The Protocol-Institution Continuity, and other "Chicche"

From R. Berjon's Guest Lecture, Trento University, 5th Dec. 

Check My Ads Institute Comments on the Joint Guidelines on the Interplay Between DMA and GDPR

 Here.

Context Portability for Agents with Fabric, Google, and DTI

 Video, here.

What has modern slavery to do with competition policy?

 ACCC, here.

"Computers were not intended to make judgement decisions"

 

BBC, 1970 [same year as the Hesse legislation] here. 

We were on a very promising path, what happened since?  

 

Europe’s clean, just and competitive transition: a conversation with Teresa Ribera

 Bruegel, here. 

Search engines in times of Artificial Intelligence

 EPRS, here. 

The DMA at the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs Ordinary meeting

 Video here.

Commission opens antitrust investigation into Meta's new policy regarding AI providers' access to WhatsApp

 EC, here.

Meta to face competition probe over AI use in WhatsApp, Ribera confirms

 Euractiv, here.

How are they going to coordinate with the Italian proceeding? Looking forward to interim measures!

Of course, also the DMA should already be updated - at least by delegated act (pity they didn't open any proceeding yet - as we discussed at our A19 Conference). 

From a 2024 (time flies) article "it appears quite probable that some form of platform integration, potentially through the blending of AI or virtual worlds technologies in WhatsApp, may occur." No crystal ball required!

Artificial intelligence, intellectual property, and human rights: mapping the legal landscape in European health systems

 R. van Kessel, here.

IPFS at Eurosky Live Berlin: Highlights From A Bright Future

 R. Berjon, here.

And tomorrow (virtually) at Trento University. 

Review of the EU Merger Guidelines – Stakeholder Workshop of 4th December 2025 and "Trento Choice" of relevant questions

Today in our Trento classroom the discussion turns to merger control. The timing is well suited, as Brussels today is holding a workshop on how the system might be reshaped. This creates a practical dilemma for anyone teaching the subject: it is not obvious what to present with confidence when the current framework is not performing especially well. 

Still, the workshop offers a coherent set of questions that helps to structure the debate and clarifies what is worth addressing. Here is the Trento selection of questions we consider most relevant/intriguing:

.

 

US lobbying playbook, delivered to you by Teneo

 SOMO, here.

A fresh approach to competition policy

 EC, here.

Great! Who should deliver it?

The economics of copyright and AI

 C. Peukert, here.

Whenever I see a "model" applied to policy, as a PhD economist I ask myself: do we really need it? What's the model obfuscating which would instead matter to policymakers? 

Silicon Valley Builds Amazon and Gmail Copycats to Train A.I. Agents

 NYT, here. 

Future-proofing the EU: ordoliberal governance and algorithmic regulation

 A. Küsters, here. 

Best contribution to the OECD panel "Artificial Intelligence and Competitive Dynamics in Downstream Markets"

 Douze points go to...

[CADE's contribution to the proposals of regulation of the AI systems, under analysis by the Brazilian Congress here; BTW, did our EU competition authorities submit contributions re AI Act?]

Study on the next data frontier: generative AI, regulatory compliance and international dimensions

 Final Report, for the EC, here. 

Where you read: "Public initiatives such as Common European Data Spaces and GAIA-X are widely anticipated to improve data accessibility, but awareness and participation remain limited, especially among SMEs." - GAIA-X, seriously? How much did the EC pay for this Report? 

AI poses unprecedented threats. Congress must act now

 B. Sanders, here.

Mehr Rechtssicherheit durch Verbots- und Erlaubnistatbestände

 TUM Think Tank, hier.

Bundeskartellamt prüft Lösungsvorschläge von Apple im ATTF-Verfahren – Markttest gestartet

 Hier.

[I can't believe this is still ongoing, really]

Time To Decide Europe Summit 2025

 ERSTE Foundation, here. 

The operator of an online marketplace cannot avoid its obligations under the GDPR by relying on the exemption from liability provided for by Directive 2000/31

 CJEU, here. 

Google ordered to pay $55m in penalties for anti-competitive conduct

ACCC, here. 

The Standards of Fairness in Digital Law

P. Van Cleynenbreugel, L. Grozdanovski (Eds), here. 

The Public Value of Arts and Culture: Investing in Arts and Culture to Reimagine Economic Growth in the 21st Century

 M. Mazzucato, here. 

Google deletes X post after getting caught using a ‘stolen’ AI recipe infographic

 BleepingComputer, here. 

[It's complicated] 

A Variation-Selection-Adaptation Framework for the Digital Markets Act

AI generated - don't trust it ;-) 

S. Vezzoso, ORDO 2026.

Abstract: This paper examines the EU Digital Markets Act (DMA) through the lens of an evolutionary economics framework structured around the concepts of variation, selection, and adaptation (VSA). It argues that the DMA represents a bold, systemic regulatory shift, motivated by the inadequacy of traditional antitrust enforcement to address entrenched digital dominance. By introducing the VSA framework, the paper offers a novel tool for evaluating how effectively the DMA promotes contestability— with innovation as the form of competition most at risk in digital markets. The framework is applied to the case of online search, with a focus on Alphabet, the only search engine designated as a gatekeeper to date. The analysis highlights the extent to which current DMA obligations promote variation (diversity), counter biased selection mechanisms, and enable effective adaptation among gatekeepers, challengers, other market participants, and regulators. It also identifies persistent gaps in regulatory design and implementation, suggesting that additional measures may be needed to fulfil the DMA’s stated ambitions. In doing so, the paper contributes both a structured analytical approach and critical insights to the ongoing evaluation and future development of the DMA. 

Digital Omnibus: First Analysis of Select GDPR and ePrivacy Proposals by the Commission

 noyb, here.

Europe needs a plan for decoupling from America

 FT, here. 

A Decade of OECD Competition Trends, Data and Insights

 OECD, here. 

Situating the Dynamic Competition Approach

AI Generated 

  N. Petit et al.,  here.

Expanding Google Cloud’s Cross-Cloud Network with a groundbreaking AWS collaboration

 Google, here. 

During the A19 Conference, we discussed why there wasn't any ongoing DMA qualitative designation for the third hypescaler 🤔 

Immediately after Mehta let Google escape, the company reconstituted its monopolization techniques in the generative AI space

 M. Stoller, here. 

In the US *only* - of course.......

Global Forum on Competition 2025

Video of the opening here. 

We're relying on Teresa to come up with something useful ;-)  

 

Brazil: "concerns" about the possible sharing of personal data between WhatsApp and Meta for the purpose of targeted advertising

 ANPD, here. 

Privacy's Autonomy Thicket: Disentangling Choice, Consent, and Control

 N. Richards et al., here. 

What if generative AI is reaching its limits?

 EPRS, here. 

N.Y. Law Could Set Stage for A.I. Regulation’s Next ‘Big Battleground’

 NYT, here. 

Seventh AI Pact webinar on AI Innovation for SMEs and startups

 Video here. 

Google Unbundles YouTube Services Following Korean Competition Probe

 CPI, here.

 

CASES AT.40721 – MICROSOFT TEAMS and AT.40873 – MICROSOFT TEAMS II

 Commitment Decision, here.

The Italian Competition Authority Imposes Interim Measures in its Abuse of Dominance Case Against Meta AI

 T. Davies, here.

Secteurs de la syndication de résultats de recherche et de la publicité en ligne : l’Autorité de la concurrence rejette la saisine au fond et la demande de mesures conservatoires formulées par la société Qwant à l’encontre de Microsoft

 Adlc, ici.

Plus que de véritables affrontements concurrentiels, le phénomène semble s’apparenter à une forme de connivence structurelle. Et les autres acteurs du marché ne semblent tirer aucun bénéfice de cette prétendue compétition...

Tristan Harris, the ultimate (literally?) Cassandra

 The Diary of a CEO, here.

If you listen carefully to Tristan Harris, it becomes crystal clear why the usual suspects are so opposed to the whole bunch of EU digital regulation that matters.

The Writer Who Dared Criticize Silicon Valley

 NYT, here. 

Path to European Competitiveness and Sovereignty? Ask OpenAI, Microsoft and Booking

 Commenting on a CERRE Report, here.

Perhaps they also asked somebody else, later, but sorry: I can't watch any further. 

Open Is Sovereign: Why Europe’s Digital Future Must Be Built on Global Open Source Ecosystems

 Linux Foundation, here.

Coincidence? Google is increasingly closing Android, as we heard last week at the Article 19 Conference. 

"Though still nascent, agentic AI could significantly reshape competition..."

 OECD, here.

Tbd today, Trento U. 

Recipes for digital sovereignty in a changing geopolitical landscape

 Barcelona, whereelse here.

CO-OPERATIVE ANTITRUST IN REMEDY DESIGN

 OECD, Background Paper here.

I had expected rather more. Consumer associations were barely mentioned, and broader civil society did not appear at all. But, of course,why change course, given how extraordinarily effective our remedies have been so far? A veritable Sternstunde of antitrust, especially in digital markets...

First EU Member State to pass law prohibiting price-fixing algorithms? Can't wait

 Here.

People-first Playbook

 MyData, here. 

Meta probed over whether it pushed AI tool onto WhatsApp users without consent

 Independent, here. 

[But the title is, well, wrong]. 

The Wrist-Slappers Strike Again

 D. Dayen, here. 

Décision DoctoLib

 ADLC, ici. 

Digital Commons on the EU’s Digital Sovereignty Agenda

 Open Future, here.

Towards a Digital Clearinghouse...: Seriously?

Fooled once...

 EDPS, here. 

Rutger Bregman - Moral Revolution - (as censored by the BBC)

 BBC, here. 

I have listened to the whole thing, and the Q&A was, I suspect, the part I appreciated most. The "straight out of Silicon Valley" comments about Europe, forever regulating, never producing, felt rather surprising  - if the world were that simple (that's why we need good historians with hindsight)! True, we do risk turning ourselves into a dusty, romantic museum, but only if we fail to make intelligent use *also* of our own heritage, including through digital tools that are not simply parachuted in from California but adapted to our needs. 

And happily, a young ‘populist left’  has already emerged with exemplary standard-bearers such as Lina Khan among them.

 

Rapport de l’Autorité de la concurrence au titre de la pratique d’autopréférence définie à l’article L. 442-12 du code de commerce

 Adlc, ici. 

Interim Measures re Meta AI in sight?

 

25/11/2025

ACGM, here.  [I wrote a blog post on this proceeding what feels like very long ago, here]

"Meta’s new conduct appears to constitute, already prima facie, a possible violation of Article 102 TFEU, consisting in Meta’s refusal to allow AI chatbot or AI assistant providers—its competitors—to access the WhatsApp platform in order to offer such services to users." 

It was such a low hanging fruit that I was puzzled that other Tech bros weren't openly complaining about it - which hinted to the fact that they might have been pursuing other, possibly murkier strategies. When (also?) small (EU?) ones complained, European CAs were listening...

Google is a near-$4tn monument to monopoly power [aka a monument to US/EU regulatory failure to rein it in]

 

Xmas present to Judge Mehta? For your desk?

FT, here. 

A Critique of Recent Remedies for Third-Party Pricing Algorithms and Why the Solution is not Restrictions on Data Sharing

 J.E. Harrington, here. 

Emotional Manipulation by AI Companions

 J. De Freitas et al., here. 

Trump Falls Short of His Populist Rhetoric

 NYT, here. 

EDPS TechSonar 2025-26

 Here. 

The Rent Is Too Damn High: Did Trump Just 'Bless' Using AI to Jack Up Rents?

 M. Stoller, here. 

UNESCO adopts first global ethical framework for neurotechnology

 DigWatch, here. 

Google’s compliance with EU’s Big Tech rules gets Italian redesign

 Politico.eu, here.

DMA: Encirclement Without End?

We are only a few days on from the Berlin summit on European Digital Sovereignty, where the DMA  was celebrated as an essential component to reaching that objective.  It is evidently displeasing to Americans that they were not granted a prominent role (but still with a seat at the table) at a European technological summit, even though they remained very much the Elephants in the Room. Then the US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick is dispatched by Big Tech to Brussels and applies pressure across the board, anchoring the negotiation to tariffs on steel and aluminium on whether we are prepared to weaken our DMA and DSA rules. And this hurts, also common Germans, as pointed out by the MEP Alexandra Geese. The Digital Omnibus,  neatly arranged on a tray, proved insufficient to placate the American technological ogres.

One must recognise that the DMA (and the DSA) are among the last bastions still standing at the moment, and that a possible Brussels Débâcle would carry profound, global implications. If we yield as Europeans, we yield also on behalf of all the other countries attempting to contain the power of the technological ogres. This Brussels Débâcle may take various forms and shapes. I do not expect a retreat, but I fear that the line may shift. Some impactful changes, adjustments and delays agreed behind closed doors, at the highest level of the Commission, remain invisible to us and significantly undermine the democratic position of us, the citizens of the European Union.

[In the meanwhile, Margrethe Vestager reacted to this frontal attack, among many others: serious stuff. And Teresa Ribeira too: strong words; Macron also onboard  ] 

DOJ v. RealPage: Proposed Settlement

 Here. 

High Commissioner Türk calls on business to tackle today’s challenges with human rights as their guide

 OHCHR, here. 

COMMERCIAL COURT NO. 15 OF MADRID ON META

 Here.

Utopias: Daron Acemoglu

 Podcast here.

The Bad Reasoning in the Meta Antitrust Ruling Isn’t Even the Worst Part

 T. Wu, here.

THE ITALIAN COMPETITION AUTHORITY SECURES INFORMED AND FREELY GIVEN USER CONSENT TO GOOGLE’S LINKING OF SERVICES

 AGCM, here.

The video of the #EuroskyLive morning sessions is up

 Here.

Special Larry Summers Edition of the Slingshot

 Video here. 

The Economics of Zohran Mamdani

 Pro Market. here.

Why Are AI Giants Betting On India?

TPP, here. 

What Is Europe Trying to Achieve With Its Omnibus and Sovereignty Push?

 TPP, here. 

Sarah Cardell: Keynote address, competition policy 2025 conference

 Video here. 

“A.I.” browsers: the price of admission is too high

 B. Lawson, here. 

“Easy” Default Browser Settings Aren’t Always Easy

 Mozilla, here. 

Jornada 25- Thomas Höppner -Video -Entrevista

 Video here. 

ASCOLA NOEL 2025: Antitrust as amuse-bouche

 Video here. 

Data Portability Can Restore Real Consumer Choice Between ‘Consent or Pay’ Offerings Online

 Data Transfer Initiative, here. 

The EU made Apple adopt new Wi-Fi standards, and now Android can support AirDrop

 Ars Technica, here. 

Digital Rights Are on the Chopping Block in the European Commission’s Omnibus

 D. Leufer, here. 

ChatGPT is huge in India. These locally focused startups found a way to compete

 Rest of World, here. 

The Obligations of Providers of General-Purpose AI Models

 M. Veale, J.P. Quintais, here. 

Remedies Closing Arguments, November 21, 2025: A critical inflection point for the future of the open internet and tech accountability

 US v Google, here.

Meta, condenada a pagar 479 millones de euros a la prensa digital española por competencia desleal al infringir el Reglamento Europeo de Protección de Datos

 Aquí.

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.