Thursday, July 12, 2018

Google Play Store Rival Files Antitrust Complaint to EU

Bloomberg, here

Luxusprodukte rechtfertigen Vertriebsverbot auf Amazon.de

Oberlandesgericht Frankfurt am Main, Urteil vom 12.07.2018, Az. 11 U 96/14 (Kart), Pressemitteilung hier

The Commission’s Meddling in Android Could Backfire

ITIF, here

El cálculo de los daños causados por el cártel de los fabricantes camiones

F. Marcos, aquí.

Datenkapitalismus – eine ökonomische Betrachtung

T. Kretschmer, L. Wiewiorra, J. Krämer, A. Oehler, M. Horn, J. Haucap, S. Klein, J. Hüllmann, hier.

Saturday, July 07, 2018

Shaping competition policy in the era of digitisation: Call for contributions

EC, here.

Max. 10 pages. Do you already know how you’re going to contribute?

Thursday, July 05, 2018

Supreme Court decision on credit cards undermines competition, celebrates price increases, and will contribute to economic inequality

M. Kades, here.

The Internet: to regulate or not to regulate? Written and Oral Evidence

UK Parliament, here.

Aka Online Platforms: to regulate or not to regulate?

EU-KOMMISSION : Neue Diskussion über Google-Zerschlagung

FAZ, hier.

Kartellrechtliche Ausnahmeregelungen

Monopolkommission, hier.

PREZZI FARMACI ANTITUMORALI RIDOTTI FINO ALL’80%: OTTEMPERANZA DI ASPEN

AGCM, here

Is Facebook a publisher? In public it says no, but in court it says yes

The Guardian, here

CMA demands pricing action from energy company

Press Release, here

EC consults stakeholders on draft guidelines to help national courts estimate the economic harm caused by cartels

Press Release, here.
Draft Guidelines for national courts on how to estimate the share of overcharge which was passed on to the indirect purchaser here

BEIS - Modernising Consumer Markets: Green Paper; CCP's Consultation Response

CCP, UEA, here.
Bruce Lyons, here

Singapore regulator says Uber-Grab merger may have been unlawful

FT, here

Grab/Uber merger: CCCS Provisionally Finds that the Merger Has Substantially Lessened Competition, Proposes Directions to Restore Market Contestability and to Impose Financial Penalties

CCCS, here.
PUBLIC CONSULTATION ON POSSIBLE REMEDIES TO ADDRESS POTENTIAL COMPETITION CONCERNS ARISING FROM GRAB/UBER MERGER here.

ANTITRUST IMPLICATIONS OF LABOR PLATFORMS

M. Steinbaum, Podcast here (while you're lying on the beach, you know).

Facebook fan pages and EU data protection law

L. Woods, here

Claudette meets GDPR

Study Report, Funded by The European Consumer Organisation (BEUC), here.
See also TechCrunch, here.


When copyright goes wrong

R. Corrigan, here

Formal comments of the EDPS on a Proposal for a Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council on copyright in the Digital Single Market

EDPS, here

Wednesday, July 04, 2018

Publication des statistiques agrégées sur le fonctionnement des algorithmes de recommandation, classement ou référencement de contenu

 Assemblée Nationale, ici.

Design et Attention : perspectives critiques

InternetActu, ici.

Control, Alt or Delete? The future of consumer data

Which?, here.

Consumer data in online markets

Oxera for Which?, here.

Modernising consumer markets: Consumer Green Paper

UK Gov, here (IMI: I missed it 😊).

Forscher: Android-Apps schicken Screenshots und Videos an Drittfirmen

Heise.de, hier

Government welcomes Lords AI report, vaunts industrial strategy

ComputerWeekly, here

Monopolkommission verteidigt Versandapotheken

FAZ, hier

Ohio v. Amex, Supply Chain Fairness, and the Inadequacy of Antitrust’s Consumer Welfare Standard

R. Woodcock, here

Facebook confirms that it’s acquiring Bloomsbury AI

TechCrunch, here

Data Ownership, Regulation, and Blockchain Dominate Platform Markets

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

COMPETITION WITHOUT COMPETITORS? A RESEARCH AGENDA FOR BIG TECH

N. Petit, Presentation here

Algorithms, Machine Learning, and Collusion

U. Schwalbe, here

Global Market Power

J. De Loecker, J. Eeckhout, here

Legal row between retailers and card processors faces fresh delay

FT, here

Tuesday, July 03, 2018

The Supreme Court just quietly gutted antitrust law

L. Khan, here.

Android Fine May Come in Mid-July as EU Dances Around Trump Trip

Bloomberg, here.

The Regulatory Compass: Towards a purpose-driven approach to financial regulation’

The Finance Innovation Lab, here.

UBS testet digitale Assistenten in der Vermögensverwaltung

FAZ, hier.

FCA welcomes firms working on crypto-assets to latest sandbox cohort

FinExtra, here

Report on the impact of Fintech on incumbent credit institutions' business models

EBA, here

Report on prudential risks and opportunities arising for institutions from FinTech

EBA, here

AT&T promised lower prices after Time Warner merger—it’s raising them instead

ArsTechnica, here.

Statement of FTC Chairman Joe Simons Regarding Federal Court Ruling in FTC v. AbbVie

FTC, here.
Ruling here.

Amazon Ran an die Pille

SZ, hier.

IPG Confirms $2.3 Billion Deal to Acquire Data Marketing Company Acxiom

AdWeek, here.

Stand und Entwicklung der Unternehmenskonzentration in Deutschland

Monopolkommission, hier.

Algorithmen und Kollusion

Monopolkommission, hier.

Big Business Keeps Winning at the Supreme Court

The Atlantic, here

Facebook Faces Broadened Federal Investigations Over Data and Privacy

NYTimes, here

The Paradox of Technological Déjà Vu

Digitopoly, here

La idea de misión

M. Mazzucato, aquì.

ÉCONOMIE AUGMENTÉE. NOUVELLES PERSPECTIVES.

Autorit de la concurrence, ici. 

Tech for TechLawyers: The Hardware

N. Brown, Video here

Jack Ma Embraces Blockchain for Ant But Warns of Bitcoin Bubble

Bloomberg, here

Festrede Andreas Mundt zur 53. Theodor Heuss Preisverleihung

Hier. 

Platforms and personal data processing : the potential for achieving systemic transparency

P.-O. Dehaye, I. Hahn, G. Jargalsaikhan, here.  J
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The state of the Internet in France

Arcep, here

Políticas de competencia para una economía digital: el marco regulatorio e institucional y el contexto internacional

G. Núñez, J. De Furquim, M. Pereira, here

A Nobel-winning economist’s guide to taming tech monopolies

Quartz, here

CMA launches enforcement action against hotel booking sites

CMA, here

Data in the payments industry

PSR, Discussion paper, here

How the Disney-Fox Deal Got DOJ’s Greenlight Quicker Than Expected

Variety, here

With Amex Ruling, Modern IO Theory Makes Important Inroads with SCOTUS

R. Picker, here

The future of banking is open

PWC, ODI, here

Big tech companies are looking at Hollywood as the next stage in their play for the cloud

TechCrunch, here

The seven-year legal fight between Apple and Samsung over smartphone patents has ended with a whimper

NYTimes, here

"Open Banking is a revolution for the whole industry"

J. Basini, here

The Effect of Institutional Ownership Types On Innovation and Competition

P. Borochin, J. Yang, R. Zhang, here

Your Phone Is Listening—Literally Listening—to Your TV

K. Waddell, here

The internet: to regulate or not to regulate?

UK Parliament, Witnesses here

When the Econometrician Shrugged: Identifying and Plugging Gaps in the Consumer Welfare Standard

K. Caves, H. Singer, here

The 17 years since the Microsoft antitrust case taught us that regulation can spur innovation

Quartz, here

The German cement cartel – a landmark decision for private damages actions

CoRe Blog, here

Wettbewerbshüter warnen vor automatisierten Preisabsprachen

WiWo, hier

Facebook offers fresh detail about its ties to dozens of outside companies in more than 700 pages of new data turned over to Congress

Washington Post, here

Artificial Intelligence and the 'Good Society': The US, EU, and UK Approach

C. Cath et al., here

The State of Artificial Intelligence in 2018: A Good Old Fashioned Report

N. Benaich, I. Hogarth, here

Young generation tempted by Amazon bank-like services

Computerweekly, here

Government response to House of Lords Artificial Intelligence Select Committee’s Report on AI in the UK: Ready, Willing and Able?

UK Gov, here

Gütekriterien für algorithmische Prozesse

N. Rohde, hier

Companies under strain from GDPR requests

FT, here

How regulators can prevent excessive concentration online

The Economist, here and here.

Can Technology Be Stopped?

BBC Radio 4, Podcast here

Oracle to locate European fintech hub in Brussels

FinExtra, here

Before “After Consumer Welfare” -- A Response To Professor Wu

D. Melamed, N. Petit, here

Thursday, June 28, 2018

Line to launch cryptocurrency exchange in Singapore

FT, here

The first "known" financial technology

Morgan Museum, NYC


(Small) Variations on a Theme: This blog's author Lund Presentation on "FinTech, TechFin, Competitive Markets: What Could Possibly Go Wrong?", here

Friday, June 22, 2018

FinTech,TechFin, Competitive Markets: What Could Possibly Go Wrong?

S. Vezzoso (this blog’s author), presentation here. Please email me if you have any comment.

Wednesday, June 20, 2018

Tuesday, June 19, 2018

Opinion of the European Banking Authority on the implementation of the RTS on SCA and CSC

EBA, here.
"In the event that the ASPSP does not have a system that enables it to adequately respond to the confirmation request sent by the provider initiating the payment, then the ASPSP should give PISPs the possibility of accessing the necessary data themselves, so as to allow them to make their own judgements on the sufficient availability of funds."

"Given that PSD2 does not limit the types of payment transactions a PISP is allowed to offer, and given the provisions in Articles 4(15) and 66(1) of PSD2 in particular, the EBA would like to clarify that a PISP has the right to initiate the same transactions that the ASPSP offers to its own PSUs, such as instant payments, batch payments, international payments, recurring transactions, payments set by national schemes and future-dated payments."

“ TECHNOPOLY” and what to do about it: Reform, Redress and Regulation

ResPublica, here

The regulatory mistakes that let Facebook and Google buy ad dominance

Axios, here

Super Platforms, Big Data, and the Competition Law: The Japanese Approach in Contrast with the US and the EU

T. Takigawa, here

Lessons from the Recent Commission’s Decision on Google. To Favour Oneself or Not, That is the Question

B. Mäihäniemi, here

Virtual Competition

N. Colombo, here

The Sound and Fury of Patent Activity

R. Feldman, M. Lemley, here

Amazon—An Infrastructure Service and Its Challenge to Current Antitrust Law

L. Khan, here (pp. 99 ff.), here

Digital Dominance

Edited by Martin Moore and Damian Tambini, here

‘Direct’ and ‘indirect’ effects of enforcement

DotEcon for CMA, here

No Fair Hearing for the DoJ in the AT&T-Time Warner Decision

C. Sagers, here

Data Nationalization in the Shadow of Social Credit Systems

F. Pasquale, here

Report on Competition Policy 2017

EC, here

Projet conjoint sur les algorithmes et leurs enjeux pour l'application du droit de la concurrence

Autorité de la concurrence, Bundeskartellamt, ici

Supreme Court to review Apple app store commissions case

FT, here

Monday, June 18, 2018

Egyptian Competition Authority imposes interim measures on FIFA for World Cup TV rights

Egypttoday.com, here

Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs: Structured Dialogue with Margrethe Vestager

Video, here (from 15:17:30).

15:40:09 "the banking sector is developing because of FinTech, new ways of doing payments, new ways of doing banking and that will push the banking sector into restructuring"..."as I see it...the banking sector is in much better shape now than it was just a few years ago"

U.S. top court mulls Apple's App Store commissions in antitrust case

Reuters, here

Cryptocurrencies: looking beyond the hype

BIS, here.

Alexis Bledel, Kurt Russell, Beau Knapp to Star in Money Laundering Thriller 'Crypto'

Hollywood Reporter, here

CYBG plays up tech advantages in £1.7 billion takeover deal for Virgin Money

FinExtra, here

Saturday, June 16, 2018

Preview of the upcoming discussions at ASCOLA 2018 NYC

Here.

And forget the distinction between the main track and the parallel sessions: great topics everywhere!

(mine included, of course 😊. I hope I’ll do it justice.  First draft of my paper coming soon. Abstract:
‘The use of technology to support the production and delivery of financial services has a long history, spanning from the written records of financial transactions in Mesopotamia, to much more recent developments, such as the first use in 1995 of the World Wide Web to provide online account checking, and the introduction of high‐frequency trading. In the last ten years, however, the adoption of digital technology in the financial sector, generally known as FinTech, has undergone a dramatic acceleration, both in the West and the East. In the latter, arguably, the magnitude of the transformative powers at work is most visible. Ant Financial Services Group, a spin‐out of e‐commerce platform Alibaba, lately achieved a market value of around €127 billion ($150 billion) based on the success of its digital payments system Alipay and money market fund Yu'e Bao. Tencent's popular instant‐messaging app WeChat incorporates an online payment service, WeChat Pay, which is used by a substantial proportion of its one billion monthly users. A strong trend towards mobile payments is also experienced in other countries, such as India. Ongoing transformations in the financial sector are significant and global, which creates opportunities and challenges for consumers, traditional and non‐traditional financial service providers, and regulators alike. Incumbent banks have expressed concerns about the disruptive potential and the dangers of Big Tech, which the Paper calls TechFin adopting the definition of Alibaba's CEO, Jack Ma. While banks brace themselves for potentially unsettling market developments, financial regulators discuss the impact of new technologies on processes and business models, as well as the need for a changed supervisory methodology. The challenge for most financial regulators is to ensure that the multiple benefits offered by these new technologies are realized without hampering consumer protection and compromising the stability of the financial system. The Paper embraces a different perspective and explores some of the likely consequences of FinTech in terms of market structure and competition. Keeping the literature strands on platforms in the background, we analyse the current push towards the “platformization” of banking services. If the financial sector moves towards production and distribution models where the banks see their pivotal role diminished, this is certainly of concern to financial regulators, who should at the very least adapt their supervisory methodologies to the new situation. From a competition policy perspective, however, it is important to identify the types of market structure that could better satisfy consumers' banking and financial needs. The Paper makes the point that the analysis of the possible impact of the FinTech revolution on competition dynamics in the financial sector is particularly relevant especially to make sure that the benefits of innovation are harnessed for the good of consumers. This perspective is solidly ingrained in the “long term” view of competition policy.’)

Thursday, June 14, 2018

Snapchat is finally opening its app to developers — and has clearly learned from Facebook’s mistakes

Recode, here

Microsoft reportedly working on rival Amazon Go tech for cashier-free stores

The Verge, here

La donnée, une marchandise comme les autres ?

H. Isaac, ici

Comment définir et réguler les « données d’intérêt général » ?

B. PAILHÈS, ici

Le Big Data en agriculture

V. BELLON-MAUREL ITAP, P. NEVEU MISTEA, A. TERMIER  et F. GARCIA, ici and here

Données et règles de concurrence

A. Perrot, ici

Modèles économiques des données : une relation complexe entre demande et offre

P. Belleflamme, ici

Misinformation & missing information: a fix for fake news

Bruegel, here

Adyen share price doubles on market debut

FinExtra, here

Small wonder it had to go to trial!

FT, here

Antitrust law never envisioned massive tech companies like Google

R. Levine, here

Radical Markets: Uprooting Capitalism & Democracy for a Just Society

G. Weyl, Talk at Google moderated by its Chief Economist, here

AT&T Shellacs the Government in Time Warner Merger Case

R. Picker, here

Bitcoin Technology Opens Up Kenya's $20 Billion Informal Economy

Bloomberg, here

Amazon’s Clever Machines Are Moving From the Warehouse to Headquarters

Bloomberg, here

Data Ethics Framework

UK Government, here

Monday, June 04, 2018

A Letter to the FTC re Google

K. Ellison, here

Entry, Innovation and Productivity Growth in the U.S. Economy: Facts and Open Questions (i.e., Puzzles)

J. Haltiwanger, Presentation here

GitHub users are already fuming about the company’s sale to Microsoft for $7.5bn

Quartz, here.
Heise.de, hier: "Mal losgelöst von steuerlichen Erwägungen, die aus Microsoft-Sicht für die Akquisition sprechen, mag es für die Redmonder wohl auch darum gehen, die riesige Zahl der registrierten GitHub-Anwender – die Rede ist von 27 Millionen – zu den eigenen Angeboten insbesondere im Azure-Umfeld zu locken. Wie verheißend mag für Microsoft ein direkt aus GitHub nach Azure führender Deploy-Button sein!"

(Follow the data?)

Amazon and PayPal more trusted amongst younger generation than banks to hold their personal data

RFi Group, here

The Economics of Artificial Intelligence: An Agenda

NBER, Conference Papers here

Taking control of personal data is about your rights, not owning it

J. Tennison, here

A Study of NASA Scientists Shows How to Overcome Barriers to Open Innovation

HBR, here

Could the Steward Health v. BCBS Trial Revitalize Monopolization Law?

C. Sagers, here

So you think Alipay is just for the Chinese?

The Finanser, here

La rivoluzione copernicana del 25 maggio 2018 in materia di privacy

G. Buttarelli, here

U.S. Antitrust Law Could Break OPEC's Collusion On Oil Production Deals

Seeking Alpha, here

Evident Internet Market Failure To Protect Consumer Welfare

S. Cleland, here

Digital Capitalism’s War on Leisure

Democracy Journal, here

N26 will im Herbst in Amerika starten

FAZ, hier

Facebook Gave Device Makers Deep Access to Data on Users and Friends

NYTimes, here

Erste Bank will Google Pay anbieten

Die Zeit, hier

Wednesday, May 30, 2018

Fintech Developments: FTC, FDIC, OCC and More

Manatt, here

Keine Verfahrenseinleitung gegen die Lufthansa wegen Preishöhenmissbrauchs

Bundeskartellamt, Fallbericht hier

Bayern-Fußballstar James führt eigene Kryptowährung ein

FAZ, hier

Brad Smith:"the single greatest cost was the distraction...we missed search"

Recode, Video here (at (8:32).
Missed: not aware or didn't dare (to hamper Google et al. because of the annoying DoJ's antitrust laser beam)?

Going to show this video to my students...forever.

Funny though that antitrust might be considered a distraction by Big Tech, while many of their tools are generally considered weapons of mass distraction.

Thursday, May 24, 2018

Amazon confirms that Echo device secretly shared user’s private audio

ArsTechnica, here.

Dutch lender ABN Amro’s website slowed by cyber attack

FT, here

Making Sense of the Intricacies of Online Advertising Market: The French Autorité de la concurrence ’s Take

I. de Silva, here

Amazon’s Finance Ambitions Are Drawing Attention From the Fed

Bloomberg, here

Zuckerberg set up fraudulent scheme to 'weaponise' data, court case alleges

The Guardian, here.

Cryptocurrencies: Commodity Dynamics and Cartelization

P. Heilberg, here.

U.S. Launches Criminal Probe into Bitcoin Price Manipulation

Reuters, here.

Russia’s Gazprom dodges fine in EU antitrust settlement

FT, here.

Commission imposes binding obligations on Gazprom to enable free flow of gas at competitive prices in Central and Eastern European gas markets

EC, Press Release here

Are all these GDPR-consent emails even necessary?

iapp. here

Whatsapp gibt Nutzerdaten an Facebook weiter

SZ.de, hier. S. auch hier.

Privacy and Freedom of Expression In the Age of Artificial Intelligence

Article 19 and Privacy International, here

The International Impact of the General Data Protection Regulation

I. Rubinstein, B. Petkova, here

Legal and regulatory issues businesses should be thinking about now when it comes to AI.

Hogan Lovells, here

GOOGLE’S SELFISH LEDGER IS AN UNSETTLING VISION OF SILICON VALLEY SOCIAL ENGINEERING

The Verge, here

Big Brother Goes Digital

NYBooks, here

Sustainable Financial Services in the Digital Age

UK Finance, here

Online platforms and exclusionary abuses – Unlockd vs. Google- a seminal case in the making?

Coreblog, here

The need for a new personal data infrastructure

Mydex, here.

Google says India anti-trust ruling could cause 'irreparable" harm': document

Reuters, here

Antitrust nearly slew Microsoft. Can it adapt to tech giants like Facebook?

San Francisco Chronicle, here

Tech Platforms and the Knowledge Problem

F. Pasquale, here

Diskussionen zwischen KI-Systemen sollen Entscheidungen nachvollziehbar machen

Heise.de, hier

Brokers, dealers and the regulation of markets: Applying finreg to the giant tech platforms

Synthetic Assets, here

‘60 Minutes’ Report Targets on Google Antitrust Risks

Bloomberg, here

‘Crush Them’: An Oral History of the Lawsuit That Upended Silicon Valley

The Ringer, here.

BIG DATA IM BEREICH HEIM UND FREIZEIT

ABIDA, hier

Deutsche vertrauen Algorithmen nicht

Zeit.de, hier

Activists turn tables on companies as EU privacy law comes in

Reuters, here

All Roads Lead to Rome: Enforcing the Consumer Welfare Standard in Digital Media Markets

M. Delrahim, here

Is Blockchain Hype, Revolutionary, or Both? What We Need to Know

S. Oh, S. Wallsten. here

Platforms and Infrastructures in the Digital Age

P. Constantinides, O. Henfridsson, G. Parker, here

Monday, May 14, 2018

U.S. vs. Microsoft: 20 Years Later, Lessons Learned and the Path Ahead

Yelp Video, here.

Highest exposure to antitrust enforcement (Panel 1)?
G x x x x
Apple
F x
Amazon x x x

(Gary Reback getting more depressed after each panel).