US Proposal Seeks To Allow Non-Violation Cases Under TRIPS Agreement

Ip-watch.org, here. 

Rolling Up Video Distribution in the U.S.: Why the Comcast-Time Warner Cable Merger Should Be Blocked

AAI, White Paper, here. 

2nd Circuit Decision In Lotes Clarifies FTAIA’s Effect On The Extraterritorial Reach Of The Sherman Act, But Leaves Unresolved The Status Of Claims Based On Importation Of Products Containing Price-Fixed Components

Orrick.com, here. 

Het misbruikverbod op het internet: onlineplatforms als poortwachters van persoonsgegevens

I. Graef, hier. 

Putting the right to data portability into a competition law perspective

I. Graef, J. Verschakelen, P. Valcke, here. 

On the antitrust economics of the electronic books industry

G. Gaudin, A. White, here. 

Justice Council: EU data protection reform on track?

Legalmemory, here.

Payday lending market investigation: Summary of provisional findings

CMA, here. 

Uber (u)ber alles?

Bbc.com, here. 

Hathitrust Wins Big Victory For Authors In Authors Guild Case

P. Samuelson, here. 

When the CJEU opens the umbrella, lawyers and economists get ready for a warm shower of damages claims (C-557/12)

A. Sánchez Graells, here. 

Judge Says Price-Fixing Suit Filed by a Discount Ebook Retailer Can Proceed

Publishersweekly.com, here. 

The Economics of the Internet of Things

Technologyreview.com, here. 

NCAA antitrust lawsuit to have huge implications for college athletes’ compensation

Scpr.org, here. 

Advertised airfares could become cloudier or clearer

DallasNews.com, 

Uber Lands $1.2 Billion So You Can Get Rid of Your Car

Wired,  here.

Governing, Exchanging, Securing: Big Data and the Production of Digital Knowledge

B. Harcourt, here. 

Italy's contribution to the June 2014 OECD discussions on generic pharmaceuticals and competition

Here. Other documentation on the same topic here. 

OECD Guide for helping competition authorities assess the expected impact of their activities

Here (in French here). 

Key points in the Open Internet Project's legal action (Google Search)

OIP, here.

Refusal to provide referrer data evoking privacy reasons, as easily anticipated (page 27).

A New Era In Cartel Enforcement Against Foreign Nationals

Steptoe.com, here. 

Pratiques d’éviction : Quoi de neuf ?

Séminaire, présentations ici; synthèse des débats ici. 

Colorado becomes first state to pass law embracing Uber, Lyft et al.

BizJournals.com, here.

Transportation Network Company Act here. 

No Market Power Needed In 2nd Circuit Vertical Restraint Cases

United States v. American Express Co, No. 10-CV-4496, May 7, 2014 order, here. 

EU competition chief to examine Amazon, Hachette e-book spat

Reuters.com, here.

Price Coherence and Adverse Intermediation

B. Edelman, J. Wright, here. 

Supermarket Power: Serving Consumers or Harming Competition

J. Berasategi, here. 

CMA consults on improved commitments relating to platform services for the automotive sector

Here.

CJEU: The ‘temporary copies’ exception applies to on-screen and cached copies

C‑360/13 Public Relations Consultants Association Ltd v Newspaper Licensing Agency Ltd and Others, here. 

AG: A Member State can authorise libraries to digitise books and make them available at electronic reading posts

C-117/13 Technische Universität Darmstadt v Eugen Ulmer KG Press Release here.

"...se contenter d’une simple offre du titulaire du droit d’auteur permettrait de subordonner l’application de ladite exception à des décisions unilatérales, ce qui, en conséquence, priverait l’exception d’effet utile pour les établissements concernés. L’interprétation téléologique, quant à elle, exige également, compte tenu de l’objectif d’intérêt général poursuivi par le législateur de l’Union, à savoir promouvoir la diffusion du savoir et de la culture, que l’utilisateur puisse invoquer cette exception (24).

...
De la même façon qu’il est loisible à un utilisateur d’une bibliothèque, dans les limites posées par la législation nationale, de photocopier les pages des ouvrages physiques présents dans le fonds et à une bibliothèque de le permettre, l’utilisateur peut imprimer des pages d’une copie numérique et la bibliothèque peut le permettre (57)"

CJEU: Cartel members may be sued for damage caused by umbrella pricing

C-557/12 Kone AG and Others v ÖBB-Infrastruktur AG, Press Release here, Judgment here.

Drafting Competition Law for Developing Jurisdictions: Learning from Experience

E. Fox, M. Gal, here. 

Desenvolvimiento competitivo impedido por medio de bloqueos marcarios: acuerdo conciliatorio

Fne.gob.cl, aquì

First Sale Hearing in the Big Apple

J. Band, here. 

Competition Policy and the Technologies of Information

H. Hovenkamp, here.

Google Deletion Complaints to Be Policed by EU Privacy Panel

Bloomberg.com, here. 

Competition issues at the forefront in aviation

ACCC.gov.au, here. 

YouTube's new streaming service: Independent music community on the barricades and seeking Almunia's intervention

Impala, here. 

Net Neutrality Explained by John Oliver

Video, here. 

HRS Decision in English (retail MFN)

Bundeskartellamt, here. For "general" information purposes only.

British Recording Industry Thinks 'Right To Be Forgotten' Proves Google Can Stop Piracy

TechDirt.com, here. 

On Privacy, Big Data and Competition Law

ChillingCompetition, Post 1 here, 2 here.

Weaving a Tapestry to Protect Privacy and Competition in the Age of Big Data

J. Brill, here. 

All the Amazon-Hachette coverage doesn’t seem to cover some important causes and implications

Idealog.com, here. 

Stephen Breyer: A Voix Nue sur France Culture

Podcast ici, quel plaisir...

FCA monitors Google's price comparison service

Telegraph.co.uk, here. 

Behavioral Economics, Internet Search, and Antitrust

A. Candeub, here. 

Platform Strategy (Literature Survey)

G. Parker, M. Van Alstyne, here. 

Hearing: First Sale Under Title 17

U.S. House Judiciary Committee, testimonies here. 

Payback time: First patent troll ordered to pay “extraordinary case” fees (Judge Denise Cote)

ArsTechnica, here. 

Changes to UK Copyright: Education Exceptions

Copyright4education, here.

Interview: Booking.com confident it is on trend and set for further growth

Travolution.co.uk, here. 

Why Competition Matters and How to Foster It in the Dynamic ICT Sector

ITU Global Symposium for Regulators discussion paper, here.

Consumer protection in the online world

ITU Global Symposium for Regulators discussion paper, here.

Lessons from the 'right to be forgotten'

TheHill.com, here. 

When the 'best' online hotel prices prove to be the worst

TheGuardian.com, here.

Why Is Amazon Squeezing Hachette? Maybe It Really Needs the Money

NYTimes, here.

The Competition Economics of Financial Fair Play

O. Budzinski, here. 

"Kämpf um deine Daten": 22 Anzeigen gegen Facebook

Wien.orf.at, hier. 

You Don't Have to Be Evil to be a Search Engine, But it Helps: The Brave New World of Smart Thermostats

PandoDaily, here. 

How Google’s New “Right To Be Forgotten” Form Works: An Explainer

SearchEngineLand.com, here

UN Special Rapporteur's concerns regarding Italy's online copyright enforcement

F. La Rue, here (Word file), p.13 f.

"The issue of intellectual property (...) was discussed during the visit and a number of concerns were raised regarding the adoption of additional measures for the protection of copyright at the expense of freedom of expression. For the Special Rapporteur, the establishment of norms protecting intellectual property should remain exclusively within the purview of the Parliament.

The Special Rapporteur also underlines that, although AGCOM may by law apply some limitations on online content, the removal of online content should be decided by the Court on a case-by-case basis."

Amazon on Hachette's Business Interruption

Here. 

Learned Society attitudes towards Open Access

EDP Sciences, prepared by TBI Communications, here. 

Old friends in new frocks? MFN clauses in the online hotel booking sector/19

(Previous installments here)

From a more evolutionary perspective, it is also noteworthy that in an era of big data firms at the different levels of the value chain have the potential to constantly gain better market insights. Based on the results of data analysis, both producers and intermediaries may experiment by way of fine tuning their marketing practices. In some respect, the uninterrupted and abundant flow of real-time, potentially insightful data makes it imperative for every market participant to continually experiment and adapt.

Facebook Asks Europe To Review Its $19B WhatsApp Buy In Bid To Head Off Local Opposition

TechCrunch, here.

Montebourg vole au secours des hôtels en assignant Booking en justice

Numerama.com, ici. 

Why Germany Dominates the U.S. in Innovation

Bloomberg.com, here. 

A Cable Merger Too Far

NYTimes.com, here. 

Are Google, Facebook, Twitter, and Amazon "data brokers" according to the FTC?

Not very clear, see here.

Data Brokers: A Call for Transparency and Accountability

FTC Report, here. Statement of Commissioner J. Brill, here

Amazon Strategy Raises Hackles in Germany

NYTimes, here. 

The right to be forgotten and open data

OKF blog, here.

Old friends in new frocks? MFN clauses in the online hotel booking sector/18

(Previous installments here)

Finally, and more generally, it would be unreasonable to turn a blind eye to the fact that the economic value extracted from consumers’ personal data is essential to many Internet entrepreneurs. Safeguarding competition in an era of big data requires a detailed understanding of how exactly user information fits into these firms’ business models.

Search, Antitrust and the Economics of the Control of User Data

N. Newman, here. 

The FTC and Privacy and Security Duties for the Cloud

D. Solove, W. Hartzog, here. 

Putting a price on privacy – are there benefits to sharing private information?

E.-M. Scholz, here. 

YouTube-Channels: integrierte Crowdfunding-Funktion und Einnahmen aus Mashup-Videos geteilt mit den Produzenten der Original-Videos

Heise.de, hier. 

Privatheit wird Diebstahl

E. Morozov, hier. 

Social Network für Kranke arbeitet mit Medikamentenriesen zusammen

Heise.de, hier.

Amazon takes away pre-orders on many Hachette titles, messes with search, categories and recommendations

GigaOm, here.

Google-Debatte in der FAZ - "Eine Gefahr für den Verbraucher"

BEUC, hier. 

How Hachette could fight back against Amazon

J. Gans, here. 

Big Data Protection - How to Make the Draft EU Regulation on Data Protection Future Proof

L. Moerel, here. 

The View from 600 Pennsylvania Avenue: Recent Developments in Law Enforcement and Policy at the Federal Trade Commission

J. Wright, here. 

Antitrust Damage Actions in Europe: Race to the Middle?

J. Delgado, here.

Das grosse Feindbild Google

Nzz.ch, hier. 

Making Your Privacy Practices Public

K. Harris, Attorney General, California Department of Justice, here.

Does Google want to own the online travel-booking market?

TheEconomist, here.

This is the comment I left on the Economist's website: "As possible game changers, also worth mentioning are the investigations and decisions by competition authorities in the online hotel booking sector.They could make advertising in Google less crucial..."

AG Cruz Villalon says that certain parodies may be prohibited if against fundamental values of society

IPKat, here. 

Interview with Pam Samuelson, one of the founders of the Authors' Alliance

PublishersWeekly, here. 

Old friends in new frocks? MFN clauses in the online hotel booking sector/17

(Previous installments here)

This and other anticompetitive potentials of retail-price MFNs may be strengthened in the presence of a network of such clauses. Thus, the German Competition Authority found that the vast majority of hotels in Germany was under a retail MFN obligation with at least one of the three most popular hotel booking platforms, and this made practically impossible for an entrant platform to pursue a “consumers’ side” initiation/growth strategy based on commission-cuts and lower display prices.

Four things we’ve learned from the EU Google judgment

Iconewsblog, here. 

Nespresso s'engage : le droit de la concurrence l'emporte-t-il ? Pas vraiment !

C. Bialès, M. Bechini, F.-X. Boudy, M. Carbonnel,G. de Boiscuillé, T. Schrepel, ici. 

Top-grossing mobile games: How do they make money (Apple platform)?

BusinessInsider, here.

Case comment: Google Spain SL, Google Inc v Agencia Espanola de Proteccion de Datos, Mario Costeja González

Eutopialaw.com, here. 

Old friends in new frocks? MFN clauses in the online hotel booking sector/16

(Previous installments here)

The danger of anticompetitive foreclosure just mentioned should deserve a high level of attention by competition policy enforcers dealing with these and other practices involving online platforms. In fact, the successful market entry and expansion of this type of Internet entrepreneurs critically depend on their ability to attract two sufficiently sizeable groups of customers.

Big Bad Banks: Bid Rigging and Multilateral Market Manipulation

J. Connor, here. 

Network Industries

R. Picker, Spring 2014 Course Slides (1264, pptx download), here. 

Old friends in new frocks? MFN clauses in the online hotel booking sector/15

(Previous installments here)

First, we have seen that there are “spillover” effects from retail MFNs for other platforms and channels. In a context of seller-imposed retail prices, or “agency” model, a single wide MFN clause between a seller and a platform effectively prevents any other platform from displaying prices lower than the MFN’d price (e.g. cheaper hotel room rates, lower insurance premiums, etc.), thus creating a floor – or minimum - price.

By contrast, agency pricing as such is not necessarily conducive to rate parity, or price fixing, since it could well be in the seller’s interest to display different prices on different platforms. Thus, for instance, the mobile game Hundreds is priced  CHF5.00 on iTunes and CHF4.75 on Google Play, while the price of the racing game Impossible Road is the same on both platforms.

Actually, competition authorities in the UK and Germany have expressed serious concerns exactly because retail MFN clauses prevent expansion and entry strategies by platforms based on “selective” lower hotel prices and insurance premiums. In fact, due to the spillover effects of wide MFNs, an online retailer cannot use its ability to compete on commissions (or margins) in order to enter the market and try to achieve the critical mass necessary for the platform to survive and, possibly, to thrive. Instead, still under agency but without retail MFNs, the same retailer could pursue a strategy of lowering the commission rate applied to the seller with the expectation that the seller would then display lower prices on the more cost-effective platform. 

(To be continued)