The Productive State

 Rebirth of the CMA? Here.

Designing Europe’s Search Data Sharing Rules for Competition in the AI Era

 A. Cooper et al., here.

The regulators' policy of very small steps, because it works so well.

 CADE, here.

AI, Privacy, and the Hidden Architecture of Harm from Inference

 I. Ogbogu, here.

Apple's WebKit performance tax leaves iOS browsers stuck in the slow lane, says Microsoft

 The Register, here.

Audition de Sébastien Soriano, directeur général de l’IGN

 Ici.

Google search data portability conduct requirement

 CMA, here.

Antitrust for EU Practitioners Without the Jet Lag

While Trump at the G7 Meeting just said in Macron's face "I'm the boss", cheerful atmosphere in sunny Brussels.

After twenty-four hours at the European Competition Forum, the first impressions are becoming sharper. The Forum, we learned, apparently began as a chat, with the European Commission also present, on a platform which one hopes was not itself the competition problem.

A second reason was more practical: the familiar pilgrimage to Washington to talk antitrust. At some point, someone apparently asked the obvious question: why not talk antitrust in Europe, without the jet leg? From that perspective, the Forum could become something the place (.Square") where antitrust practitioners from across the world come to discuss competition law not in Washington DC, but in Brussels. Or, as Executive Vice-President Ribera put it, in “the capital of the rule of law”.

At least yesterday and this morning, and this may change this afternoon or on the third day at the latest (when I will no longer be there), the panels followed a familiar pattern: competition authorities, some academics, companies, and possibly consultants, although not always clearly identified as such. Unsurprisingly, no one in the latter categories volunteered any possible conflicts of interest.

As for substance, frankly, there was little that a regular reader of this blog would not already know rather well. Antitrust received the usual beating: proceedings take at least seven years, while regulation is expected to be broader and faster. There was considerable praise for interoperability, including under the DMA. Unsurprisingly, once AI and interoperability entered the discussion, operating systems followed immediately, with Android and Apple as the obvious reference points.There was also a brief reference to digital sovereignty, innovation & Co. coupled with the familiar suggestion that competition policy can do little in these spaces.

On this point, I disagree. It is not competition policy as such that can do little. It is this kind of competition policy (besides the mixed, ex ante DMA) that can do little. A different competition policy could matter considerably more. But we are clearly not there yet. The intellectual centre of gravity remains markedly traditional and proven ineffective if not plain wrong.

That said, traditionalism is not a certainty any more; Yesterday, for instance, we heard some openings from the current EC competition chief economist that were broader than what we have heard from another entrenched IO economist, Fiona Scott Morton, who had also been considered for the same role. In that respect, one may say, with some relief, that the appointment could have been worse.

Live posts here.

Do not invite big-tech to join your digital autonomy discussion

 berthub, here.

Dependance Day ? Fable 5, Mythos 5 : l’Europe face à son point de bascule

 The Best, ici.

Europe's Innovation Problem Is a Competition Problem

 T. Valletti, the new evolutionary economist in town?, here;

A smarter ban A blueprint for safe, fair, innovative European social media.

 FOTI, here.

THE ITALIAN COMPETITION AUTHORITY LAUNCHES INVESTIGATION INTO APPLE UNDER THE DIGITAL MARKETS ACT ON THE INTEROPERABILITY OF APPLE’S DESIGNATED OPERATING SYSTEMS IOS AND IPADOS WITH ALTERNATIVE CONSUMER CLOUDS

 AGCM, here.

Apple's Siri AI Drama, Debunked

 DMAVP, here. 

Europe 2031- What getting AI wrong means for us

 D. Juijn et al., here. 

We're already in 2029! One antenna-raising is its recurring praise for partnering with American AI firms as the path forward for the European economy. Moreover, remarkably little discussion of market power, gatekeeping, interoperability, the DMA, etc. 

Can Europe build digital sovereignty

 BBC, here.

Would you be able to change the underlying model that powers Siri AI. Ask Siri.

Someone just asked Siri to confirm if this would eventually be true, Here.

Tech-Related Actions and Litigation: The TRAL Tracker

 Here.

Who Do AI Agents Work For?

 OMI, here. 

The UK Just Said No to Google's AI News Grab. Who's Next?

 M. Dark, here.

"You can't possibly trust LLMs, can you?" (says Google)

 D. Chisnall, here. 

How to get rid of Musk and the other Tech oligarchs? Do it like the Europeans do!

 Jon Stewart's Weekly Show, here.

Big Tech’s Shadow Market Power

 H. Malikova et al., here.

Deux ans de DMA

 P. Bichet, ici.

Google ecosystem: too opaque to regulate?

 Google's own words about the opacity of the ecosystem, here.

Landmark German ruling declares Google's AI Overviews are Google's own words and makes it liable for false answers

 The Decoder, here.

It is not that German judges invariably get it right — the dreadful Meta decision rather proves the point. Yet, as I recently told someone whose identity now escapes me, they remain among the very few actors in whom I still place some faith to save us from the "tragedy of AI."

The ruling here (AI translated0.

Apple wants Europe to blink [but it won't]

 The Verge, here.

UK Regulator Staunches Google’s AI Content Grab

 C. Radsch, here.

New Apple product, old DMA tantrum.

 Apple, here.

Relax and comply, says the EC here.

Commission imposes interim measures on Meta to preserve free access to WhatsApp for rival AI assistants

 EC. here.

[EUCJ is a subtle reference to Android Auto, ofc]

The Commission’s Tech Sovereignty Package (an Update)

 EuroStack, here. 

The Origin Story Behind the CMA's Conduct Requirements Against AI Overviews w/ Tim Cowen

Chez Alba, here.  

Generative AI and Society: What is at stake?

 8th Weizenbaum Conference, livestreamed here.

Google’s AI opt-out leaves publishers with a choice they can’t safely use

 DigiDay, here. 

The European Social Stack

 European.Social, here. 

Dear Microsoft, Enough is Enough [First time I had this very thought: 1998]

 Browser Choice Alliance, here.

[BTW, retired oligarchs with a flair for bridge and extra-marital affairs can still be a societal nuisance (not to mention a disgrace to their very families), for example if they associate with people like Epstein]. 

The General Court has partially annulled Meta’s designation decision as a gatekeeper. Let's unpack a bit.

 P. Bichet, here.

Google haftet – Lausen erstreitet erstes Urteil zu KI-Übersichten

 juve.de, hier.

Competition and consumer policy in digital markets

 OECD, here.

Canada’s national Artificial Intelligence strategy: AI for All

 Canada Gov, here.

A.I., Journalism and the Uncertain Future of the Public Square

 NYT, here.

National security considerations in competition enforcement

 OECD (!), here. 

VW cuts owners' access to their own vehicle data with API change

 Heise.de, here. 

Unsurprising, but this increasingly makes the Data Act a...laughing stock? A good idea that was already watered down during the long negotiations - never enough for the VDL-supported car industry! 

More generally, are all regulatory systems that give 'API control' to the gatekeeper bound to fail? We discussed exactly this in Episode 3. 

Sign the petition here.  

 

Enshittification, Despotification, and the Open Internet

 M. Masnick, here. 

What do UK watchdog’s new rules on Google AI results mean for publishers?

 The Guardian, here. 

Fast ein Jahr später...Volltext OLG Köln liegt vor: Meta darf Daten aus öffentlichen Profilen bei Facebook und Instagram für das KI-Training verwenden - kein Verstoß gegen

 Hier.

Strengthening Europe’s Tech Sovereignty

 EC, here.

CMA secures fairer deal for publishers and improves Google search services in UK

 Here.To be applied globally, Google says here.

ARTICLE 19 Response to the European Commission Call for Evidence Cloud and AI Development Act (CADA)

 Here (refreshing :)). 

Digital Markets Act: the General Court annuls the decision designating Meta as a gatekeeper as regards Marketplace

 EC, here.

The crux is how the EC legally assessed the changes made in January/July 2023 (relevant/not relevant) and the reasons given. Not such a big deal, IMHO - another Pyrrhic victory by Meta?

How Trump supercharged the EU’s tech independence push

 Politico.eu, here

[Is Europe condemned to an endless regulatory pilgrimage, forever seeking in the next regime the salvation denied by the last?]

The Hard Political Problem: Artificial intelligence as a subject of governance

 M. Hand, here.

Debate on setting a minimum age for social media

 EPRS, here.

Creating a Competitive Marketplace For Compute

 CAP, here.

ÜBER LEBEN MIT KI

 R. Schwartmann, hier.