Friday, July 03, 2015

The French, Italian and Swedish Competition Authorities Accept the Commitments Offered by Booking.com

ECN Brief 2/2015, here.
No direct link, hence:
In their investigations of so-called "price parity" clauses (also called "best price" clauses) contained in agreements between online travel agencies (OTAs) and hotels, the French Competition Authority (FCA), the Italian Competition Authority (ICA) and the Swedish Competition Authority (SCA) coordinated their investigations and, on 21 April 2015, adopted parallel decisions accepting identical commitments [1] from the market-leading OTA Booking.com and making them binding in their respective jurisdictions. The European Commission assisted the authorities in coordinating their work.
OTAs such as Booking.com operate internet platforms, on which consumers can search for, compare and book hotel rooms free of charge. Hotels only pay commission to the OTA for its services when a booking is made. The price parity clauses essentially require the hotels to offer the same or a better room price on Booking.com's platform as they offer on their other sales channels, including the hotel's own direct sales channels, be it online or offline. This means that Booking.com can raise its commission rate without the risk that hotels will translate this cost increase by offering higher room prices on Booking.com’s platform than on competing OTA platforms. The price parity clause, combined with the fact that hotels generally tend to sign up with several competing platforms, implies that Booking.com has less incentive to compete with other OTAs by charging lower commission rates to hotels than would otherwise be the case. As a result, the price parity clauses may restrict competition between existing OTAs and may lead to higher commission rates, which in turn may translate into higher consumer prices for hotel rooms. Furthermore, the price parity clause may constitute a barrier to entry on the market, by making it more difficult for an OTA to enter or expand on the market by competing with low commission rates in exchange for hotels offering lower room prices on that OTA’s platform. The three national competition authorities (NCAs) launched investigations to ascertain whether the price parity clauses in Booking.com’s agreements with hotels infringed the prohibition of restrictive agreements in Article 101 TFEU and, in the case of France and Sweden, the equivalent national legislation. The FCA’s investigation was also initiated on the basis of a possible infringement of the prohibition against abuse of dominance of Article 102 TFEU and its national equivalent.
In the course of the investigations, Booking.com conducted a customer survey of 14 000 consumers in 9 Member States and produced economic papers to argue, essentially, that parity between room prices in hotels’ own sales channels and prices offered on Booking.com’s platform is important in preventing free-riding on Booking.com’s investments and ensuring the continued supply of search and comparison services free of charge to consumers.
To solve the identified competition concerns, Booking.com offered a first version of commitments that were market tested and subsequently improved. In essence, the adopted commitments prevent Booking.com from requiring hotels to offer better or equal room prices via Booking.com than they do via competing OTAs. In addition, Booking.com cannot prevent hotels from offering discounted room prices provided that these are not marketed or made available to the general public online. The discounted prices can be offered online to members of a hotel’s loyalty scheme and/or via offline channels (e g direct emails, telephone and walk-in bookings).
The three NCAs performed economic analyses of the commitments and concluded that the will meet their competition concerns. The commitments will put pressure on OTAs' commission rates and the quality of service, which will ultimately lead to lower room prices and better services for consumers. The commitments will also make it easier for new OTAs to enter the market and for innovative OTAs to expand.
Following the commitment decision, the Booking.com cases were closed in France, Italy and Sweden. However, the respective competition authorities continue their investigations concerning Expedia’s price parity clauses and in France also concerning HRS's parity clauses.
See further:

[1] The French version of the commitments provides for a mid-term review.

OTA lobby report preceded US airline antitrust inquiry, House of Cards-style

Tnooz.com, here

Uber annonce la suspension d’UberPop en France

Le Monde, ici

OTAs see chaos when rate parity ends

HotelMarketing.com, here

Challenging assumptions about behavioral policy

Behavioral Science & Policy Association, here

Ubérisation : une course au moins disant social ?

Mechanical Turk
F. Marty, ici

Dutch universities start their Elsevier boycott plan

Vermeer, Brieflezende vrouw in het blauw

Universonline.nl, here

Wednesday, July 01, 2015

Expedia Amends Rate, Conditions and Availability Parity Clauses

Expediainc.com, here

"Predatory Privacy": The Limits of Economic Analysis

O. Lynskey, Presentation here

PCWs & other matching platforms - The frenemies of competition

T. Curzon Price, Presentation here

Best Price Clauses Set by Intermediation Platforms: Disentangling the Effects

K.-U. Kühn, Presentation here

Data Privacy, Data Sharing and the Internet of Things

J. Porter, Presentation here

Schleppende Zulassung von UberX-Fahrern

wiwo.de, hier.

Apple Music Is For People With No Clue What To Stream


TechCrunch, here.

(the first cats on @Wavesblog ever - début in 2007)

Uber Stages Protest At NYC City Hall Against Bill Throttling New Driver Signups

Techcrunch.com. here

Canada : des bibliothécaires dénoncent le racket des exemplaires numériques

Actualitte.com, here.

104-page Disconnect's Complaint against Google (Android)

Non-confidential copy, here.

(Plenty of fascinating tech details)

Appeals court says Apple is liable for e-book price fixing

ArsTechnica, here.

Monday, June 29, 2015

Supreme Court won’t weigh in on Oracle-Google API copyright battle

ArsTechnica, here

Tim Wu: "The main surprising and shocking realization is that Google is not presenting its best product"

Recode.net, here. Study here

Uber: more like eBay than like McDonald’s?

NewYorker.com, here

Deux dirigeants d'Uber en garde à vue

Numerama.com, ici.

L’innovation de rupture: de nouveaux défis pour le droit de la concurrence

T. Schrepel, ici

Oracle v. Google Android-Java copyright case goes back to San Fran: Supreme Court denies Google petition

Fosspatents.com, here

The German Pillow Fight Drags On: "Caution with new terms of Booking.com!"

German Hotel Association, here

Apparently, "everyone" knew of a leaked (online) copy of Google (Search) Statement of Objections - I didn't

With a little help from @wavesblog readers, perhaps?

ProSiebenSat.1 acquires German online price comparison business Verivox for up to €210 million

Tech.eu, here

Warning: You are about to be nudged

G. Loewenstein, C. Bryce, D. Hagmann, & S. Rajpal, here.

Uber’s Biggest Rival In China Claims It Handles 3 Million Rides Per Day

Techcrunch.com, here

Booking.com alarmed by France’s new hotel rate parity plans

Hotelmarketing, here.
The original LesEchos article here

Uber, sharing and the compensation mechanism

J. Gans, here

Is Google Degrading Search? Consumer Harm from Universal Search

M. Luca, T. Wu and the Yelp Data Science Team, here

Two-Sided Platforms: Discussion

Here
S. Vezzoso (this blog's author), Presentation here

Saturday, June 20, 2015

Domaine Public, abus et Amazon

Framablog, ici.

Uber driver case poses questions for ‘sharing economy’

FT, here.

"The case highlighted a fundamental dilemma for internet companies built on the booming freelance sector. Establishing some level of control over the workers who use their platforms is often essential to ensuring a consistent level of service.
But the further they go — for instance, by laying down standards of training or conduct — the more they lay themselves open to one day being forced to accept the full responsibilities of employers. For the California labour commissioner, Uber’s control of pricing, tipping, driver ratings and the type of car made it look like an employer."

Thursday, June 18, 2015

Ambition Numérique

Rapport, CNNum, ici.

Dealing with Losers: The Political Economy of Policy Transitions

M. Trebilcock, here

Google Is Its Own Secret Weapon in the Cloud

NYT, here

Google’s War Against Apps

Theinformation.com, here (paywall).
See also herehere and here.

CCP Annual Conference 2015 Live Blogging

Here.
Conference Programme here

Core data protection topics in the perspective of the trilogue between European institutions.

WP29, here

Vertikale Preisbindung im Lebensmitteleinzelhandel - Großteil der Bußgeldverfahren abgeschlossen

Bundeskartellamt.de, hier.
Fallberichte hier (Röstkaffee), hier (Haribo-Produkte) und hier (Ritter-Produkte).

Should Uber be Allowed to Compete in Europe? And if so How?

D. Geradin, here

«L'Internet est sorti du temps de l'innocence»

Libération, ici

US Supreme Court Leaves Standing Decisions on Foreign Antitrust Conduct

Online Copyright Enforcement, Consumer Behavior, and Market Structure

L. Aguiar, J. Claussen, C. Peukert, here

First new private bank opens in UK for 30 years

FT, here

Five for Five – Amazon Inks Deal With Random Penguin

The-digital-reader, here

Independence is non-negotiable

M. Vestager, here

Wednesday, June 17, 2015

Game of Thrones breaks piracy records once again

Futureofcopyright, here

Court of Human Rights holds news portal liable for user comments

@Technollama, here

Brief Amici Curiae on Behalf of 70 Law, Economics, and Business Professors and the American Antitrust Institute - Loestrin pay-for-delay case

Here

Ten years of commitment decisions under Article 9 of Regulation 1/2003: Too much of a good thing?

W. Wils, here

UK Record labels attack Apple deals that would leave them 'deeply unsatified'

Telegraph.co.uk, here

The Commercial Use of Consumer Data

DotEcon with Analysys Mason for the CMA, here.
See also the Report on the CMA’s call for information, here

Internet-Plattformen: Innovation siegt stets über Gerechtigkeit

E. Morozov, hier

Tuesday, June 16, 2015

Amazon Is Building An App To Let Normal People Deliver Packages For Pay

TechCrunch, here.

How big is the self-publishing market? Only Amazon knows

TheBookseller.com, here

Time to stick a fork in these Android competition complaints

Computer & Communications Industry Association, here

European Commission approves joint venture for cross-border licensing of online music between PRSfM, STIM and GEMA, subject to commitments

Press Release, here

Open Letter on the Digital Economy

 1995

Here

Julia Reda's Press Conference

Video here (from 0:30)

U.S. Court Upholds Antitrust Action Against Patent Troll

Dilbert.com
M. Carrier, here

Apple News: I Do Not Agree To Your Terms

MikeAsh.com, here

The General Court upholds the registration of the shape of Lego figures as a Community trade mark

Judgments in Cases T-395/14 and T-396/14 Best-Lock Europe (Ltd) v OHIM — Lego Juris, Press Release here

More data protection is better than less

V. Reding, here

Monday, June 15, 2015

New Kindle Unlimited Payout Structure

HughHowey, here. See also here

Where are Maps going?

Asymco, here

European Ministers Agree To Disagree On Data Protection Reform

TechCrunch, here

Report on the remote Ebook Lending Pilots

The Society of Chief Librarians and The Publishers Association, here

Here’s What Happens to Your $10 After You Pay for a Month of Apple Music

Recode.net, here

Google Says More Than Half Of Its UK Searches Are Performed On Mobile

SearchEngineLand, here

Discount Contact Lens Retailers Given OK to Lower Prices

NYT, here.

Background info here

La loi met fin à la parité tarifaire et instaure le contrat de mandat

TendenceHotelliere.fr, ici

Relationship Between Public and Private Antitrust Enforcement

OECD, Note by the Secretariat, here

Competition Enforcement in Oligopolistic Markets

OECD, Issues Paper, here

Disruptive Innovation

OECD, Issues Paper, here

Competition Neutrality

OECD, Issues Paper, here

Thursday, June 11, 2015

Les hôteliers retrouvent une totale liberté dans la fixation de leurs prix

Les Echos, ici.

A voir aussi UMIH, communiqué de presse, ici

The UK Booksellers Association leads way in Amazon competition inquiry

Thebookseller.com, here

What does the open sourcing of Swift mean for me?

EKreative, here

Amazon’s E-Books Business Investigated by European Antitrust Regulators

NYT, here.

Börsenverein's reaction here (D). See also here (D). 

Die FIFA-WM als Platform

J. Haucap, hier

Creating a better India – Musings on economic governance of India

N. Murthy, here

European Commission opens formal investigation into Amazon's e-book distribution arrangements

Press Release, here.


TDF sanctionnée pour avoir mis en place des pratiques tendant à évincer ses concurrents du site de la Tour Eiffel.

Autorité de la concurrence, ici

What Apple’s Tim Cook Overlooked in His Defense of Privacy

NYT, here.

Wednesday, June 10, 2015

Net neutrality takes effect Friday; ISPs scramble to avoid complaints

ArsTechnica, here

Google: "Jedes deutsche Auto wird von einem Computer gesteuert werden“

FAZ, hier

Competition Culture Project Report

ICN Advocacy Working Group, here

All of Germany just signed up to this micropayment app that people think is the future of news on the web

BusinessInsider, here

We aren’t the copyright cops, ICANN’s president says

WashingtonPost, here.

Analysing Google's Public Response to the EC's Statement of Objections

Foundem, here.

(Cool interactive presentation, possibly created with Visme - whose licence is a little expensive, though).

Ex-post economic evaluation of competition policy enforcement: A review of the literature

EC, DG Competition, here

Apple Music faces antitrust scrutiny in NY, Connecticut

Reuters.com, here. See also the NYT, here

Self-Regulation and Innovation in the Peer-to-Peer Sharing Economy


M.Cohen & A. Sundararajan, here.

Monday, June 08, 2015

User Reputation: Building Trust and Addressing Privacy Issues in the Sharing Economy

Future of Privacy Forum, here

Europe’s innovation deficit isn’t disappearing any time soon

WashingtonPost, here.

Uber, Ola Drivers Protest Against Delhi Ban Amid Police Crackdown

WSJ.com, here

The “Sharing” Economy: Issues Facing Platforms, Participants, and Regulators

FTC, June 9, 2015.
Agenda here.
Video of Part 4 here.
Public submissions here

Avis concernant un projet de décret et un projet d’arrêté relatifs au transport public particulier de personnes

Autorité de la concurrence, ici.

The Interchange Fees Regulation

Competition policy brief, here

Cartel de l'acier: "L’Etat a perdu environ 500 millions d’euros dans cette affaire"

Challenges.fr, ici

Loi Macron : des députés ne veulent pas de l’amendement anti-Google

Nextinpact, ici

Discussion of "On the Antitrust Economics of the Electronic Books Industry"

Paper here. Discussion here

Tuesday, June 02, 2015

App Maker Files EU Complaint Against Google, Alleging Abuse of Android Dominance

WSJ.com, here.

"Disconnect said Google abused its dominant position in Europe’s mobile market to unfairly discriminate against Disconnect and favor its own privacy and security software. The moves limited Europeans’ access to competing privacy and security software, while letting Google and others track and collect Android users’ information for advertising, Disconnect said...The app maker alleged Google pulled Disconnect because the software disrupted Google’s tracking and advertising efforts, the source of most of the Internet company’s revenue and profit. In an email included in the complaint, a Play store employee said the app was removed because it prevented other apps from delivering ads....A Google spokesman called Disconnect’s claims “baseless.” Google has allowed more than 200 other privacy apps in the Play store, but blocks any apps that alter other apps’ functionality or remove their way of making money, he added, saying Google applies this policy uniformly, with strong support from Android developers...Google abused its dominance in mobile operating systems and the app market by “tying” its own software and security to those platforms, Disconnect said in its complaint. That gave its services an unfair advantage over Disconnect’s rival software, reducing competition and consumer choice in the market for privacy and security software, the developer said. Google’s removal of the app also illegally discriminated against Disconnect because Google’s own privacy and security software, which it includes by default in its Android operating system, isn't held to the same standards, Disconnect argued."

More about Disconnect here

Google добавили статью

Ведомости, вот.

App Developers Alliance Respectfully Disagrees with the Solicitor General in Google v. Oracle

Press Release, here

Apple, Feeling Heat From Spotify, to Offer Streaming Music Service

WSJ.com, here.

Thursday, May 28, 2015

What Google Just Announced Is a Bombshell

Bloomberg, here. See also here. Here on the Assist API.

FTC Settlement of Cephalon Pay for Delay Case

Press release here. Proposed stipulated order here.

How the Internet, the Sharing Economy, and Reputational Feedback Mechanisms Solve the “Lemons Problem”

A. Hobson, C. Koopman, C. Kuiper and A. Thierer, here

May 2015 Author Earnings Report: Amazon's ebook sales

Authorearnings.com, here

Margin Squeeze: An Above-Cost Predatory Pricing Approach

G. Gaudin, D. Mantzari, here

Informe sobre la reutilización de la información del sector público.

CNMC.es, aquí.

How Reasonable Royalties Suppress Patent Licensing

E. Hovenkamp, here.

Informe sobre el reparto de los derechos audiovisuales del fútbol

CNMC, aquí.

Datenschutz-Facebookexperiment

FAZ, here.

Wednesday, May 27, 2015

Platform Shift

M. Van Alstyne, Video here.

Android and Antitrust: Attempts at a “More Technological Approach”

S. Vezzoso (this blog's author), Working Paper here (Wavesblog's readers comments more than welcome).

White House sides with Oracle, tells Supreme Court APIs are copyrightable

ArsTechnica, here

UK businesses' miserable understanding of Competition Law

Prepared for CMA by IFF Research, here

Supreme Court says "patent troll" for first time in Cisco ruling

Fortune, here

Publishers win High Court support in fight against infringement

Societyofauthors.org, here. See also TorrentFreak, here

Wiko, le petit poucet du mobile qui veut croquer Samsung et Apple

LaTribune, ici.

Obama administration asks U.S. top court to decline Google copyright appeal

Reuters.com, here

Tuesday, May 19, 2015

Aperta un'istruttoria sui diritti televisivi della serie A

AGCM, Provvedimento qui.

"Le notizie di stampa in atti sembrano indicare che l’assetto finale per l’assegnazione dei diritti audiovisivi per il triennio 2015/2018 come sopra descritto non discenda da un confronto competitivo fra gli operatori interessati, ma sia stato il frutto di un accordo, realizzato successivamente all’espletamento della gara che ha determinato un esito delle assegnazioni diverso da quello inizialmente risultante dalla stessa procedura di gara".

Audible richtet neuen Abo-Pool ein

Boersenblatt.net, hier

Uber Tests Taking Even More From Its Drivers With 30% Commission

Forbes.com, here.

"Because we can".

EC clears acquisition of Jazztel by Orange, subject to conditions

Press Release, here

Collective Redress for Antitrust Damages in the European Union: Is This a Reality Now?

D. Geradin, here

Diritti tv: perquisizioni della Guardia di Finanza in Lega, Sky e Mediaset

Repubblica.it, qui.

Microsoft is interesting again — very

Medium.com, here

Booking.com Implements New Parity Provisions in Germany

Marketwatch.com, here

Twitter met lui aussi votre vie privée en Irlande

Numerama, ici

Who owns your agricultural data?

Datasciencecentral, here

Google “Buy Buttons” Could Start Showing On Mobile Shopping Ads In A Matter Of Weeks

SearchEngineLand, here

Bd4travel Raises $4.2M To Let Online Travel Industry Use Big Data To Personally Target Visitors

TechCrunch, here

Friday, May 08, 2015

Beware – Price Fixing by Algorithms

Shumaker, Loop & Kendrick, here

Multi-Sided Platforms [versus vertical integration]

A. Hagiu, J. Wright, here

Money and Privacy – Android Market Evidence

M. Kummer, P. Schulte, here

Sixth Annual Conference on Internet Search and Innovation

Searle Center on Law, Regulation, and Economic Growth, June 4-5 2015, Agenda here.

Google, Dominant in Search, Tries Disruptor Role in Wireless and Broadband

NYT, here

2014 report on the application of the European Charter of Fundamental Rights

EC, here.

Curbing the New Corporate Power

Boston Review, Debate, here.

Android and iOS apps on Windows: What is Microsoft doing—and will it work?

ArsTechnica, here.

The double duality of two-sided markets

A. Lamadrid de Pablo, here

There’s A Lot To Like About Europe

Consumerwatchdog.org, here.

Q1 2015: Android not just leading in traffic, but now revenue

Operamediaworks, here.

Uber joins the Bidding for Here, Nokia's Digital Mapping Service

NYT, here

Booking.com on rate parity settlement: "We wouldn’t have proposed it otherwise"

Skift.com, here

Thursday, May 07, 2015

Le Groupement National des Indépendants (GNI) gagne contre Expedia

Hotellerie.de, ici.

"dit que, faute de contrepartie suffisante, les clauses visant à l’obtention automatique des meilleurs conditions tarifaires et promotionnelles, dans les contrats des hôtels incriminés situés sur le territoire français, sont constitutives d’un déséquilibre significatif au sens de l’article L442-6 1 2e et sont nulles", voir TNooz.

(L442-6 1 2e:
Engage la responsabilité de son auteur et l'oblige à réparer le préjudice causé le fait, par tout producteur, commerçant, industriel ou personne immatriculée au répertoire des métiers...de soumettre ou de tenter de soumettre un partenaire commercial à des obligations créant un déséquilibre significatif dans les droits et obligations des parties).

CA Supreme Court on pay for delay

Cipro I & II, here.

"We summarize the structure of the rule of reason applicable to reverse payment patent settlements. To make out a prima facie case that a challenged agreement is an unlawful restraint of trade, a plaintiff must show the agreement contains both a limit on the generic challenger‘s entry into the market and compensation from the patentee to the challenger. The defendants bear the burden of coming forward with evidence of litigation costs or valuable collateral products or services that might explain the compensation; if the defendants do so, the plaintiff has the burden of demonstrating the compensation exceeds the reasonable value of these. If a prima facie case has been made out, the defendants may come forward with additional justifications to demonstrate the settlement agreement nevertheless is procompetitive. A plaintiff who can dispel these justifications has carried the burden of demonstrating the settlement agreement is an unreasonable restraint of trade under the Cartwright Act."

"The Hatch-Waxman Act illustrates the law of unintended consequences."

Live Streaming Apps: Piracy’s New Frontier?

Privacy-net.com, here.

Zero Rating and the Open Internet

M. Baker, here.
Letter to India's PM N. Modi, here

Rival music services say Apple's App Store pricing is anticompetitive

TheVerge, here.

"Apple’s rules disallow companies from redirecting users to the browser to get the lower subscription price" : does it vaguely reminds of a narrow APPA?

Open source is 'only reliable way' to preserve human history, argues Vatican

Theinquirer.net, here.

Super-scholars: MPAA offers $20,000 for academic research in copyright battle

TheGuardian, here.

Competing with Complementors: An Empirical Look at Amazon.com

F. Zhu, Q. Liu, here.

Egalité d'accès de tous les professionnels aux réservations du refuge du Goûter (Mont Blanc)

Autorité de la concurrence, ici.

(Un grand bravo à l'Autorité, mais elle a encore du boulot, dans la vallée de Chamonix - un monopole skiable).

Le Conseil d'Etat demande l'avis de la Cour de justice européenne concernant Relire

Livreshebdo.fr, ici.
Décision ici

Verbandsklagerecht bei Datenschutzverstößen

Deutscher Bundestag, hier.

Wednesday, May 06, 2015

Ökonomische Aspekte der Digitalisierung

J. Haucap, hier

Hugendubel übernimmt ebook.de

FAZ.net, hier

Entente dans le secteur de la commercialisation de la viande de volaille (poulet, dinde, canard, lapin, etc.)

Autorité de la concurrence, ici. Décision ici.

"En raison des circonstances très particulières de cette affaire, l'Autorité a considéré que l'engagement collectif de mettre en place une interprofession dans un calendrier contraint, pris par des industriels représentant l'essentiel du marché est susceptible d'avoir, pour le respect durable des règles de la concurrence dans le secteur de la viande de volaille, une plus grande efficacité que des sanctions pécuniaires calculées selon la méthode habituelle."

Deutsche Verbraucherschützer klagen gegen Facebook

Heise.de, hier.

A Digital Single Market Strategy for Europe

EC, here.

"The Commission will...comprehensively analyse the role of online platforms (search engines, social media, app stores, etc.) in the market. This will cover issues such as the non-transparency of search results and of pricing policies, how they use the information they acquire, relationships between platforms and suppliers and the promotion of their own services to the disadvantage of competitors – to the extent these are not already covered by competition law. It will also look into how to best tackle illegal content on the Internet."

Staff working paper here.

"The accumulation and use of data by certain market players can contribute to their market power, in particular in their relationship with the data suppliers", p. 53.

"Some platforms act as a marketplace and a retailer at the same time. These platforms may use the transactional data acquired from business users of the marketplace segment to enhance the performance of the platform's retail arm. This can lead to discrimination in listing between platforms' own services and third party services. Companies may also complain that they do not get access to the data collected through transactions linked to their "products", p. 55.

"some platforms simply forbid companies from selling more cheaply elsewhere (including the seller's own website, other platforms and all offline distribution channels). The issue has already been examined by various competition authorities", id.

"Given the dynamics of the markets created and served by platforms, and the relatively short time that they have been in existence, more work is needed to gather comprehensive and reliable evidence on how different types of platform work and their effects on their customers and the economy as a whole. On the basis of such an evidence base, an assessment can be made of the nature of the problems that may arise from their pivotal role in the digital economy and whether existing regulatory tools are sufficient to tackle them, or whether new tools need to be developed" id.

EC launches e-commerce sector inquiry - factsheet

Friday, May 01, 2015

John Oliver on Patents Trolls

Video here

Loyalty Rebates after Intel: Time for the European Court of Justice to Overrule Hoffman-La Roche

D. Geradin, here

Economic Arguments in the Amex Trial: Considering Market Definition and Market Power with a Two-Sided Platform

H. McFarlane, here.

Not on my network! App exclusion and the net neutrality debate

Ipdigit.eu, here

Online Geographic Price Discrimination – Switzerland’s Experience

R. Corazza, here

Maximising impact in the new economy – The use of interim measures in France

A. Wachsmann, Presentation here.

The need for a new Copyright Act: a case study in law reform

R. Arnold, here.

Apple Invites Developers To Test Its New “App Analytics” Service

TechCrunch, here.

Google reportedly acquired the most European tech companies in 2014

VentureBeat, here.

Brasil prohíbe la aplicación Uber

ElPais, aquì.

Australian Copyright Censorship Bill Could Block VPNs and Circumvention Information

EFF.org, here.
Bill and explanatory memorandum here.
See also this information sheet by the AU Copyright Council.

Thursday, April 30, 2015

Newsonomics: The Guardian is trying to swing Google’s pendulum back to publishers

NiemanLab, here.

Brussels to probe online search listings

FT, here.

"Brussels will this year launch a probe into online platforms such as Amazon and Google examining the way they list search results and how they use customer data...The investigation will look at the role of paid for links and advertisements in search results, along with the ability of individuals and businesses to move from platform to platform"

Apple rejette les applis pour Apple Watch qui donnent l'heure

Numerama, ici

Tuesday, April 28, 2015

Facebook Is Shutting Down Its API For Giving Your Friends’ Data To Apps

TechCrunch, here.

No Mistake About it: The Important Role of Antitrust in the Era of Big Data

A. Grunes, M. Stucke, here

Oracle under antitrust probe in South Korea

The Korea Herald, here

Artificial Intelligence & Collusion: When Computers Inhibit Competition

A. Ezrachi, M. Stucke, here

Leistungsschutzrecht: VG Media will angeblich 6 Prozent des Google-Umsatzes in Deutschland

Heise.de, hier.

Online Vertical Restraints Special Project Report

ACCC, here

Across Platform Parity Agreements (APPAs): CMA Private Motor Insurance Market Investigation

A. Crisholm, Presentation here (download).

Facebooks Datenauswertung: Verstecken kann sich niemand mehr

FAZ, hier

Uber lanza desde España el servicio de comida en casa en 10 minutos

ElMundo, aquì

Guardian and FT among news publishers across Europe taking €150m 'handout' from Google

Pressgazette.co.uk, here.

Rate parity: The (US) battle to determine how you buy hotel rooms

ChicagoTribune, here