Surrender a pair of shoes today and who knows what you are going to give up tomorrow?

 FT, here.

Big Tech’s political power has been channelled through the market. By now, we shoud've learned our lesson. AI technologies imposed on consumers and business users are new forms of intermediation. Left to well known dynamics, enshittification is inevitable. US citizens and consumers have no choice, but is it what we want for the EU? Again? 

AI quietly mediates our world

 BBC, here.

New cloud and AI development Act

 Public submissions, here.

EU's pace is utterly inadequate, in these changing times. What to do? 

Contested Ground: Early Competition and Market Dynamics in Generative AI

 CRAI, here.

No need to worry, everything's just fine. Ask Big Tech and AI conflicted economists! 

Luckily, these "studies" are increasingly getting the attention they deserve. 

National Development and Reform Commission's August press conference

 Transcript here.

Mexico's neoliberal period over - and competition enforcement strengthened?

GCR, here.

A real commitment to economic populism require a willingness to make rich and powerful people upset, right?”

 UnHerd, with L. Khan, here.

Google set to face modest EU antitrust fine in adtech investigation, sources say

 Reuters, here.

The crawl-to-click gap: Cloudflare data on AI bots, training, and referrals

 The Cloudfare Blog, here.

Assistant Attorney General Gail Slater Delivers Remarks to the Ohio State University Law School

 Speech here.

Waiting for Judge Mehta's remedies...

Lina Khan recently reminded us that antitrust is “pro-growth” because it clears away private choke points. Europe has written that logic into law through the DMA; the US still waits on individual judges to prise open markets. Mehta’s decision (from here, at some point) will tell us whether American enforcement can rise to the challenge—or whether the choke points will remain firmly in place, and further expand into the gatekeepers AI age. 

Inside the Lobbying Blitz Over Colorado's AI Law

 TPP, here.

Google kneecaps indie Android devs, forces them to register

 The Register, here.

Anthropic users face a new choice – opt out or share your chats for AI training

 TechCrunch, here.

EuroStack: Enough Contemplation, but also Enough Straw Mannerism

 The Eurostack, here.

[Interestingly, straw mannerism has been the preferred tactic also against DMA supporters - plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose]

BREAKING UP WITH BIG TECH

 Amnesty International, here.

EU speed-learning how to bull-fight with Trump?

T. Ribera, here. 

T. Breton, here and here. 

And, finally, H. Virkkunen, here (on her favourite social network).

Lina Khan: “You can only undo so much in three and a half years”

 Newstatesman, here., 

Authors celebrate “historic” settlement coming soon in Anthropic class action

 ArsTechnica, here.

Additional AI questionnaire to the first DMA review

Here. 

About the DMA Review and the first submission see here and here.

Brazil judge grants injunction against soy moratorium suspension

 Reuters, here.

President Trump is kindly invited to our DMA Conference. Thank you.

Mr President,

Perhaps it is all a misunderstanding. Our EU laws are not meant to punish your most prized tech companies, but to secure contestability and fairness in European digital markets. In your own language, it is about levelling the playing field, making markets great again, and ensuring that everyone gets, as you would put it, a fair deal.

In the spirit of cultivating a more balanced understanding in our transatlantic intercourse, we would be delighted to welcome you to our forthcoming conference on the Digital Markets Act, in person or online. There you will hear from independent researchers—a species now sadly endangered in the United States—that the DMA is not contrived to screw your crown jewels, but to build European digital markets on principles rather different from those across the Atlantic, namely firmly rooted in contestability and fairness.

For years we in Europe played the dutiful vassal, scarcely noticing the role, nodding along while our digital industries were subdued and our consumers cheerfully milked. Only recently, as one of our leading thinkers put it, has our faith in this US promoted version of neoliberalism been broken—and here too, Mr President, your role was not negligible. We now see our dependencies and chains—bound to technologies devised elsewhere, with embedded values ofter far from our own.

Thank you for your kind attention. We look forward to your prompt feedback.

Kindest regards

Elon Musk’s xAI Sues Apple and OpenAI, Alleging They Are ‘Monopolists’

 WSJ, here. Here.

Draghi's Rimini Speech: Game Over for Europe?

 Here. Video here.

It seems that the antitrust authorities now find themselves caught between hammer and anvil. On the one side, their governments may bow to Trump’s policy line, dismantling digital ex-ante legislation in the process. The clearest cases are South Korea and, quite possibly, India. On the other side comes Draghi, declaring the world order over—with obvious consequences for the international role of independent competition authorities which were established as part of the neoliberal package. Truly, interesting times lie ahead. The EU "adapted" to that age too, as Draghi reminded us (more economic approach, anyone?), but it needs to change again. Quickly. 

Zur Abhängigkeit deutscher Unternehmen von den Clouddiensten ausländischer Anbieter

 Bundesregierung, hier.

Urteil: Landgericht untersagt Google Gmail-Bevorzugung bei Android-Einrichtung

 Heise.de, hier. 

BRIEF FOR THE AMERICAN ANTITRUST INSTITUTE AS AMICUS IN SUPPORT OF EPIC

 Here.

Why Countries Must Fight For Digital Sovereignty

 C. Rikap, here.

Digitale Ohnmacht – Deutschland im Bann von Big Tech

 ARD, hier.

Springer-Chef Döpfner: Heikle Nähe zu Musk, Zuckerberg & Co

 ARD, hier.

Meta urged to ban child-like chatbots amid Brazil’s safety concerns

 DigWatch, here. 

Judge says Amazon must disclose its research funding to economists, academics and think tanks as part of a class action lawsuit.

Motion to compel, here.

Order granting motion to compel, here.

This is Lina Khan's article BTW, from Wavesblog archives.

[What about an academic who writes an economic paper "recommending caution" from enforcers - exculpating Amazon's self-preferencing - and a few days after publication starts working for Amazon. Does it count as external or internal? 

More fundamentally: does this type of intellectual capture work like this? Amazon supplies data (and money), friendly IO economists in academia supply theories - models, and the outcomes neatly reinforce the economics that defend entrenched power? Huge ROI possible.

[Possibly, however, the real problem of  this type economics is that it's used by Big Tech as a distraction. [Spend precious time debating models - like Romans were doing over entrails? - instead of devoting time and efforts observing and trying to understand the complexities of the technological world and their societal implications. Clearly, we'd need a different type of social science for that]].

What happened?

 

Google updates terms for app marketplace following EU pressure

 

Euronews, here. 

Virtual (ASCOLA) Townhouse Meeting With Lina Khan

  September 4, 10-11 am Eastern Time, here to sign up. 

No abuse of dominant position by Meta, per NCA in Argentina

 Aquì. 

Experts React to Reuters Reports on Meta's AI Chatbot Policies

 TechPolicyPress, here.

AI openness: A primer for policymakers

 OECD, here.

The power of (the request of) interim measures? Players free to participate in the DIHL competition

 Belgian competition authority, here.

Court decides "Pay or Okay" on DerStandard.at is illegal

 noyb, here.

Now anyone can pay for a Substack subscription in iOS

 On Substack, here.

The Weaponized World Economy

 H. Farrell, A. Newman, here.

How Open is today’s “Open Web”?

 Developes Alliance, podcast here.

AI IS A MASS-DELUSION EVENT

 C. Warzel, here.

The Rule of Law Versus the Rule of Lobbyists

 R. Alford, here.

Videos here.

Not a systemic problem, bur rather a personnel problem that can be fixed - he says. We also heard only four months ago how Trump II Antitrust was going to be wonderful, here. Allow me a grain of scepticism. 

Google admits anti-competitive conduct involving Google Search in Australia

 ACCC, here.

Should Europe wean itself off US tech?

BBC, here.

FTC to suspend push to regulate US platform firms amid trade risk

 The Korea Times, here.

Meta’s AI rules have let bots hold ‘sensual’ chats with kids, offer false medical info

 Reuters, here.

The New AI Data Trade, Part 1: Cashing In on AI

 WSJ, podcast here.

From Robber Barons to Bezos: Is History Repeating Itself?

 R. Reich, Video here. 

Chat Templates

 Asimov's Addendum, here. 

Rechtbank Amsterdam, and the DMA

 Hier and here.

What do we need? An EuroSweeney!

 

Consciously Uncoupling from Silicon Valley w/ Cori Crider

The Maybe, Podcast  here.

BRAZILIAN ANTITRUST REGULATOR LAUNCHES INVESTIGATION AGAINST MICROSOFT OVER OPERA ACCUSATIONS

 Bricscompetition, here.

India’s Digital Competition Bill: Innovation, Regulation & Global Lessons

 ASCOLA India, here.

Cecilia Rikap: »Wir alle produzieren KI, aber nur einige Wenige profitieren«

 C.Rikap, here.

The head of ChatGPT on AI attachment, ads, and what’s next

 Decoder, here.

Google pushes AI into flight deals as antitrust scrutiny, competition heat up

TechCrunch, here. 

Google ‘Shell Game’ Shields Executive Lobbying from Public View

 TPP, here. 

Letter to DOJ: Break Google’s Ad Tech Monopoly and Request Restitution to News Publishers for Lost Revenue

 Center for Journalism and Liberty, here.

Call for Submissions: Digital Competition Conference 2026

 KGI, here. 

Statement on Revocation of Biden-Harris Executive Order on Competition

 DOJ Antitrust Division, here.

And so ends one of the most interesting experiments of Biden-era antitrust, that had begun delivering tangible results for the very American people whom Trump never misses a chance to screw over. 

Jonathan Kanter on Perplexity’s bid for Chrome, Musk’s threats against Apple and Trump’s export tax

 CNBC, here.

No, The Tunney Act Won’t Save Democracy

 D. Bush, here. 

An Indian undertaking filed an antitrust case against Google 15 y. ago and the case is still ongoing

 From this interesting India ASCOLA webinar, hopefully recording available soon. Why was their DMA "frozen"? 

The Limits and Promise of Global Antitrust Law

 A. Bradford, A. Chilton, and K. Linos, here. 

Weaponizing Antitrust and Regulation Will Hurt US Consumers

 D. Moss, here. 

Jorge Padilla: Economics of Competition Policy | Competition Litigation as a Chessboard | Hard Cases

 Chez Oles, here. 

OLG Schleswig-Holstein: Antrag auf Erlass einer einstweiligen Verfügung gegen Meta wegen Verwendung von Nutzerdaten als KI-Trainingsdaten mangels Dringlichkeit abgelehnt

 Beckmann und Norda, hier. 

Perplexity Makes Longshot $34.5 Billion Offer for Chrome

 WSJ, here. 

Japan’s largest newspaper, Yomiuri Shimbun, sues AI startup Perplexity for copyright violations

 NiemanLab, here. 

Epic wins cases against Apple and Google in Australia

 Gtlaw, here. 

An AI Replay of the Browser Wars, Bankrolled by Google

 Bloomberg, here.

How AI-Driven Search May Reshape Democracy, Economics, and Human Agency

 C. Pattison et al., here.

Businesses can use your online data to overcharge you. What can customers do?

 NPR, here.

Wie energisch greift die EU gegen Big Tech durch?

 ARD, Tagesschau hier.

The proposed ex-ante regime downgraded to a market study in India: Big Win for Big Tech

 FE, here.

That was soon after South Korea's decision to dump its DMA too. Big Tech in Asia is likely celebrating, with Trump's support. By the way, how effective and influential are independent civil society orgs and academics in those jurisdictions? 

More post-mortem (of the Draft Digital Competition Bill) next 13 August, 14.30 CET here. 

Emerging Antitrust Implications for "Fact Checking” Content

 PerkinsCoie, here.

AI Compute Sovereignty: Infrastructure Control Across Territories, Cloud Providers, and Accelerators

 Z. Hawkins, here.

9 ways DuckDuckGo's Search Assist Differs from Google’s AI Overviews

 DuckDuckGo, here.

Apple’s lock on iPhone browser engines gets a December deadline

 The Verge, here.

Should UK private competition enforcement be dismantled as well?

 UK Gov, here.

Reminder: a Labour Government. 

Japan: Apple Must Lift Browser Engine Ban by December

 OWA, here.

Thousands of hotels in Europe to sue Booking.com over ‘abusive’ practices

 The Guardian, here. 

Yep, agreed - since 2016 here. 

Opinion: McGrath must take on giants of social media

 J. Ryan, here. 

‘I Feel Like I’m Going Crazy’: ChatGPT Fuels Delusional Spirals

 WSJ, here. 

Building Public Compute for the Age of AI

 Lawfare, here. 

Google vs. Perplexity fight plays out in India as AI battle intensifies

 RestofWorld, here. 

The Urgent Need For Revolutionizing Economic Statistics

 D. Coyle, here. 

["...if, in the not-too-distant future, my personal AI agent conducts affairs on my behalf with my bank’s AI bot, is that valuable economic activity? How should it be measured in any case?]

Cloud: "...competitors aren't able to do the competitive thing we like about capitalism"

DHH, here.

 

Re: Investigate Meta's de facto vertical acquisition of Scale AI

 

Here. 

Qwant and Ecosia debut Staan, a European search index that aims to take on Big Tech

 TechCrunch, here. 

noyb survey: only 7% of users want Meta to use their personal data for AI

 Here.

Digital Sovereignty and resisting the tech giants w/ Cecilia Rikap

Politics Theory Other, Podcast here.

How Big Cloud becomes Bigger: Scrutinizing Google, Microsoft, and Amazon's investments

D. Gray Widder, N. Kim, here.

See also here [if data correct: Google, Microsoft and Amazon investing *a lot* in the UK].

Russia Builds a New Web Around Kremlin’s Handpicked Super App

 MSN, here. 

Europe’s tech sovereignty watch

 Proton, here. 

"When a company chooses an email service, it often uses the entire suite." 

Take Back Our Digital Infrastructure To Save Democracy

 TechDirt, here. 

From Millions To Billions — Johannes Ernst — FediCon 2025

 Video here. 

Meta's vision: Shimmering Shades of a Cage?

 Run Data Run, here. 

OpenAI's GPT-OSS

 Run Data Run, here. 

How Brazil's innovative 'Pix' payment system is angering Trump and Zuckerberg

 France24.com, here.

Totally disagree with the myopic economist's comment 😊

OpenX v. Google

Here.

Curbing Google’s Dominance: The UK’s First Test of Its New Digital Competition Powers [Promising?]

 KGI, here.

Well...Problematic to say the least is "making its next steps contingent on the decisions of a US district court." 

Nextcloud-CEO: “Digitale Souveränität ist für mich nicht gelöst”

 Computerwoche.de, hier.

Submission on Proposed SMS Guideline from an Independent Media Alliance

 Here.

Japan: Regulator takes aim at app store - as in Europe.

Heise.de, here. 

Guidelines here.  

The Guidelines are essential reading. Not just from a European vantage point, and not merely as part of a deepening dialogue between the EU and Japan. It matters equally for jurisdictions already exploring DMA-like regimes, and for others now stirred into action.

From what I’ve seen so far, this may well be the first unmistakable success of the DMA’s extraterritorial footprint. A quiet vindication of the bold choices made by the Commission and co-legislators since 2020. No legal instrument is flawless, of course. But if others now refine what we’ve built into the DMA, there should be a clear and iterative path to integrate such improvements.

Ecosia, European Eco-Friendly Search Engine: Boosting Competition in Digital Area

"Chez Oles," here.

The conversation with Ecosia’s Wolfgang Oels was recorded at the height of the Trump/EU trade frenzy, when whispers of the DMA’s untimely demise were making the rounds. But rumours (spread by whom, I wonder) they were. If anything, things are only now starting to get serious 🤠. And gatekeepers' competitors like Ecosia have an important role to play as part of the DMA enforcement machinery.

Today, the "Commission reiterated that the bloc's flagship digital laws, specifically the DSA and the DMA, will not even be mentioned in an upcoming joint statement on the EU-US trade deal, expected to be published imminently," Euractiv here.

The Modern Economic Approach to Antitrust Law: Analysis and Examples

 S. Salop, here.

[I don't know what modern means, here. Very much the same "more economic approach" that has been increasingly repudiated for a number of compelling reasons - not least because of it being used to shamelessly - "it's science, we teach it our Students!" - justify whatever suits who pays the IO economists providing the analysis]. 

EU AI Act: What's Next?"

 Video here.

The Growing Complexity of Digital Economies over the GenAI Waterfall: Challenges and Policy Implications

 W. Lehr, V. Stocker, here.

Unpacking China's Global AI Governance Plan

 TechPolicyPress, Podcast here.

Private enforcement of competition law: a survey of preliminary references to the Court of Justice (2024–2025)

 M. Strand, here. 

What Open-Source Developers Need to Know about the EU AI Act's Rules for GPAI models

 Hugging Face, here.

Freigabe des Erwerbs der Kontrolle über Informatica durch Salesforce

 Bundeskartellamt, hier.

Sustainability agreement in the wine sector in Occitanie: opinion published

 EC, here.

[Great for next teaching semester, and for a Master student working on this topic]

Who owns the media?

 FreePress, here.

Democracy and Competition Law: Exploring Substantive and Procedural Links

 M. Bernatt, here.

China’s subsidies create, not destroy, value

 Asia Times, here.

Mergers, Innovation, and Sustainability: An EU Constitutional Perspective

 J.-U. Franck, here.

Lina Khan points to Figma IPO as vindication of M&A scrutiny

 TechCrunch, here.

Silicon Valley’s New Strategy: Move Slow and Build Things

 WSJ, here.

Epic Games v. Google: The Appeal

 Here.

See also FTC's Brief, here.

Installing marketplaces from the web: updated user experience in the EU

 Apple, here. 

Innovation or Infringement? Generative AI and the Potential for Exclusionary Abuse under Article 102 TFEU

 T. Davies, here. 

Olivier Guersent: Inside the EU’s Antitrust Machine and the Future of European Power

 Capitol Forum, here.

AI GOVERNANCE AND THE EU’S STRATEGIC ROLE IN 2025

 M. Cantero Gamito, here. 

Generative AI in Check: Gatekeeper Power and Policy Under the DMA

 A. Ribera Martinez, here. 

Zuckerberg: AI increased the time spent on Facebook and Instagram in Q2

 TechCrunch, here. 

Google loses app store antitrust appeal, must make sweeping changes to Play Store

 ArsTechnica, here. 

CLOUD SERVICES MARKET INVESTIGATION: FINAL CUT

CMA, Summary of final decision here. 

Full 637-page Report here. 

Appendix A-W here. 

This is already the new Bible on 'cloud services and competition policy.' This colossal work will feed into worldwide antitrust and DMA-like analyses and enforcement actions, both public and private, for years to come. 

But, you know, the "CMA has indicated that no decision will be taken by the CMA Board on future SMS designation investigations in 2025 but that it will keep under review possible options and it anticipates that these will be considered in early 2026"...