Wednesday, February 03, 2021

Data brokers under the spotlight: A commentary on the ICO vs. Experian case

 iapp, here

The Woolard Review - A review of change and innovation in the unsecured credit market

FCA, here.  

Rethinking competition in light of the digital revolution

Autoritat Catalana de la Competència, Conferences here

Platforms or Aggregators: Implications for Digital Antitrust Law

 T. Schrepel, here.

ByteDance Sues Arch-Rival Tencent Over Alleged Monopolies

 Bloomberg, here

Court Orders Tim Cook to Sit for 7-Hour Deposition in Epic Case

 Gizmodo, here

The Twin Transition to a Digital and Green Economy: Doctrinal Challenges for EU Competition Law

 K. Majcher, V. Robertson, here

Microsoft says it would willingly participate in Australia's media code with Bing search engine

 The Guardian, here

DSA Package

 


 (Credits Damien Geradin)

Monday, February 01, 2021

From Research Data Ethics Principles to Practice: Data Trusts as a Governance Tool

 S. Delacroix, J. Montgomery, here

Daten richtig teilen: Warum Unternehmen mehr Anreize brauchen

 WiWo, hier

Die Datenstrategie der Bundesregierung hier

GameStop: what is going on with prices in the US stock market?

 Economics Observatory, here

Bundeskartellamt also assesses new Section 19a GWB in its Facebook/Oculus case

Bundeskartellamt, here (as correctly guessed by Rupprecht hier 👏).

Launch of the European Parliament tracking-free ads coalition

 Panel here.

The Government Didn’t Foresee How Facebook Would Behave

 R. Haw Allensworth, J. Newman, here

Tanner Lecture 2020 – Between Suffocation and Abdication: Three Eras of Governing Digital Platforms

 J. Zittrain, here

The Internet Country

 Tigerfeathers, here

MARKET STUDY ON THE TELECOM SECTOR IN INDIA

Competition Commission of India, here

The Coup We Are Not Talking About

 S. Zuboff, here

Lego prend des engagements devant l’Autorité de la concurrence afin de modifier son dispositif de remise tarifaire

 Autorité de la concurrence, ici

Commission opens formal investigation into possible trade restrictions by Mondelēz

 EC, here

PLATFORM MERGERS AND ANTITRUST

 G. Parker et al., here

Understanding the Data Governance Act: in conversation with Sylvie Delacroix, Ben McFarlane and Paul Nemitz

 Data Trusts Initiative, here

Environmental sustainability agreements and competition law

 CMA, here

Completed acquisition by Facebook, Inc of Giphy, Inc.: Launch of formal Phase 1 investigation

 CMA, here

Analysing algorithms: How they can reduce competition and harm consumers - a panel discussion

 CMA, Video here

Abolishing price secrecy to help make medicines affordable

 BEUC, here.

The algorithm audit: Scoring the algorithms that score us

 S. Brown et al., here

Clearview AI’s biometric photo database deemed illegal in the EU, but only partial deletion ordered

 noyb, here

Ecosystems and competition law in theory and practice

 M. Jacobides, I. Lianos, here

Robinhood's Gamification of Investing Combines Surveillance Capitalism With Finance Capitalism

 Vice, here

Digital advertising services inquiry

 


ACCC, Interim Report here

Facial recognition: strict regulation is needed to prevent human rights violations

 Council of Europe, here

Data sovereignty: A review

 P. Hummel et al., here

Bracing for Another E-book Price-Fixing Case

 PublishersWeekly, here

Technical Report on Sustainability and Competition

Jointly commissioned by the Netherlands Authority for Consumers and Markets (ACM) and the Hellenic Competition Commission (HCC), here

AI REGULATION IN THE EUROPEAN UNION AND TRADE LAW

 K. Irion, here

Onlinewerbung: Google testet Cookie-Nachfolger

 Heise.de, hier

Emotional Entanglement

Article19, here

Friday, January 29, 2021

Computational Antitrust: An Introduction and Research Agenda

 T. Schrepel, here

Data Protection by Design and by Default

 L. Jasmontaite et al., here

Uber has a wild new plan for global ride-hailing domination

 Wired, here

New digital payment rules likely to hit Ant Group, Tencent

TechNode, here.  

Everalbum, Inc: In first facial recognition misuse settlement, FTC requires destruction of algorithms trained on deceptively obtained photos

Z. Sorenson, here.  

Developer complains to EU over Apple, Google app rules after COVID game rejected

 Reuters, here

Deutscher Bibliotheksverband fordert verbesserte Bedingungen zur Ausleihe von E-Books

 iRights, hier

AI and Security

 NSCAI, Draft Final Report here

Justizministerium weist Scheuers Gesetzentwurf zum autonomen Fahren zurück wegen offener Fragen zum Datenschutz

 Heise, hier

Antitrust watchdogs around the world are going back to school to study blockchain and AI

 CoinTelegraph, here

Reviving Purpose Limitation and Data Minimisation in Personalisation, Profiling and Decision-Making Systems

 M. Finck, A. Barga, here

Stellungnahme zum Entwurf eines Gesetzes zur Änderung des E-GovernmentGesetzes und zur Einführung des Gesetzes für die Nutzung von Daten des öffentlichen Sektors vom 17.12.2020

 MPI, hier

THE EFFECTS OF ONLINE DISCLOSURE ABOUT PERSONALISED PRICING ON CONSUMERS

 OECD, here

Getting under your skin(s): A legal-ethical exploration of Fortnite’s transformation into a content delivery platform and its manipulative potential

 M. Sax, J. Ausloos, here

New lawsuit accuses Amazon of e-book price fixing

 The Verge, here

Computational Antitrust

 Stanford, here

“An Offer We Can’t Refuse”: How We Gave Away Our Data and Made Big Tech What It Is Today

 T. Valletti, here

Behind a Secret Deal Between Google and Facebook

 NYTimes, here

Individual, collective and intermediated: three roads to data empowerment

 Data empowerment, here

Friday, January 15, 2021

Google Play is unsportsmanlike, U.S. states likely to argue in potential lawsuit

 Reuters, here

This Was WhatsApp's Plan All Along

 GizModo, here

Google cracks down on personal loan apps in India following abuse and outcry

 TechCrunch, here

GWB-Digitalisierungsgesetz im Bundestag

 Hier

Grab raises $300 million to grow fintech business

 FinExtra, here

How to Make Google and Facebook Care About Privacy

 C. O'Neil, here

Why the CMA is digging into the Privacy Sandbox, Google’s cookie-killer

 The Drum, here

Data trusts in Germany and under the GDPR

 Algorithm Watch, here

Die Vereinbarkeit von Data Trusts mit der Datenschutzgrundverordnung (DSGVO)

 Algorithm Watch, hier

Epic Games going to the UK

 Here

Digitaler Euro: Bürger sorgen sich vor allem um Privatheit von Zahlungen

 Heise.de, here

Google’s Fitbit acquisition is official...but

 TechCrunch, here

TikTok makes under-16s' profiles private by default, blocks comments from strangers on their videos and prevents 'stitching' and 'duetting' in new privacy crackdown

 Mail Online, here

Delivery Platform Algorithms Don’t Work Without Drivers’ Deep Local Knowledge

 Slate, here

YOU CAN LOG OUT, BUT YOU CAN NEVER LEAVE

 Norwegian Consumer Council, here

THE COURAGE TO LEARN

 American Economic Liberties Project, here

Platform Mergers and Antitrust

 G. Parker et al., here

Artificial Intelligence and Unfair Competition – Unveiling an Underestimated Building Block of the AI Regulation Landscape

 S. Scheuerer, here.  Paper here

Le Digital Markets Act, un nouveau chapitre dans l’histoire du droit de la concurrence

 C.O, ici

FTC settles with photo storage app that pivoted to facial recognition

 The Verge, here

WhatsApp Has Shared Your Data With Facebook for Years, Actually

 Wired, here

Google’s plan to replace tracking cookies goes under UK antitrust probe

 TechCrunch, here. 

La société des boîtes noires s’étend

 InternetActu, ici

U.K. competition regulator to probe Nvidia’s $40 billion Arm takeover

 VentureBeat, here

Wednesday, December 30, 2020

Im Dschungel der Datenteilungsmodelle: Worüber wir jetzt reden müssen

 Algorithmenethik, hier

'European Digital Sovereignty': Successfully Navigating Between the 'Brussels Effect' and Europe’s Quest for Strategic Autonomy

 T. Christakis, here

The EU Digital Markets Act in 10 points

 D. Geradin, here

Europe clears Google-Fitbit with a ten-year ban on using health data for ads

 TechCrunch, here

Texas et al. v. Google

 Here

Business-to-Business data sharing: An economic and legal analysis

 JRS Technical Report, here

Google just quietly set the stage for a Chrome OS explosion

 ComputerWorld, here

Concentrated Control: Talking to Lina Khan

 BLARB, here

A Novel, European Act of Data Governance

 CIGI, here

Platforms & Digital Markets Regulation: In Search of New Principles

Digital Markets Competition Forum initiative at CBS, Video here

Competition Commission conditionally approves the Google/Fitbit merger

 Competition Commission, here

Platforms, bundling and kill zones

 B. Evans, here

Amazon’s advertising business booms in pandemic

 FT, here.

Thursday, December 10, 2020

Artists speak out at the UK Economics of Music Streaming Inquiry

 IPKat, here

Antitrust & Regulation in a Multishock World

 CRA Conference, Video here

Facebook’s US Antitrust Front (so far) - Dec. 11 Advent Meme 🎅

 FTC, here; AGs, here

🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄




Bundeskartellamt examines linkage between Oculus and the Facebook network

 Bundeskartellamt, here.

Google Health App: Gesundheitsdaten für die Forschung

Heise.de, hier

Cookies : sanction de 60 millions d’euros à l’encontre de GOOGLE LLC et de 40 millions d’euros à l’encontre de GOOGLE IRELAND LIMITED

 CNIL, ici

Data flows, artificial intelligence and international trade: impacts and prospects for the value chains of the future

 For the EP, here

The Smoking Gun in the Facebook Antitrust Case

Wired, here.  

Bridging the Governance Gap: Interoperability for blockchain and legacy systems

 WEF, here

Toezicht op algoritmes

 ACM, hier.

Tuesday, December 08, 2020

Monday, December 07, 2020

Thursday, December 03, 2020

After e-commerce, CCI looks at pharma sector to unlock competition

 Business Standard, here

@WAVESBLOG ADVENT MEME CALENDAR! 4 December 🎅

 🎄🎄🎄🎄


EU Encourages Auto Industry Data-Sharing for Connected Cars

 WSJ, here

On the European democracy action plan

 EC Communication, here

Privacy Icons

 Hier

MYDATA OPERATORS

 MyData, hier

Datenaltruismus: Wie die EU-Kommission eine gute Idee versemmelt

 CROnline, hier

GDPR Data Protection Impact Assessments (DPIA) for Digital Advertising under GDPR

 IAB Europe, here

Amazon to roll out tools to monitor factory workers and machines

 ArsTechnica, here

Australia’s new tech code is a road worth exploring

 FT, here

Tuesday, December 01, 2020

Thursday, November 26, 2020

Scrambled Eggs and Paralyzed Policy: Breaking Up Consummated Mergers and Dominant Firms

 J. Kwoka, T. Valletti, here

Gaia-X: A trojan horse for Big Tech in Europe

 Euractiv, here

TO TRACK OR NOT TO TRACK?

 Panoptykon Foundation, here

Democratic Data: A Relational Theory For Data Governance

 S. Viljoen, here

Google as a de facto privacy regulator: Analyzing Chrome’s removal of third-party cookies from an antitrust perspective

 D. Geradin et al., here

Big tech, Garante Privacy: “Come rifondare il diritto nella nuova realtà digitale”

 AgendaDigitale, qui

Commission fines Teva and Cephalon €60.5 million for delaying entry of cheaper generic medicine

 EC, here

Legal Analysis of International Trade Law and Digital Trade

 EP, here

Dusseldorf Regional Court refers component-level licensing of standard-essential patents to Court of Justice of the EU

 Foss Patents, here

Strategy for Union institutions, offices, bodies and agencies to comply with the ‘Schrems II’ Ruling

 EDPS, here

Letter on cookie walls

 EDPB, here

Microsoft's new 'Productivity Score' lets your boss track how much you use email, Teams, and even whether you turn your camera on during meetings

 Business Insider, here

THE LONG AND WINDING ROAD

 BEUC, here

Chinese tech companies write off India

FT, here.  

Wednesday, November 25, 2020

AWS outage has taken down a big chunk of the internet

 The Verge, here

Lessons from the investigations in competition in digital markets

 With Nora Memetti, Oliver Budzinski and myself, Video here

Restoring Balance to Digital Competition

 Instituto de derecho de la competencia, Video here (Philip Marsden presenting and me praising the Report - you can safely skip my part perhaps).

Artificial Intelligence Regulation

 J. Bryson's Thoughts here

A top Democrat on the House antitrust panel sets sights on Big Pharma after wrapping up tech probe

 CNBC, here

Economics of streaming are 'threatening future of music', says Elbow's Guy Garvey

 The Guardian, here

Anwenderüberwachung durch Microsofts Office-Software

 Heise.de, hier

BILL C-11

HOUSE OF COMMONS OF CANADA, here

PROJET DE RECOMMANDATION RELATIVE À L’EXERCICE DES DROITS PAR L’INTERMÉDIAIRE D’UN MANDATAIRE

 CNIL, ici; Exemple de mandat pour l’exercice des droits conférés par le RGPD, ici

EU proposes tighter rules on political advertising

 FT, here

On the path to 'strategic autonomy'

 EPRS, here

Part human, part machine: is Apple turning us all into cyborgs?

 The Guardian, here

Justice Department Requires Divestiture of Credit Karma Tax for Intuit to Proceed with Acquisition of Credit Karma

 Department of Justice, here

Impact Assessment report and support study accompanying the Proposal for a Regulation on Data Governance

 EC, here

Pharmaceutical Strategy for Europe

 EC, Communication here

The Data Governance Act and the Action Plan on Intellectual Property

 M. Vestager, here

The Action Plan on Intellectual Property

  Here; Q&A, here

Commissioners Vestager and Breton on the Data Governance Act

 Today, 11.30 CET, live here

Regulation on data governance – Questions and Answers, here
Press release, here
Factsheet, here
The Proposed DGA, here

Tuesday, November 24, 2020

India bans another 43 Chinese apps

 TechCrunch, here

Europe’s data strategy aims to tip the scales away from big tech

 TechCrunch, here.

Taming the big tech platforms: DG COMP’s remedy problem (as illustrated by the Google saga)

 D. Geradin, here

VRP Proposition Consultation Paper

 OBIE, here

Data for the wider economy

 ODI draft, here

Google’s Cash Makes Rivals Less Eager for Antitrust Crackdown

 Bloomberg, here (and here - convenience, you know).

Future of data economy: a conversation with Thierry Breton and Maximilian Schrems

 Bruegel Event, with T. Breton and M. Schrems, Video here

Stablecoins: risks, potential and regulation

D. Arner, R. Auer and J. Frost, here.  

Stellungnahme zur Anhörung des Wirtschaftsausschusses des Deutschen Bundestags am 25. November 2020 zur Zehnten GWB-Novelle („GWB-Digitalisierungsgesetz“)

Stellungnahme mit den Mitgliedern der Monopolkommission abgestimmt, hier

How Venture Capitalists Are Deforming Capitalism

 New Yorker, here

Urheberrechtsreform: Künstler laufen Sturm gegen freie Inhalte-Schnipsel

 Heise.de, hier

Latest #blockchain ecosystem developments and trends in the EU27, Switzerland and the UK

New EU Blockchain Observatory, here

Without mandatory interoperability, will the European Commission’s Digital Market Act and Digital Service Act be enough to reset the rules for big tech?

K. Szymielewicz, here

Friday, November 20, 2020

REVISION OF THE VERTICAL BLOCK EXEMPTION REGULATION AND THE VERTICAL GUIDELINES

 BEUC, here

Banal Smartphone Apps Are the New Surveillance State

 New Republic, here

What the EU’s investigation of Amazon means for U.S. antitrust probes

CNBC, here.  

Asimov’s Three Laws Helped Shape A.I. and Robotics. We Need Four More.

 OneZero, here

Apple to reduce its cut from in-app purchases as it faces new lawsuit from Fortnite maker

 The Guardian, here

OpenStreetMap is Having a Moment

 J. Morrison, here

Google revamps its strategy towards banking

 FT, here

Discovering Firms' Data Strategies: A Topic Modeling Approach

 A. Leiponen, Video here (from 2:28).

Epic v Apple (3): two perspectives on app stores’ 30% commission fee

 F. Bostoen, here.

Is the internet advertising economy about to implode?

 TechCrunch, here

Do you really want Amazon’s new drugstore knowing your medical condition?

 LATimes, here

China's Draft 'Personal Information Protection Law' (Full Translation)

 New America, here

#DSGVOwirkt: Microsoft passt sich europäischem Datenschutz an

Baden-wuerttemberg.datenschutz.de, hier

Artificial intelligence is reshaping finance

 FT, here

Apple and Facebook trade accusations over data privacy

FT, here (more here). 

A Digital New Deal

 IT for Change, here

EU Tech Alliance in the game

 Here

Tuesday, November 17, 2020

How China’s big tech companies upset Beijing

 Ft, here

Progressive Groups Urge President-Elect Biden Not to Appoint Former Google CEO to Administration

 Revolving Door Project, here

Economic analysis in merger investigations

 OECD, Discussion Paper here

Ecosystem Competition

 D. Crane, here

Some Economics of Digital Ecosystems

 M. Bourreau, here

Digital competition policy: Are ecosystems different? –

 A. Fletcher, here

New proposed law to better protect Canadians’ privacy and increase their control over their data and personal information

 Government of Canada, here

AI regulation in Europe? What consumers have to say

 BEUC, here

Epic Games extends its fight against Apple to Australia

 Epic Games, here and here


Consumer Data Right powers shifted from ACCC

 Innovation Aus, here. See also herehere and here

Secrets and Likes: The Drive for Privacy and the Difficulty of Achieving It in the Digital Age

 A. Acquisti et al., here

Investigation into data protection compliance in the direct marketing data broking sector

 ICO, here

The Evolution of Cloud

 Greylock, here

noyb files complaints against Apple's tracking code "IDFA"

 NOYB, here

Jeder Piks registriert

 TAZ, hier

Digitale Souveränität: "Es gibt momentan im Internet keine Privatsphäre"

 Heise.de, hier

Aperta istruttoria nei confronti di ANIA in merito al “progetto antifrode” (con sviluppo algoritmi comuni) nei rami danni e vita

 AGCM, qui

How Private Is My Pay App?

 The Medium, here

How the U.S. Military Buys Location Data from Ordinary Apps

 Vice, here

RULE BY DATA: THE END OF MARKETS?

 K. Pistor, here

Digital Regulation Handbook

 ITU, World Bank, here

Friday, November 13, 2020

Facebook v. CMA

 CAT, here

Uncertainty, or at least a specific kind of uncertainty

 FTC, here

The "external aspects" of the EU digital transformation agenda

 M. Vestager, here

Google Photos sets store by storage

 FT, here

Who Benefits from Financial Innovation?

 R. Mihet, here

The DSA: Part #04 Better connected through interoperability

EP Greens, here.  

Bank of England 's Bailey says stablecoins do not meet grade for broad use

 Reuters, here

Important projects of common European interest - Boosting EU strategic value chains

 EPRS, here

The Next Decade Could Be Even Worse

 The Atlantic, here

Just do it!? Nike will Händler in der EU ab 2021 nicht mehr beliefern

Onlinehaendler-news.de, hier

Le vrai défi posé par Amazon n’est pas de vendre quand les autres sont fermés mais la position dominante que lui donne la maîtrise de nos données

 F. Marty, ici

What’s Next for the Antitrust Case Against Google?

 AdWeek, here

The Global Antitrust Institute Report on the Digital Economy

 Here

Citizen-controlled health data sharing governance

Digital Health Europe, here.  

Towards New Tools in Competition Law: Some legal and economic considerations

 M. Cartapanis & F. Marty, here

Preisbindungsklauseln gegenüber Beherbergungsbetrieben sollen verboten werden

 CH Bundesrat, hier

Recommendations 01/2020 on measures that supplement transfer tools to ensure compliance with the EU level of protection of personal data

 EDPB, here

Bundesregierung strebt technologische Souveränität bei Chips an

 Heise.de, hier

The Judiciary Antitrust Subcommittee Has Charted a Course for President-Elect Biden: He Should Follow It

 H. Singer, here

COMPETITION AND E-COMMERCE

 Autorité de la concurrence, ici. 

Epic Gets Apple’s Theft Claim Knocked Out of Fortnite Fight

 Bloomberg, here

China’s banking regulator signals tougher fintech antitrust laws

 FT, here

Surprise: Latest Draft Of The EU's Next Big Privacy Law Includes Some Improvements

 TechDirt, here

Apple Pay becomes a must-have payment option for banks - Loup Ventures

 FinExtra, hier

Prinzip Mensch: Buchvorstellung und Diskussion

#GIWebTalk, hier

'Unfair surveillance'? Online exam software sparks global student revolt

 Thomson Reuters Foundation, here

GUIDELINES FOR SECURING THE INTERNET OF THINGS

 ENISA, here

Monday, November 09, 2020

Shaping the future interoperability policy

 ISA, here

The two sides of the (stable)coin

 F. Panetta, here

Replacing rentier capitalism is one of the defining challenges of our age

 Open Democracy, here

India opens antitrust case against Google over its payments app

 TechCrunch, here. CCI's Order here

What can Silicon Valley expect from Joe Biden?

 FT, here

Revisiting the Black Box Society by rethinking the political economy of big data

 B. Brevini and F. Pasquale, here

Setting democratic global standards for intelligence agencies: the way forward

CEO Webinar,
9 November 2020 (2 to 3.30pm CET), here

Data Governance and practices lessons during COVID-19

 IGF 2020 Main Session Data, here

A New Era of Innovation and Trust in Data

 T. Berners-Lee, here

Google app enables banks to lock Android devices over credit defaults

 FinExtra, here

Visa’s $5 billion bid for fintech darling Plaid sparks lawsuit by Justice Department

 MarketWatch, here

DoJ's Complaint here.

CMA's decision here

Emerging Architectures for Modern Data Infrastructure

 Andreessen Horowitz, here

Amsterdam and Helsinki become first cities to launch AI registers explaining how they use algorithms

 The NextWeb, here

Digitale Souveränität und Europa-Cloud Gaia-X: Viele Fragen im Digital-Ausschuss

 Heise.de, hier

DOJ V. GOOGLE – WIRD GOOGLE ZERSCHLAGEN?

J. Persch, hier.  

Parere alla Provincia autonoma di Trento su uno schema di regolamento concernente la medicina di iniziativa nel servizio sanitario provinciale

 Garante per la protezione dei dati personali, qui

Digital Platforms and Ecosystems

Digital Platforms and the Changing Regulatory Landscape, Panel here (Richard Kramer not to be missed), here

The pandemic exposes human nature: 10 evolutionary insights

 B. Seitz et al., here

It's Not Just About You

 The Why Not Lab, here

What Robots Can’t Do: An interview with Frank Pasquale

Commonweal, here.  

EUROPEAN COMMISSION LAUNCHES IMPACT ASSESSMENT PHASE IN ITS REVIEW OF THE VERTICAL BLOCK EXEMPTION REGULATION AND VERTICAL GUIDELINES

 Clifford Chance, here

The GDPR was the most lobbied law in EU history. DSA: Hold my beer

 Ofthewedge, here

The Internet of Bodies

 Rand Corporation, here

Google reCAPTCHA service under the microscope: Questions raised over privacy promises, cookie use

 The Register, here

Medienmäzen Google: Wie der Datenkonzern den Journalismus umgarnt

 Otto Brenner Stiftung, hier

Didattica online: individuati i punti critici, in tema di privacy e copyright, delle piattaforme utilizzate a supporto delle lezioni

 IlSole24Ore, here

Spotify to offer artists and labels the option to promote their music in your recommendations

 Fader, here (and listening to Spotify right now). 

She's Bursting Big Tech's Bubble

 Sway, Interview with Lina Khan, here

Beyond the buzzwords: Putting meaningful transparency at the heart of the Digital Services Act

M. Vestager, Keynote Speech delivered at Online Policy Dialogue hosted by AlgorithmWatch and the European Policy Centre on 30 October 2020, Video here

The Justice Department Finally—Finally!—Takes on Google and the Danger of Monopolies

 C. Doctorow, here

Bericht der Enquete-Kommission Künstliche Intelligenz – Gesellschaftliche Verantwortung und wirtschaftliche, soziale und ökologische Potenziale

 Hier.

§ 19a GWB: Welche Unternehmen sind betroffen?

 S. Louven, hier

This election season, Facebook, Google and the rest have embraced their role as gatekeepers.

 NYTimes, here

German EU presidency pushes for cybersecurity ‘by design’ in connected devices

 Euractiv, here

Privacy campaigners file legal challenge against UK’s handling of online ads

 Politico.eu, here

Cross-context behavioral advertising



Proposal for a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council concerning the respect for private life and the protection of personal data in electronic communications and repealing Directive 2002/58/EC (Regulation on Privacy and Electronic Communications)

 Here

The volcano method for understanding the fintech revolution

 TechCrunch, here

Dark patterns

Forbrukerradet, here

Facebook Begins Controversial Integration of Messenger, Instagram

Digital Privacy News, here

Innovation Considerations in Horizontal Merger Control

 Antitrust Digest, here

The data will see you now

 Ada Lovelace Institute, here

Netflix files copyright claims against tweets criticizing movie, trailer

 Ars Technica, here

FTC likely to sue Facebook on antitrust violations by end of November

 Politico.com, here

Wednesday, October 28, 2020

Better late than never: The Italian Competition Authority is investigating Google's AdTech



On October 28, the Italian Competition Authority announced that an investigation of Google’s core business - display advertising - is underway. The Authority claims that Google practices prevent rivals from competing effectively and affect consumers negatively.

For this reason, the Italian Competition Authority opened an investigation against Google for an alleged abuse of dominant position. The undertaking, controlled by Alphabet Inc, might have violated Article 102 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union with regard to the availability and use of data for the design of display advertising campaigns, i.e. the space that publishers and website owners make available for the display of advertising content.

The decision comes in a context in which Google is one of the most prominent players in both search advertising and digital display advertising. Moreover, Google is well established in the ad tech stack, capturing over 50% of the market that in 2019, in Italy was valued more than 3.3 billion euros. Unsurprisingly, Google has already had the pleasure of meeting other competition authorities around the world. Lately, in March 2019, the European Commission decided to fine Google € 1.49 billion for abusing its dominant position in the market of online search advertising by restricting users to see Google’s rivals search ads. 

Now, under the lens of the Italian Competition authority there is Google’s display advertising. We are all used to the ads that fill up websites and the feed on social networks. But let’s dig deeper: what is display advertising? The OECD describes it as the text, images, or videos that appear on our screen, be it in advertising boxes or banner ad. What makes this form of advertising so valuable is, basically, us. In terms of user data at least: data concerning the identity of the consumer visiting a website is particularly important for targeting digital display advertising, which cannot rely on user inputs in the same way as search advertising.

Two types of technology have raised the concerns of the Italian competition authority, e.g. the decryption keys of Google ID and the use of pixels. Pixels are small, almost invisible graphics that embed a piece of code that is loaded when a user visits a webpage or opens an email used often by businesses for third party tracking. Actually, what is wrong is not the technology to track user data itself - but the fact that Google is excluding its competitors to access (and benefit from) this data and technologies that enhance the process of targeting ads. Allegedly, Google has engaged in internal-external discrimination by refusing to provide the decryption keys of the Google ID and in excluding the possibility of tracking third-party pixels.

In short, the investigation of the Italian Competition Authority highly emphasizes the role of user data, technology, and the choices of Google regarding these tech. However, our concern as users in the first place, also regards our privacy as consumers. Secondly, the power gained by Google in the digital advertising market through data gathering and the tying of its services and products has created a scenario that favours targeted and invasive advertising with contents - while it is questionable whether or not this adds to the welfare of consumers. Indeed, the problem is not only how much data is being gathered or displayed but also the way these processes are actually taking place.

After all, are we really aware of how much information we disclose? And even if the answer is yes, are we aware of how our data contributes to the value-creating process of tech molochs - Google in the first place? The figures on the profits of Google and the other big-tech giants speak for themselves. But... Do users still enjoy a piece of the cake?

(Alvise, Gianluca, Julia, Lorenzo, Giulia and Daniel - UniTrento Master Students)

German watchdog launches new investigation into Amazon: report

 Reuters, here

French advertising organizations lodge complaint with competition regulator over Apple privacy changes

Digiday, here.  

Google’s display advertising business is under antitrust probe in Italy

 TechCrunch, here

Investigation opened against Google for an alleged abuse of dominant position in the Italian market for display advertising

 


Italian Competition Authority (!), here

Provvedimento qui.

Addictive Social Media: Why We Need Regulation and Competition for Digital Platforms

 ProMarket, here

Technology and Democracy

 JRC, here

Julian Nowag will be "previewing" his excellent OECD Competition and Sustainability Report to my Students next Friday: Join us if interested (the more the merrier, says Julian - and I agree)

9.30am CET, Julian's Report here (email me for the Zoom details simonetta.vezzoso@unitn.it)

Virtual Debate: Interoperability and the EU Digital Markets Act

 Join us, here.

Apple develops alternative to Google search

 Financial Times, here

Merkel drängt Autokonzerne: BMW, Daimler und VW sollen Datenschatz teilen

 Handelsblatt, hier (und hier). 

Tuesday, October 27, 2020

EU vs Big Tech: Leaked Enforcement Plans and the Dutch-French Counterproposal

 EFF, here

Epic claims App Store contract illegal; Facebook Gaming says Apple ‘frustrating’

 9to5mac, here

PlayStation : l’Autorité estime que les engagements proposés par Sony ne répondent pas de façon pertinente aux préoccupations de concurrence identifiées. Le dossier est renvoyé à l’instruction.

Adlc, ici

Big Tech Comes for Podcasts

 G. Gedye, here

Google’s Guardians

 D. Dayen, here

How the Digital Services Act can hold online marketplaces to account

 BEUC, here

Facebook launches cloud games but says Apple won’t allow it on iOS

 CNBC, here

Uber sued for using ‘biased’ customer ratings to fire drivers

Bloomberg, here

Facing Decisions

 A. Danni, here

Four Steps to Rein in Big Tech

 M. Rafi Atal, here. 

And, even juicier, here

Open Letter to European Commission: Request for Trilateral Meeting among Google, the EC, and Alternative Search Engines to Improve Search Preference Menu

DuckDuckGo, Ecosia, Lilo, Qwant, Seznam, here

Investigation into data protection compliance in the direct marketing data broking sector

 ICO, here

Friday, October 23, 2020

Got a problem with trust in AI? Just add blockchain, Forrester urges. Then bust out the holographic meetings. Welcome to the future

 The Register, here

Using Market Studies to Tackle Emerging Competition Issues

 OECD, Background Note, here

Sustainability & Competition Law and Policy

 J. Nowag for the OECD, here

Julian will be discussing it with us @unitrento on Oct. 30 at 9:30AM (email me if you'd like to join us).

Digital advertising markets – Background note by the Secretariat

OECD Secretariat, Background note here

Regulatorischer Export – Wie die europäische Datenschutzgrundverordnung globale Datenmärkte beeinflusst

 M. Batikas et al., hier

Why Can’t I Fix My Own Phone, Toaster, or Tractor?

 The Markup, here

Building a Law-and-Political-Economy Framework: Beyond the Twentieth-Century Synthesis

J. Britton-Purdy et al., here.  

A deeply flawed lawsuit that would do nothing to help consumers

 Google, here

Apple Will Remove Fan App That Allowed Stadia Streaming on iOS

 Vice, here

A First Look at U.S. v. Google

 R. Picker, here

Erste Ergebnisse einer Konsultation gewerblicher Plattform-Kunden veröffentlicht

 Bundesnetzagentur, hier

PayPal is shilling crypto on the internet

 FT, here

Ex-Googler Meredith Whittaker on Political Power in Tech, the Flaws of ‘The Social Dilemma,’ and More

 OneZero, here

Gouvernance et régulation des données

Conseil d’État, ici

OPEN SOURCE SOFTWARE STRATEGY 2020 – 2023 Think Open

 EC, Communication here

The Justice Dept.’s Lawsuit Against Google: Too Little, Too Late

 K. Swisher, here

Wilson Parking agrees sell building leases, pay costs after investigation

 RNZ, here

European Networking and Training for National Competition Enforcers ENTraNCE for Judges 2019

 EUI, here

A US antitrust suit might break up Google. Good – it's the Standard Oil of our day

 The Guardian, here

As EU Starts To Draft Its Most Important New Online Law, The Digital Services Act, MEPs Want Basic Rights High On The Agenda

TechCrunch, here.  

Google's defense against antitrust lawsuit? You

 CNN, here

SOUVERAINETE EUROPEENNE - Un chemin semé d’embûches

 AGEFI, ici

The Google Case An Explanation and Evaluation for Non-Lawyers

 T. Wu, here

Artificial intelligence and the antitrust case against Google

 VentureBeat, here

Deep fake: il Garante privacy apre un’istruttoria nei confronti di Telegram per il software che "spoglia" le donne

 GPDP, qui

Helen Dixon backs data codes of conduct in life sciences

Out-Law, here

Tuesday, October 20, 2020

DOJ (and 11 -?- States) v. Google

 Complaint here. Official DoJ's announcement here.  Statement of the Attorney General on the Announcement Of Civil Antitrust Lawsuit Filed Against Google, here

Data Governance as a Collective Action Problem

 O. Benfeldt, here

Friday, October 16, 2020

Why Facebook and Google Face the Most Risk in an Overhaul of Antitrust Law

 Barrons, here

Building Community Network Policies: A Collaborative Governance towards Enabling Frameworks

 L. Belli et al., here

Progress can no longer be measured by growth in GDP

 The 😍 D. Coyle, here

Webinar @Echelle : Évolution du droit de la concurrence allemand : pour un droit de la concurrence 4.0 proactif et axé sur le digital

 Webinar @Echelle  (4 novembre), ici

IAB Europe’s ad tracking consent framework found to fail GDPR standard

 TechCrunch, here

GDPR watchdog’s investigation finds that tracking and consent pop-ups used by Google and other major websites and apps are unlawful.

 Irish Council for Civil Liberties, here

How AI is powering [a more helpful] Google

 Google, here

Duplex is getting smarter and making life a little easier

 Google, here

Privileging Consolidation and Proscribing Cooperation: The Perversity of Contemporary Antitrust Law

 S. Vaheesan, here

EU shoots for €10B ‘industrial cloud’ to rival US

 Politico.eu, here

EU antitrust deadline for Google, Fitbit deal extended to Jan. 8

 Reuters, here

Instagram to tackle hidden advertising after CMA action

 CMA, here.  The details of FB's undertakings, here

Bill Gates says that antitrust regulators should look at tech companies separately, not all at once

 CNBC, here

To Solve COVID-19, We Need to See It for What It Is: A Configuration Crisis

 L. Fennell, here

CONSUMER AND CITIZEN GROUPS CONTINUE TO HAVE SERIOUS CONCERNS ABOUT GOOGLE FITBIT TAKEOVER

 Here

Europe wants ‘strategic autonomy’ — it just has to decide what that means

 Politico.eu, here

Why Facebook Can’t Fix Itself

 The NewYorker, here

British Airways: Penalty Notice

ICO, here

App Marketplace Battlemap

 


LEGAL AND REGULATORY CONSIDERATIONS FOR DIGITAL ASSETS

 J. Allen et al., here

Data Sovereignty, You Ask

 


Wednesday, October 14, 2020

Per i lobbisti del big tech il paradiso è in Italia

 Domani, qui

Platform Competition: A Systematic and Interdisciplinary Review of the Literature

 J. Rietveld, M. Schilling, here

The digital payment revolution

 Bank of France, here

Anonymisierung und Pseudonymisierung von Daten für Projekte des maschinellen Lernens

 Bitkom, hier

Amazon's Latest Gimmicks Are Pushing the Limits of Privacy

 Wired, here

Data protection and coronavirus: Case studies

 ICO, here

BigTech Firms in Finance in Emerging Market and Developing Economies

 FSB, here

Google v. Oracle and the search for an analogy

 M. Risch, here

The Lawless Realm

 M. Schaake, here

A ticking time bomb: The real and present danger of the data economy

 With C. Véliz, here (and here)

Press Publishers’ Right: the Court of Appeal of Paris upholds the Competition Authority’s order for Google to negotiate with the publishers

 B. Spitz, here

Dear Google: We Agree Search Competition Should Be "Only 1 Click Away" – So Why Is It 15+ on Android?

 DuckDuckGo, here

Future Market Dynamics Part 2 - Big Tech and data disruption

 FCA, here

No rivalry between public and private digital currency solutions – European Commission

 Finextra, here

EU Foreign Investment Screening Regulation takes effect: a high-level review of regimes across Europe

 Clifford Chance, here

What Will Drive Long-Run Growth in the Digital Age?

J. Growiec, here.  

The Big Tech antitrust report has one big conclusion: Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google are anti-competitive

 Vox, here

Abuse of Dominance in Digital Markets

 OECD, here

EU antitrust regulators may narrow Amazon investigation - sources

 Reuters, here

Facebook's Libra must not start until properly regulated - G7 draft

 Reuters, here