand for the invisible hand: the FCA’s approach to competition and innovation

C. Woolard, here.

Standard reading for my competition policy students. What a treat!

Is Blockchain the Death of Antitrust Law? The Blockchain Antitrust Paradox

T. Schrepel, here. 

Silicon Valley scooter wars

TechCrunch, here. 

The odd reality of life under China's all-seeing credit score

Wired, here. 

Special Report: Blockchain

FT, here. 

Google’s ties to Chinese telecom firm Huawei raise alarm in Congress

The Washington Post, here. 

Comments of the EDPS on a Proposal for a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on a framework for the free-flow of non-personal data in the European Union

EDPS, here. 

IBM's world-class Summit supercomputer gooses speed with AI abilities

 Cnet, here.

Merkel auf digitalem Glatteis

FAZ, hier. 

Microsoft will ‘lose developers for a generation’ if it stuffs up GitHub, says future CEO

The Register, here. 

Survey: Consumer trust may be Amazon’s true competitive advantage

Search Engine Land, here. 

Australia’s cozy banking market feels some heat

FT, here. 

Reference re digital exhaustion

Case C-263/18, here. 

‘Big Tech’ Isn’t One Big Monopoly

Project Disco, here. 

The Value of Everything review: How to end the we make, they take economy

The Irish Times, here. 

How Ant Financial grew larger than Goldman Sachs

Cnbc, here. 

Chart of the Week: The Rise of Corporate Giants

IMF Blog, here. 

Technology, Political Economy, and the Role(s) of Law

J. Cohen, here. 

Blockchain at the OECD: Presentations available

Here. 

INDAGINE CONOSCITIVA SUI BIG DATA: PRIMI RISULTATI

AGCM, qui

Ant Financial shifts focus from finance to tech services: sources

Reuters, here. 

Data protection laws are shining a needed light on a secretive industry

B, Schneier, here. 

A Billionaire and a Yogi Team Up to Challenge WhatsApp. No, Not a Joke

Bloomberg, here. 

Ant Financial Raises $14 Billion as Funding Round Closes

Bloomberg, here,

Google promises no more use of its artificial intelligence tech in weapons

BoingBoing, here. 

Google Pay startet Ende Juni in Deutschland – mit der Commerzbank

Handelsblatt, hier. 

Several measures announced aimed at streamlining and simplifying mergers' procedures for companies

Autorité de la concurrence, here. 

The Internet: To Regulate or Not to Regulate?

CMA, here.

Inquiry here. 

The effect of market consolidation on innovation in the HDD industry

A.R. Bennato, S. Davies, F. Mariuzzo, P. Osmosi, here. 

Taxi, ride-sourcing and ride-sharing services - Summaries of Contributions

OECD, here. 

The Facebook comma

Transparency and the Marketplace for Student Data

C. Russell, J. Reidenberg, E. Martin, T. Norton, here. 

Airbnb removes 80% of Japan home-share listings

Asian Review, here. 

EU Competition Law Goals and the Digital Economy

A. Ezrachi, here.

Facebook Gave Device Makers Deep Access to Data on Users and Friends

NYTimes, here. See also 

It’s all happening in Australian competition law

Australian Competition Law, here.

Paul Francis: “We can achieve very good anonymity and still provide useful analytics”

LINC, here.

Automated individual decision-making and profiling?

ICO, here.

Google’s mobile web dominance raises competition eyebrows

Politico, here.

The Cost of Developers

Stratechery, here.

Control, Alt or Delete?

Which,.here..

Citi opens API sandbox

Finextra, h.

The Guardian view on Amazon: not a normal monopoly

The Guardian, here.

Deutsche Verbände zur ePrivacy-Verordnung

Hier.

DATENHANDEL UND PLATTFORMEN

R. Dewenter, H.Lüth, hier.

Killer Acquisitions

C. Cunningham, F. Ederer, S. Ma, here.

Unlockd will 'cease to exist' if Google blocks the app

Financial Review, here. 

Goldman Sachs Doesn't Think There's a Bubble in Tech Stocks

Bloomberg, here. 

Microsoft Buys GitHub for $7.5 Billion, Moving to Grow in Coding’s New Era

NYTimes, here. 

The Ideological Roots of America's Market Power Problem

L. Khan, here. 

A Letter to the FTC re Google

K. Ellison, here. 

Entry, Innovation and Productivity Growth in the U.S. Economy: Facts and Open Questions (i.e., Puzzles)

J. Haltiwanger, Presentation here. 

GitHub users are already fuming about the company’s sale to Microsoft for $7.5bn

Quartz, here.
Heise.de, hier: "Mal losgelöst von steuerlichen Erwägungen, die aus Microsoft-Sicht für die Akquisition sprechen, mag es für die Redmonder wohl auch darum gehen, die riesige Zahl der registrierten GitHub-Anwender – die Rede ist von 27 Millionen – zu den eigenen Angeboten insbesondere im Azure-Umfeld zu locken. Wie verheißend mag für Microsoft ein direkt aus GitHub nach Azure führender Deploy-Button sein!"

(Follow the data?)

Amazon and PayPal more trusted amongst younger generation than banks to hold their personal data

RFi Group, here. 

The Economics of Artificial Intelligence: An Agenda

NBER, Conference Papers here. 

Taking control of personal data is about your rights, not owning it

J. Tennison, here. 

A Study of NASA Scientists Shows How to Overcome Barriers to Open Innovation

HBR, here. 

Could the Steward Health v. BCBS Trial Revitalize Monopolization Law?

C. Sagers, here. 

So you think Alipay is just for the Chinese?

The Finanser, here. 

La rivoluzione copernicana del 25 maggio 2018 in materia di privacy

G. Buttarelli, here. 

U.S. Antitrust Law Could Break OPEC's Collusion On Oil Production Deals

Seeking Alpha, here. 

Evident Internet Market Failure To Protect Consumer Welfare

S. Cleland, here. 

Digital Capitalism’s War on Leisure

Democracy Journal, here. 

N26 will im Herbst in Amerika starten

FAZ, hier. 

Facebook Gave Device Makers Deep Access to Data on Users and Friends

NYTimes, here. 

Erste Bank will Google Pay anbieten

Die Zeit, hier. 

Wenn Amazon das Wohnzimmer zur Bank macht

Spiegel.de, hier.

Lively panel discussing the book ‘Economic negationism’ with one of the Authors, Pierre Cahuc

Video here. Just skip the introduction.

Cayman Islands-based blockchain start-up raises more than $4bn through an ICO offering

FT, here.

Tecnologia e lavoro prima della Rivoluzione Industriale: Il vetro di Murano

F. Trivellato, Video qui.

Artificial Intelligence: rethinking the business model

A. Goldfarb, Podcast here. 

Attempts at overcoming surveillance capitalism? Good luck with that

E. Morozov, video here (from 20:25) - at Trento Economics Festival.

The Multilateral Framework on Procedures in Competition Law Investigation and Enforcement (MFP)

M. Delrahim, here.

ICANN's Pre-emptive Attack On The GDPR Thrown Out By Court In Germany

TechDirt, here.

The Emancipation of Antitrust from Market-Share-Based Approaches

D. Zimmer, here. 

Amazon works its way deeper into customers’ lives

FT, here.

When technology serves people

M. Vestager, here.