Monday, October 22, 2018

A look at the Android Market (aka Google Play) on its 10th Anniversary

TechCrunch, here. 

Portugal's Aptoide says wins first court ruling against Google

Reuters, here.
Aptoide's statement here. Also aqui.

Don’t Break Up The Tech Oligarchs. Force Them To Share Instead

Shift.newco.co, here.

BWB veröffentlicht Fairnesskatalog für Unternehmen

BWB, hier. 

After Taking Berlin, Germany's Uber for Buses Targets Manhattan

Bloomberg, here. 

Android and that Google's Blog Post on Proposed Remedies

VergeCast, here (from 40:32)

JPMorgan to open fintech campus in Silicon Valley

FinExtra, here. 

CMA sends tough message to business cheats with cartel campaign

CMA, here. 

Sony makes no concessions to EU regulators in EMI music bid

Reuters, here. 

Acquisitions in the third party tracking industry: competition and data protection aspects

E. Bietti, R. Binns, here. 

Winners Take All: The Elite Charade of Changing the World: A Talk at Google

A. Giridharadas, here ("this is going to be like therapy").

US banks and fintechs form group to tackle customer data-sharing

FinExtra, here. 

Calculating art

Aeon, here. 

Weaponizing the Digital Influence Machine: The Political Perils of Online Ad Tech

Data & Society, here. 

PERSONALISED PRICING IN ESSENTIAL MARKETS

Frontier Economics for Citizens Advice, here. 

The Prophets of Cryptocurrency Survey the Boom and Bust

The New Yorker, here. 

Google app suite costs as much as $40 per phone under new EU Android deal

The Verge, here. 

As if the Last 30 Years Never Happened”: Towards a New Law and Economics

S. Naidu, E. Ash, here. 

Want to understand the future of Android in Europe? Look at China

The Verge, here. 

The urgent case for a new ePrivacy law

G. Buttarelli, here. 

The Amazon investigation and Europe’s “Big Tech” Crusade

D. Auer, here. 

Lawsuits Over Paparazzi Images on Instagram Raise Celebrity Questions Over Right of Publicity

The Fashion Law, here. 

Tuesday, October 16, 2018

Android: more freedom to offer alternative services (not the original title, I know ;-))

NYTimes, here. 

Did Uber Steal Google’s Intellectual Property?

The New Yorker, here. 

Google-Chef: Tests für zensierte chinesische Suchmaschine vielversprechend

Heise.de, hier. 

Google to charge smartphone makers for Google Play in Europe

Reuters, here.
See also Google, Complying with the EC’s Android decision, here. Question: is it enough?
Deeper one: Dragonfly, privacy leaks, sidestepping, the demise of Google+, changes in app developers’ “access” to personal data, Android remedies...Is there a connection somewhere? Microsoft CEO Nadella has correctly pointed out that strategies in these "markets" are far more complex than just bundling...

Microsoft CEO: antitrust law doesn't really understand tech

Wired 25, Video here. 

Daimler, BMW offer concessions to ease EU concerns on car-sharing deal

Reuters, here. 

Radiotaxi Torino, aperta istruttoria per abuso di posizione dominante

AGCM, qui.
Provvedimenti precedenti sanzionano clausole di esclusiva come restrizioni verticali, qui (101 TFEU).

The EU Observatory on the Online Platform Economy: a talking shop or the beginnings of a new regulator?

Inline Policy, here.


BEREC Public Consultation on the data economy

Here. 

German court orders deletion of customer lists in Facebook Custom Audiences

Spirit Legal, here. 

Quality considerations in digital zero-price markets

OECD, Background Note, here. 

Personalised Pricing in the Digital Era

OECD, Background Note, here. 

Excessive Prices in Pharmaceutical Markets

OECD, Background Note, here. 

The value of data, big data, is only beginning to become apparent

R. Sims, here. 

Thursday, October 11, 2018

A Future Where Everything Becomes a Computer Is as Creepy as You Feared

NYTimes, here. 

Amazon's new recruiting machine learning algo did not like women.

Reuters, here. 

Nos plaintes contres les GAFAM avancent !

La Quadrature Du Net, ici. 

Mastercard brings real-time bill payments to mobile banking apps

Finextra, here. 

Study: Google is the biggest beneficiary of the GDPR

Cliqz.com, here. 

KI und die ewige Suche nach der richtigen Frage

Heise.de, hier. 

Expediente sancionador contra Acciona Construcción, Corsán-Corviam, Dragados, FCC Construcción, Ferrovial Agromán, OHL y Sacyr Construcción

CNMC, aquì.

The Facebook breach – a GDPR test-case

EDRi, here. 

Investigation of the Atlantic Joint Business Agreement

CMA, here. 

In the EU Blockchain Resolution we Trust

Daily Fintech, here. 

Microsoft tritt Open Invention Network bei

Linux-Magazin.de, hier. 

Judicial Infringements at the Court of Justice – A brief comment on the phenomenal Commission/France (C-416/17)

Despiteourdifferencesblog, here. 

Amazon patents new Alexa feature that knows when you're ill and offers you medicine

Telegraph.co.uk, here. 

FÜR IMMER ANONYM: WIE KANN DE-ANONYMISIERUNG VERHINDERT WERDEN?

ABIDA, hier. 

Walmart Patented a Cart That Reads Your Pulse and Temperature

MotherBoard, here. 

Plateformes de commerce en ligne et abus de position dominante Réflexions sur les possibilités d’abus d’exploitation et de dépendance économique

F. Marty, ici. 

Intelligence Artificielle et Organisation Industrielle : quels enjeux pour l’économie numérique

F. Marty, ici. 

Alipay Says Hackers Used Stolen Apple IDs to Siphon Off Money

Bloomberg, here.

Tuesday, October 09, 2018

The Indian Supreme Court's Aadhaar judgment — A privacy analysis

iapp, here. 

Apple CEO Tim Cook on Privacy and Freedom of Speech

Vice, Video, here (if you can stand the annoying "music" in the background and the rather empty questions).

Google+ Flaw Sparks German Privacy Probe

Bloomberg, here. 

Bayer-Monsanto-Fusion in Anhörung zur Agrarmarkt­konzentration

Video hier. 

Competition Commissioner Vestager discusses with MEPs. "These are formative years when it comes to data"

Poof! 
Video, here (from 10:37:23).
- Car emissions technologies cartel at 10:43:22; 11:24:35;
- Android 10:48:52;
- Google Shopping remedies Q 10:55:30; A 10:57:30 (looking into allegations of cooked up PCWs); 11:08:52 "we have no position yet";
- Merger control and data 11:04:16;
- Competition and innovation 11:17:09
- Tying and Android 11:18:24
- Apple Pay NFC 11:43:21; Amazon Alexa 11:43:47: "follow this quite closely" but also restricting possible intervention to 102; no room for 101, here?
- Digitization of Competition Enforcement 11:46:30.




Approach to final Regulatory Technical Standards and EBA guidelines under the revised Payment Services Directive (PSD2)

FCA, Consultation Paper, here. 

TicketOne: AGCM spiega (brevemente) l'indagine

Bollettino dell'Antitrust, Audio qui.
Buona Giornata dall'Autorità Antitrust...

Deroghe ai principi e alle regole in materia di concorrenza e crollo del ponte di Genova

AGCM, qui.

Google will not bid for the Pentagon’s $10B cloud computing contract, citing its “AI Principles”

TechCrunch, here.

THE NEXT GREAT (DIGITAL) EXTINCTION

 J. Ito, here. 

Statutory audit market: Invitation to Comment

CMA, here. 

Tencent buys minority stake in Brazil's Nubank

FinExtra, here. 

Monday, October 08, 2018

Decoding the Chinese Super Micro super spy-chip super-scandal: What do we know – and who is telling the truth?

The Register, here. 

Shaping competition policy in the era of digitisation: predatory innovation & blockchain

T. Schrepel, here. 

Google Exposed User Data, Feared Repercussions of Disclosing to Public

WSJ, here. Google's reaction and further news here.

March 2018...Just in time for (avoiding) the GDPR (no data audit before? What about a settlement with the FTC? See here).

What should EU competition policy do to address the concerns raised by the Digital Platforms’ market power?

D. Geradin, here. 

In letter to Congress, Apple sends strongest denial over ‘spy chip’ story

TechCrunch, here. 

FTC Hearing #3: Multi-Sided Platforms, Antitrust in Labor Markets, and Acquisitions of Nascent and Potential Competitors in Digital Technology Markets

16-18 October 2018, Terrific Agenda here. 

Forex scandal comes down to case against the ‘Cartel’

FT, here. 

Digital Platforms and Antitrust: Towards a More Techno-Economic Approach (TEA)

Me, very first draft, here.

Please let me know if you have any comments!

Consumer Data Privacy: Examining Lessons From the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation and the California Consumer Privacy Act

Wednesday, October 10, 2018 - 4 pm Trento Time.

US Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, here. 

An Internet Bill of Rights? One California representative says the time has come

Los Angeles Times, here.
Read/listen to also here and here. 

Now science was firmly seen as an engine of economic growth

J. Gans, here.
Telephone Interview with Paul Romer, here. Scientific Background here. 

Reasserting cyber sovereignty: how states are taking back control

E. Morozov, here. 

Vorprüfung Preishöhenmissbrauch – Flugpreise Lufthansa

S. Hossenfelder, hier. 

Microsoft's $7.5 billion GitHub deal set for EU approval - sources

Reuters, here. 

Die Google Android Entscheidung der Kommission

G. Wolf, Präsentation hier. 

Modernisierung der Missbrauchsaufsicht

J. Haucap, Präsentation hier. 

Was kann und soll die kartellrechtliche Missbrauchsaufsicht?

Tagung des Arbeitskreises Kartellrecht, Hintergrundpapier, hier.

Pricing algorithms

CMA, here.
See also this recent CMA's Presentation, here. 

Europe’s Android Ruling Gives Google Rivals a Glimmer of Hope

Bloomberg, here. 

UK court blocks Google class action lawsuit over iPhone data

FT, here. Judgment here.
"Regulatory action was then taken against Google in the USA. In August 2012 the company agreed to pay a US$22.5 million civil penalty to settle charges brought by the United States Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) that it misrepresented to users of the Safari browser that it would not place tracking cookies or serve targeted advertisements to those users...In this jurisdiction, these matters would fall under the regulatory jurisdiction of the Information Commissioner, but it appears that there has been no regulatory action taken here. The Safari Workaround has however been the subject of high profile civil litigation against Google in this jurisdiction."

Saturday, October 06, 2018

Blockchain Technology Overview

NIST, here.

Top antitrust cops speak with Axios (but not with each other?)

Video  here.

On the seventh anniversary of Steve Jobs' death, we give you 7 times he served humanity and acted as an example to others

Register, here (at least two antitrust related).

Google shows progress in addressing competition concerns, says EU's Vestager

Reuters, here.

The Big Disruption

J. Powell, here.

Google 'trying to circumvent EU ruling' with price comparison sites run by ad agencies

Sky News, here. Video here. 

Instagram is testing the ability to share your precise location history with Facebook

The Verge, here.

Spotify Integrates With Google Maps for Music on Every Mile of Your Journey

Spotify, here.

See also here “The update also includes the ability to control Spotify, Apple Music, and Google Play Music through the Maps app so that users don’t have to switch between screens if they’re driving or checking your ETA on the bus.
To be able to use the features, users must set their home and work address as well as activating “web and app activity,” which gathers much more personal data including Chrome browsing history, location, credit card purchase history, and more.”


Thursday, October 04, 2018

First Ever Antitrust Condemnation For Excessive Pricing In Online Platform Services: Turkish Competition Authority Fines In Markets For Online Ads In Real Estate And Vehicle

ELIG Gürkaynak Attorneys-at-Law, here. 

Standing Committee on Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics - Canada

M, Stucke, testimony here (from 11:13:50)

Britain is coming for Silicon Valley’s unruly tech giants

Business Insider, here. 

Private Businesses Built Modern China. Now the Government Is Pushing Back.

NYTimes, here. 

How Humans Get Hacked

Wired, Video here. 

Tencent backs fintech firm Voyager to set up battle with Alibaba in the Philippines

TechCrunch, here. 

First GDPR fines coming this year is just the start, says data protection supervisor Giovanni Buttarelli

Techcrunch, here. 

Brazil: Antitrust Watchdog Sends Questions to Crypto Exchanges After Bank Account Closures

Cointelegraph, here. 

Are EU Markets More Competitive than Those in the U.S.?

NBER Digest, here. 

Alibaba investiert stark in Künstliche Intelligenz

FAZ, hier. 

Shaping competition policy in the era of digitization

TILEC, here. 

Publishers Escalate Legal Battle Against ResearchGate

Inside Higher Education, here. 

Antitrust Standing – Is There An App for That?

National Law Review, here. 

EU rules facilitating the free flow of non-personal data

EC, Press Release here. 

Collective redress in the Member States of the European Union

JURI Committee, here. 

The Big Hack: How China Used a Tiny Chip to Infiltrate U.S. Companies

Bloomberg, here.

Wednesday, September 26, 2018

Platforms, ad industry unveil self-regulatory code to fight online disinformation

IAPP, here. 

Supreme Court upholds validity of Aadhaar, BJP calls it a historic judgement

Scroll-in, here. Ruling here. 

High time for rhyme and reason

P. Marsden, here. 



A bit "banalization of hipster," IMHO, but I can totally subscribe to this one:



and I'm also a bit of an"open movement" devotee myself:





Google announces an opt-out feature to ‘forced login’ on Chrome coming in mid-Oct

TechCrunch, here. 

Twitter’s approach to privacy

D. Kieran, here.

Amazon’s Approach to Privacy

Andrew DeVore, here.

Vendita biglietti per i concerti di musica dal vivo: avviata istruttoria nei confronti di Ticketone

A523, Provvedimento qui. 

Margrethe Vestager at Bloomberg Global Business Forum 2018

Video here, here.

Australian agency claims blockchain breakthrough

FinExtra, here. 

Regulator calls in Paypal's $2.2bn iZettle merger on day it completes

Cityam.com, here.

See CMA, here.


Cartel in the smart card chip market: Philips’ appeal dismissed and Infineon’s fine needs a second look

Judgments in Cases C-98/17 P Koninklijke Philips NV and Philips France v Commission and C-99/17 P Infineon Technologies AG v Commission, Press Release here.

Tuesday, September 25, 2018

The Effective Competition Standard: A New Standard for Antitrust

M. Steinbaum, M. Stucke, here. 

Exhaustion of intellectual property rights if there’s no Brexit deal

Gov.UK, here. 

UK Competition Appeal Tribunal Confirms Ban on Online Sales Is Inherently Restrictive of Competition

Cooley, here. 

Trust in blockchain based decentralized data infrastructures

B. Bodó et al., here. 

Nudge Turns 10: A Q&A With Cass Sunstein

Behavioral Scientist, here. 

ICO consults on privacy “regulatory sandbox”

Covington, here. 

Salesforce, AWS expand partnership with secure data sharing between platforms

TechCrunch, here. 

Public Consultation on Digital Ethics: Summary of outcomes

EDPS, here. 

European tech companies call on EU to toughen regulations

FT, here. 

John Oliver explains how Facebook is wreaking havoc overseas

Vox, here. 

The Alphabet Soup of Regulators in the Crypto Space Just Added a Few More Letters

Texas Lawyer, here. 

Intelligence artificielle : les banques françaises tâtonnent encore

La Tribune, ici. 

Analysing Apple Pay Transactions

Elcomsoft, here. 

Have ‘Big Tech’ Platforms Got Too Much Power?

S. King, here. 

Data, Innovation and Transatlantic Competition in Finance: The Case of the Access to Account Rule

G. Colangelo, O. Borgogno, here. 

The uncertain future for banking and regulation

S. King, here. 

Amazon Is Invading Your Home With Micro-Convenience

The Atlantic, here. 

Big Tech is overselling AI as the solution to online extremism

The Conversation, here. 

Google’s Forced Sign-in to Chrome Raises Privacy Red Flags

ThreatPost.com, here. See also here. 

STRATEGY ON NEW TECHNOLOGIES

UN Secretary General, here. 

How Platform Strategies Continue to Create Value

G. Parker, M. Van Alstyne, and P. Evans, here. 

AB InBev faces EU antitrust fine in Belgian beer case - sources

Reuters, here. 

Apple completes acquisition of Shazam, will remove ads from free version

Android Police, here. 

The Cryptocurrency Market

Source: @OxfordCompEcon

Why Instagram’s founders are leaving: dwindling independence from Facebook

TechCrunch, here. 

Thursday, September 20, 2018

Turkish Android Infringement Decision

Tough choice, but still my fav
Here, Google Translate from Turkish. Two lovely ❤️ students of mine who speak this beautiful language will soon provide a better translation. 

Smart technology regulation is essential for innovation

J. Ryan, Video here. 

Brussels bids to get ahead of the curve with Amazon investigation

FT, here. 

An open governance model for the AMP Project

AMP, here. 

Wednesday, September 19, 2018

EU-Wettbewerbshüter untersuchen Amazon

FAZ, hier. 

HOW TO EXERCISE THE POWER YOU DIDN’T ASK FOR

J. Zittrain, here. 

Amazon Probed by EU on Data Collection From Rival Retailers

Bloomberg, here.  More info hier and here.

Mentioned this possibility in my "old" big data paper, here (written 2015! - amazing how the years just fly by)

Tuesday, September 18, 2018

Tesla Faces U.S. Criminal Probe Over Musk Statements

Bloomberg, here. 

Android and Forking Restrictions: On the Hidden Closedness of “Open” (new, extended, more relaxed version)

S. Vezzoso (me), here.


French bookshops revolt after prize selects novel self-published on Amazon

The Guardian, here. 

Google admits changing phone settings remotely

BBC, here. 

Commission opens formal investigation into possible collusion between BMW, Daimler and the VW group on clean emission technology

EC, here. 

BUNDESKARTELLAMT VS FACEBOOK: TIME TO REFRESH ‘GDPR’S WALL’?

A. Massolo, here. 

THE ONLINE HOTEL BOOKING MONITORING EXERCISE

F. Manca, here. 

COPYRIGHTS ON DATA AND COMPETITION POLICY IN THE DIGITAL SINGLE MARKET STRATEGY

V. Falce, here. 

ALGORITHMIC OPACITY AND EXCLUSION IN ANTITRUST LAW

M. Patterson, here. 

Resale Price Maintenance and Artificial Intelligence

Hausfeld, here. 

Google-Deal lässt Aktienkurs von Tomtom um 30 Prozent fallen

FAZ, hier. 

Wirtschaftsvereinigung Stahl: Reformierte Verbandsarbeit

Bundeskartellamt, Fallbericht, hier. 

Germany high court postpones YouTube intellectual property case for EU interpretation

Jurist.org, here. 

What is blocking blockchains? A common sense, legal evaluation

E. Mik, here. 

Google partners with Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi to put Android into millions of vehicles

TechCrunch, here. 

Saturday, September 15, 2018

"La régulation des télécoms doit s'étendre aux terminaux"

La Tribune, ici. Rapport ici.

How Game Apps That Captivate Kids Have Been Collecting Their Data

NYTimes, here. 

GOOGLE CHINA PROTOTYPE LINKS SEARCHES TO PHONE NUMBERS

The Intercept, here.

Here is Google's official response:
"We've been investing for many years to help Chinese users, from developing Android, through mobile apps such as Google Translate and Files Go, and our developer tools. But our work on search has been exploratory, and we are not close to launching a search product in China."

(Big) Data and the North-in-South: Australia’s Informational Imperialism and Digital Colonialism

M. Mann, A. Daly, here. 

FADING OUT THE ECHO OF CONSUMER PROTECTION

G. Noto La Diega, Presentation here. 

Friday, September 14, 2018

Apple 'wants to serve everyone,' says Tim Cook

Asian Review, here.

Class action in Italia contro Facebook: richiesta di rimborso per l’uso ‘abusivo’ dei dati

Business Insider, qui. 

F.T.C. Hearings Add to Efforts That Threaten Tech Industry

NYTimes, here. 

Think writing process

Ubernomics: Platform Monopolies & How to Fix Them

R. Pollock, here. 

Behördliche Durchsetzung des Verbraucherrechts?

R. Podszum, C. Busch, F. Hennig-Bodewig, hier. 

Viele Apps halten sich nicht an die neuen Datenschutzregeln

Handelsblatt, here. 

Open Energy

Fingleton Associates, here. 

Anatomy of an AI System

K. Crawford, V. Joler, here. 

IA, Big Data, robots : quels bénéfices en attendre ? À quelles conditions ?

Anvie, ici. 

FAIR PLAY: Apple’s Shazam Deal Shows EU Eyeing, Not Halting, Big Data

Bloomberg, here. 

Teller has abused its dominant position by using rebates conditional on exclusivity and provisions regarding exclusivity

Danish Competition and Consumer Authority, here. 

A Right to Reasonable Inferences: Re-thinking Data Protection Law in the Age of Big Data and AI

S. Wachter, B. Mittelstadt, here. 

Zu hohe Maklergebühren? Grüne fordern Kartellamts-Prüfung

Die Welt, hier. 

Haftung von YouTube für Urheberrechtsverletzungen

Bundesgerichtshof, hier.

Promoting fairness and transparency for business users of online intermediation services

EP, Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection, Draft Report, here. 

SENIOR GOOGLE SCIENTIST RESIGNS OVER “FORFEITURE OF OUR VALUES” IN CHINA

The Intercept, here. 

Sector Inquiry Health

The Austrian Pharmacy Market, here. 

Congress seeks probe of deepfakes

Axios, here. 

FTC Hearings

FTC, here. Videos available here.

Economists (and Economics) in Tech Companies

S. athey, M. Luca, here. 

iTunes: Verwirrung um verschwundene Filme

Heise.de, hier. 

Man jailed in Italy for selling fake TripAdvisor reviews

The Guardian, here.