Wednesday, September 21, 2016

Tuesday, September 20, 2016

Amazon Says It Puts Customers First. But Its Pricing Algorithm Doesn’t.

ProPublica, here

Consolidation and Competition in the U.S. Seed and Agrochemical Industry

US Senate Judiciary Committee Hearing, written testimonies here.

U.S. – E.U. Convergence: Can We Bridge the Atlantic?

M. Ohlhausen, here

Competition as Fair Process – the shared language of popular and expert antitrust

R. Hesse, here

Federalberghi: Booking "vìola palesemente le regole"

Corrierecomunicazioni.it, qui.

Competition for a Fairer Society

M. Vestager, here.

"Here in the United States, the Council of Economic Advisors has warned about the risks of markets that are increasingly dominated by a few large companies".

Commissioner Vestager on Recode Decode

Podcast, here.



Monopolkommission: Hauptgutachten XXI - Wettbewerb 2016

Hier.

Zentralvermarktung in der Fußball-Bundesliga S. 80 ff.
Digitale Märkte: Sharing Economy und FinTechs S. 363 ff.

Libre installation des notaires

Autorité de la concurrence, ici

Google Steps Up Travel Presence With Trip-Planning App

Bloomberg, here

Monopolkommission: Airbnb und Fintechs nicht überregulieren

FAZ, hier

Commission fines ARA €6 million for hindering competition on Austrian waste management market

EC, here

Monday, September 19, 2016

Daten ohne Schutz: WhatsApp überschreitet rote Linie

vzbv, hier

Bundeskartellamt hat keine Einwände gegen App-basiertes Girokonto der Sparkassen

Bundeskartellamt, hier.

"Die gemeinsame Vereinbarung der Sparkassen darüber, die Basisversion des App-Kontos kostenlos anzubieten, könnte eine wettbewerbsbeschränkende Vereinbarung darstellen...Im Rahmen seines Aufgreifermessens hat das Bundeskartellamt entschieden, kein Verfahren gegen die teilnehmenden Sparkassen einzuleiten. Das gemeinsame Vorgehen der Sparkassen erscheint in diesem Fall gerechtfertigt, da so insbesondere auch kleinere Institute die Möglichkeit haben, über die App Neukunden zu gewinnen. Darüber hinaus erscheint es in dem derzeitigen Marktumfeld unumgänglich, die Basisversion eines App-Kontos kostenfrei anzubieten, so dass die Vereinbarung – wenn überhaupt – den Wettbewerb nur geringfügig beschränkt."

Salesforce Einstein delivers artificial intelligence across the Salesforce platform

TechCrunch, here

More on Lundbeck v Commission: some comments on the comments #ourreadersask

P. Ibanez Colomo, here

Do no harm, don't discriminate: official guidance issued on robot ethics

TheGuardian, here.

Friday, September 16, 2016

Japan report finds Apple, Google hinder app sales competition

Nikkei, here

Grenzüberschreitende Nutzung von digitalen Inhalten erleichtern

vzbv, hier

La blockchain dans les industries créatives : peut-on accroître la transparence tout en préservant la vie privée des utilisateurs ?

LINC, ici

Opérations de visite et saisie inopinées dans le secteur de la fabrication et la distribution des sandwichs

Autorité de la concurrence, ici

Experiments in Intellectual Property

C. Buccafusco, C. Sprigman, here.

"Inventing a new pharmaceutical or producing a movie takes years of intellectual effort. The creativity that researchers can study in the laboratory, however, may involve minutes or even seconds".

General Court’s pay for delay judgment in Lundbeck – some guidance, but worries remain

S. Gallasch, here

Artificial Intelligence: The Economic and Policy Implications

S. Athey, Video here

The Commission’s proposed TDM exception: Who’s to benefit?

M. Caspers, here

Data Ownership and Access to Data

Max Planck Institute for Innovation and Competition, Position Statement, here

Using Behavioral Science Insights to Better Serve the American People: Implementation Guidance

The White House, here.

Thursday, September 15, 2016

EU court confirms Thomson Reuters coding settlement

...Reuters, here.

T-76/14, here.

An Antitrust Review of a Bayer-Monsanto Merger

A. Grunes, M. Stucke, here.

FTC Approves Final Order Preserving Competition in Markets for 79 Pharmaceutical Products

FTC, here.

Fusion hängt von Bayers Bereitschaft zu Zugeständnissen ab

WiWo, hier

Using Behavioral Science Insights to Better Serve the American People

The White House, Executive Order, here.
Also "White House Summit on Behavioral Science Insights", here (live soon)

Anti-Surge Pricing


UN High-Level Panel On Access To Medicines Issues “Landmark” Report

IP-watch, here.

Report of the United Nations Secretary-General’s High-Level Panel On Access To Medicines

New EU Telco Rules

Arstechnica, here.

Competition and the Digital Single Market

M. Vestager, here.

E-Commerce Sector Inquiry: Preliminary Report

Press Release, here. Fact sheet here. Preliminary Report here.

Digital content:
- "the information provided during the sector inquiry... shows that multiple business models and a great diversity of licensing practices are available and indeed used, which can cater for the needs of both right holders and digital content providers";
-"Little substantive evidence was provided on the importance of pre-sale arrangements to fund new products by respondents, in relation to the products included in the sector inquiry."

E-Commerce Sector Inquiry: Second Batch of Results

EC press conference by Commissioner Margrethe Vestager, 15 September 16.30h, here (not live bc of satellite technical problems...).

"If it is agreements between companies that are restricting e-commerce across Europe’s national borders, then you can expect competition enforcement to follow", speech11.09.2015.

My personal "highlights" (from today's press conference):

- investigation into online video games and geo-blocking still ongoing;
- E-commerce sector inquiry and pay-tv case "very, very distant relatives": former much broader (more "generic"), considering also consumer goods where there are ("obviously") the same restrictions but many more (I´d add that, with regard to digital content, restrictions in the licensing agreements well beyond geo-blocking have been identified by the EC);
- E-commerce sector inquiry as a source of information for the legislator (possibly, copyright - and geo-blocking regulation).

Bookatable-Reaktion auf Kartellrechtsbeschwerde

Ahgz.de, hier.

Saturday, September 03, 2016

Creative Commons Wants To Step Into Lawsuit Over Definition Of 'Noncommercial' In A CC License

TechDirt, here.

Is a big Google search update happening? Chatter thinks so

SearchEngineLand, here.

ICANN’s globalization creates peril and promise

TechCrunch, here.

CCI rejects ‘predatory pricing’ allegations against Ola

IndianExpress, here.

Nintendo’s DMCA-backed quest against online fan games

ArsTechnica, here.

Should You Become a Platform?


M. Van Alstyne and M. Jamison, here (p.30 ff.).

Chatbots are a creation channel for storytelling

VentureBeat, here.

Apple, Ireland and the Spanish connection

rte.ie, here.

EC on Pokémon Go and data protection

Ein "Reinheitsgebot für ehrliche und vertrauenswürdige Internetdienste".

Heise.de, hier.

EU-Kommission überprüft WhatsApp-Übernahme durch Facebook

Focus.de, hier.

Thursday, September 01, 2016

Niantic responds to Senate inquiry into Pokémon Go privacy

TechCrunch, here.
Letter here.

AI Wants to Be Your Bro, Not Your Foe

MIT Technology Review, here.
One Hundred Year Study 2016 here.

Development of the audiovisual markets and creation of original contents

Lear for Mediaset, here

Entgelt für Online-Übermittlung von Tickets ist unzulässig

Heise.de, hier

Elsevier’s New Patent for Online Peer Review Throws a Scare Into Open-Source Advocates

Chronicle, here

Visa seeks bank volunteers for blockchain-based payment trial

Finextra, here.

Maybe you don’t have as much choice as you think

TheGuardian, here

Online tool allows users to inspect banks’ privacy notices

iapp, here

Neue Regelungen im BuchPrG zur Preisbindung von E-Books und zur grenzüberschreitenden Preisbindung

Preisbindungsgesetz.de, hier

Wednesday, August 31, 2016

DoJ Sues to Block Deere’s Acquisition of Precision Planting

PR, here.

Companies are making money from our personal data – but at what cost?

TheGuardian, here

More EU copyright "leaks"

Draft Directive on copyright in the Digital Single Market, here.
Draft Communication: Promoting a fair and efficient European copyright-based economy in the Digital Single Market, here.

Still to come:
Directive and Regulation to ensure EU implementation of the Marrakech Treaty.

Big Data Is Nudging You

PsychologyToday, here.

Quand Pokémon Go inquiète l’armée française

Numerama, ici.

Frank Ocean, Apple Music, And The Headache Of Streaming Exclusives

FastCompany, here.

Intellectual Property, Antitrust, and the Rule of Law: Between Private Power and State Power

A. Katz, here.

Thursday, August 25, 2016

Collusion and Online Platforms in Eturas

K. Havu & N. Zupančič, here

EU-Kommission will Leistungsschutz für Verleger einführen

WiWo, hier

Relaxing Privacy Vow, WhatsApp to Share Some Data With Facebook

NYTimes, here

Leak: Impact Assessment on the modernisation of EU copyright rules

StateWatch, here.

(Pity the annexes are missing).

"...stakeholders also underline a risk that introducing the COO (country of origin, WB) rule for online transmissions will weaken territorial licensing of rights (or even lead to mandatory pan-European licensing). They argue that the establishment of the COO rule in combination with the application of the free movement of services principle and competition law would have a detrimental effect on territorial licensing. As it is not possible to predict potential future effect that the application of the free movement of services principle and competition law may have on territorial licensing of rights, this IA does not assess impacts that the proposed intervention may have in combination with these rules".

WIPO, Design and Burkini: "Success Story to learn"

“Looking Good”: The Role of Design in Branding, here.
Read also the Guardian, here.


Tuesday, August 23, 2016

Seeking customer centricity: The omni business model

KPMG, here

Digitalisierung – Herausforderungen für die Wettbewerbspolitik

M. Blatter, hier

Authors, Attribution, And Integrity: Examining Moral Rights In The United States

Symposium Transcript, here

Protecting privacy in genomic databases

MIT News, here..

In copyright law, computers and robots don’t count

J. Grimmelmann, here

Tax incidence on competing two-sided platforms: Lucky break or double jeopardy

P. Belleflamme, E. Toulemonde, here. S. also ici.

Mozilla beteiligt sich an dem Privacy-by-Design Browser Cliqz

Soeren-hentzschel.at, hier

Happy 25th birthday to the World Wide Web

"On August 23, 1991, new users outside of CERN were invited to join the web, marking its official anniversary, or Internaut Day."

98 personal data points that Facebook uses to target ads to you

Washington Post, here.

How Digital Copyright Law Is Being Used to Run Roughshod Over Repairs

NBC, here.

Google keeps ex-Googlers close by investing in their startups

Recode, here.

Friday, August 19, 2016

Forget Uber: Fly over traffic jams at the push of a button

The mythical Paperinik, gem of Italian creativity
AirBus, here.

Scholar behind 'net neutrality' joins White House as competition policy adviser

TheHill, here.
See also here.

Prison breakthrough

TheEconomist, here.

Pirates in the Library – An Inquiry into the Guerilla Open Access Movement

B. Bodó, here.

Proyecto para regular apps es "redundante" y anticompetitivo

ElObservador (Uruguay), aquí.

Digital Single Market Update: The European Commission’s Proposal to Revise the Audiovisual Media Services Directive

Morrison & Foerster, here.

The Olympics and IP

ManagingIP, here.

White House Kept Close Tabs on FTC Google Probe

Google Transparency Project, here.
(Mails have some interesting attachments)

A New Approach to Copyright Exceptions and Limitations

J. Band, here.

ACCC continues its review of banks’ application for authorisation to collectively bargain with Apple

ACCC, here.

The Getty Museum's Lessons Learned From Opening Up Content

TecHDirt, here.

Banks v. Bots

Forbes, here.

Fitch: CMA Remedies Could Mean Slow Profit Erosion at UK Banks

Reuters, here.

Market definition and the sharing economy

C. Ortiz, here.

El modelo de Denominación de Origen y restricciones a la competencia

CNMC, aquí

Tuesday, August 16, 2016

Attention Brokers

T. Wu, here

Expect Little Antitrust Challenge to Walmart’s Bid for Jet.com

NYTimes, here

Intel Cuts the Cord With New VR Headset Called Project Alloy

Bloomberg, here.

Intel creates quasi Hollywood studio for sports and entertainment VR

VentureBeat, here

Price Discrimination Markets Lead Antitrust Enforcers to Increased Success

McDermott Will & Emery, here

MIT Media Lab Launched Disobedience Award, Funded By Reid Hoffman (LinkedIn)

TechCrunch, here.

Media, sports companies rattled by planned EU copyright shake-up

Euractiv, here and Reuters here (spot the differences). 

EU to crack down on online services such as WhatsApp over privacy

TheGuardian, here.

La fin de la prise jack sur l’iPhone 7 ouvrirait une nouvelle ère pour l’écosystème Apple

Numérama, ici.

La confiance est-elle une donnée personnelle comme les autres ?

LINC, ici.

The Internet Value Chain

A.T. Kearney for the GSMA, here.

Researchers track the trackers through 20 years of the archived web

TechCrunch, here.

Audi vernetzt seine Autos in den USA mit Ampel-Infrastruktur

Heise.de, hier.

Internet Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Trackers: An Archaeological Study of Web Tracking from 1996 to 2016

A. Lerner, A. Kornfeld Simpson, T. Kohno, and F. Roesner, here.

XS4ALL and KPN end privacy violations digital TV

Autoriteit Persoonsgegevens, here

Google lets any publisher apply to have “Critic Reviews” of local businesses

SearchEngineLand, here.

Supermärkte sollen ihre Einkaufspreise offenlegen

FAZ, hier.

Internet of Things strategies are going from general to specialized and vertical

Recode, here.

Der Adblocker und die Pressefreiheit

Handelsblatt, hier.

Saturday, August 13, 2016

Werner Herzog’s meditations on a connected world

TechCrunch, Videos (trailer and interview) here.

Clausewitz: "Der Krieg ist mit seinem Resultat nie etwas Absolutes
Endlich ist selbst die Totalentscheidung eines ganzen Krieges nicht immer für eine absolute anzusehen...
10. Die Wahrscheinlichkeiten des wirklichen Lebens treten an die Stelle des Äußersten und Absoluten der Begriffe"

Wednesday, August 10, 2016

FTC Sues 1-800 Contacts For Restricting Competitive Keyword Advertising

E. Goldman, here.

Decentralizing the Web: Two Technological Approaches

Digitaltrends, here.

Copyright and Distributive Justice

J. Hughes, R. Merges, here.

Data-Generating Patents

B. Simon, T. Sichelman, here.

Privacy scandal haunts Pokemon GO's CEO

The Intercept, here.

Protecting the Olympic Properties

M. Wüthrich, here.

FTC Sues 1-800 Contacts, Charging that It Harms Competition in Online Search Advertising Auctions and Restricts Truthful Advertising to Consumers

FTC, here.

US Government Now Has An Official Open Source Software Policy

TechDirt, here.

GPL-Klage gegen VMware abgewiesen

Heise.de, hier.

HEIST is a big DEAL

D. Carroll, here.

Apple versus the banks

Australiancompetitionlaw.org, here.

How Uber Manages Drivers Without Technically Managing Drivers

FastCompany, here.

Yelp, TripAdvisor: Google’s mobile ‘best-of lists’ hide our content

SearchEngineLand, here.

Instagram castrated Snapchat like Facebook neutered Twitter

TechCrunch, here.

Tuesday, July 26, 2016

"Our job is to align supply and demand in time and space"

Take Eat Easy, here.

What Is the Decentralized Web? 24 Experts Break it Down

iSchool@Syracuse, here.

Credit card market study: Final findings report

FCA, here.

Commission accepts commitments by Paramount on cross-border pay-TV services

EC, here.

Successful opening of German gas markets allows early termination of E.ON commitments

EC, here.

Can you own digital data?

Datalandscape, here.

Big data company Teradata acquires UK’s Big Data Partnership

TechCrunch, here.

Platform Wars: The Final Score

B. Evans, here.

Hotels vs. Airbnb: Let the Battle Begin

NYTimes, here.

Monday, July 25, 2016

The joy of data

BBC documentary, here.

A must-watch for my students - and almost everybody else!

Big Data first mentioned at 46:33.

Possible "concerns" get 4 seconds (hours in my course).

Coffee and donuts in first US commercial drone delivery

Theeit.org, here.

The Economist asks: Richard Thaler

The Economist, Podcast here.

Indien: Ringing Bells hat erste 3-Euro-Smartphones ausgeliefert

Heise.de, hier.

After buying Yahoo for nearly $5 billion, Verizon is now in the search business

SearchEngineLand, here.

Chatbots: Fad Or The Future?

TechDirt, Beach Podcast, here.

Big Data: How Computers Are Collecting Our Personal Details

BigIssue, here.

Apple lays the groundwork to kill online advertising

TechCruch, here.

(Un)Fairness of Risk Scores in Criminal Sentencing

Forbes, here.

Metal 3D printing takes flight

TechCrunch, here.

Pokemon Gone

Bloomberg, here.

Understanding Online Markets and Antitrust Analysis

D. Sokol, here.

Spotify joins basically every other app maker in selling your data to advertisers

TechRadar, here.

Standard de la preuve et abus de position dominante : Le test du concurrent aussi efficace

Concurrences, ici.

Thursday, July 21, 2016

Snowden designs device to warn when an iPhone is ratting out users

ArsTechnica, here

Truck Makers Hit With Record EU Fines for Price-Fixing in Europe

Truckinginfo.com, here

Everything is amazing — and no one at the European Commission is happy

G. Manne, here.

Personality, privacy and our digital selves

TheGuardian, here.

What's So Special about Two-Sided Markets?

B. Hermalin, M. Katz, here

Antitrust Balancing

H. Hovenkamp, here

Public Policy and Breach of Competition Law in International Arbitration: A Competition Law Practitioner's Viewpoint

D. Geradin, ici.

Reverse Payments: An EU and US Perspective

F. Maier-Rigaud, N. Bialock, O. Gannon, here.

The Theory of Abuse in Google Search: A Positive and Normative Assessment Under EU Competition Law

P. Akman, here.

Big data, small problem. Is the antitrust toolkit compatible for data?

Bird&Bird, here.

Trade and Privacy: Complicated Bedfellows

K. Irion, s. Yakovleva, M. Bartl, here.

How the internet was invented

TheGuardian, here.

La CNMC impugna el Acuerdo del Gobierno de Aragón sobre enseñanzas universitarias, que restringe la competencia en el sector universitario

CNMC, aquì.

Online booking platforms, MFN clauses: To regulate or not to regulate?

Concurrences.com, here.

vzbv mahnt Entwickler von Pokémon Go ab

vzbv, hier

Pokémon Go has revealed a new battleground for virtual privacy

Inforrm's Blog, here.

Les compagnies aériennes face au défi du Big Data

LaTribune, ici

Windows 10 : la Cnil donne 3 mois à Microsoft pour être moins intrusif

Numerama.com, ici.

When will AI bots replace virtual assistants?

Information-age, here.

"It is a paid world"

Skift, here.

EU Data Protection Law May End The Unknowable Algorithm

Popyard.com, here.

Airbnb hires ex-U.S. Attorney General to help shape anti-discrimination policy

VentureBeat, here

GAO's Patent Reports

Managingip, here

The Financial Times is testing blocking the adblockers by blocking actual words from its stories

NiemanLab, here

Monday, July 18, 2016

Tout comprendre à l’économie du XXIe siècle avec Pokemon Go

Atlantico.fr, ici.

Online seller admits breaking competition law

CMA, here

Pokémon Go: Kritik von deutschen Datenschützern

Heise.de, hier

What Google Can Learn From Microsoft’s Antitrust Problems

N. Economides, here

The email, data and privacy implications of Microsoft’s acquisition of LinkedIn

TechCrunch, here

LEGO passt Rabattsystem an. Künftig fairere Bedingungen für den Online-Handel

Bundeskartellamt, hier

What history tells us about the future of artificial intelligence—and how society should respond

TheEconomist, here

There is now freedom of panorama in Belgium

Blog.wikimedia.org, here

Australia’s first criminal cartel charge laid against NYK

ACCC, here

Is it time for authors to leave SSRN?

AuthorsAlliance, here

WTO Law and Economics and Restrictive Practices in Energy Trade: The Case of the OPEC Cartel

A. Marhold, here

Macht der Online-Buchungsportale nimmt weiter zu

Hotrec, hier

Thursday, July 07, 2016

Microsoft to Acquire LinkedIn: Overview for Investors

Microsoft, here

Assessing Mergers on Innovative Markets: Do we Need Innovation-Specific Methods of Analysis?

W. Kerber, Presentation here

Why is Apple so stingy about opening up the NFC API?

Reddit.com, here.


EC Commission accepts commitments by container liner shipping companies on price transparency

Pree Release, here

ReLIRE : la numérisation des livres indisponibles considérée illégale par l'Europe

ActuaLitté, ici.
Conclusions de l'AG ici.

4 Important Lessons You Can Learn Now That 3-D Printing Is Dying

Inc., here

Oracle says it is 'committed' to Java EE 8 – amid claims it quietly axed future development

TheRegister, here

Une plainte est déposée en Suisse contre Apple Pay pour abus de position dominante

LeTemps, ici.
Stiftung für Konsumentenschutz SKS hier.
NZZ, hier.
CapGemini Presentation here.
"Der Verzicht auf die Erhebung von Kundendaten werde durch höhere Umsätze ausgeglichen. Eine repräsentative Studie gibt es dazu allerdings nicht"
"Fürs Bezahlen in Anwendungen kann man auch ein iPad Pro, Air 2, mini 3 oder 4 benutzen. Wie viele davon in der Schweiz im Umlauf sind, das hätten auch Apples Partner vor dem Start gern erfahren. Doch das Unternehmen hat es ihnen nicht verraten."

"Near Field Communication (NFC) is an international standard (ISO/IEC 18092) that specifies an interface and protocol for simple wireless interconnection of closely coupled devices operating at 13.56 MHz (see http://members.nfc-forum.org/specs/spec_list/).

"Apple-Pay-Chefin Jennifer Bailey machte Twint und Co im Gespräch auch wenig Hoffnung: «Wir werden NFC nicht für Drittanbieter von Bezahldiensten öffnen – aus Sicherheits- und BedienkomfortgründenFinews Kfür Konsumentenschutzonsumentenschutz

Researchers build a smart privacy app to keep you safe

TechCrunch, here

Wednesday, July 06, 2016

Scientific Proof That Buying Things Can Actually Lead To Happiness (Sometimes)

FastCompany, here.

Rebate for IoT thermostat requires that you give permission to your utility to read "all data"

BoingBoing, here.

UK Competition Law after Brexit

B. McGrath, here.

Federal Trade Commission Privacy Law and Policy - Chapter 6 Online Privacy

C. Hoofnagle, here.

How “consumer choice” can unify the fields of competition and consumer protection law

N. Averitt, here.

“Freedom of choice”: the emergence of a powerful concept in European competition law

P. Nihoul, here.

Motion pictures, markets, and copylocks

J. Hughes. here.

The 'Frightful Five' in the Market for Digital Assistants

CheatSheet, here.

EU citizens might get a ‘right to explanation’ about the decisions algorithms make

Fusion.net, here.

The Data Spectrum

ODI, here.

Comment la vente en ligne rebat les cartes de la concurrence traditionnelle

LesEchos, ici.

Online Tracking

FTC, here.

Can I block online tracking?

Consumers can learn about tracker-blocking browser plugins which block the flow of information from a computer to tracking companies and allow consumers to block ads. They prevent companies from using cookies or fingerprinting to track your internet behavior.

To find tracker-blocking plugins, type “tracker blocker” in your search engine. Then, compare features to decide which tracker blocker is best for you. For example, some of them block tracking by default, while others require you to customize when you’ll block tracking.
Remember that websites that rely on third party tracking companies for measurement or advertising revenue may prevent you from using their site if you have blocking software installed. However, you can still open those sites in a separate browser that doesn’t have blocking enabled, or you can disable blocking on those sites.

Brexit: Stay Calm - Effects on Antitrust Expected to be Limited

K & L Gates, here.

MasterCard facing £19bn damages claim over inflated card charges

TheGuardian, here.