Tuesday, July 07, 2015

Bulgarian Competition Authority has fined the companies that provide Uber's services

Novinite.com, here.
Press Release of the Commission for Protection of Competition, here.

Google Translate: 
CPC penalize companies Hubert Dutch BV and Razier Opareyshans BV with 50 000 lev for violations under Art. 29 of the LPC (general prohibition of unfair competition) in connection with the provision of the service UberX in the city. Sofia on 12.09.2014 In its decision, the Commission states the termination of the infringements. , and immediate execution of the decision in that part .
The proceedings is initiated automatically by a Commission decision in relation to the received from the Municipality of Sofia information on the introduction of the service "UberX" in the city. Sofia and subsequently merged with other proceedings instituted at the request of "Okay Supertrans" against AD "Hubert Bulgaria" EOOD, again in connection with the service UberX .
During the study found that in providing the service UberX by Hubert BV and Razier Opareyshans BV offenses against the general prohibition of Art. 29 of the CPA. The service has the marks of taxi passengers as far as is done by car fee, requested by the passenger route through the mobile app Uber, which liaises between the passenger and the actual executor of carriage - the user-guide.A comparison between p redlaganite by Hubert BV and Razier Opareyshans BV services and services provided by other mobile applications (even the services of a typical taxi companies) reaches the conclusion that the services are interchangeable, since   lead to the same result - the implementation of a paid shuttle point to another. But in the case at UberX not require the contractor to transport meets specified in the Bulgarian legislation requirements to taxi drivers and their cars. In this sense, when providing service process Hubert BV and Razier Opareyshans BV violate fair trade practice being contrary to the statutory rules governing the conduct of public transport / taxi. Hubert BV and Razier Opareyshans BV create conditions for circumvention, saving users guides means of obtaining the necessary licenses and permits for taxis. Thus the defendants violated the rules of fair competition, procure unfair advantage over competitors and the economic benefit of this behavior.
The Commission also imposed a fine of two companies 50 000 Levs of default for assistance for lack of refined during the study information.
 Commission finds that by "Hubert Bulgaria" EOOD is not a violation of art. 29 of the CPA, as the company is not directly involved in providing the service UberX,   and perform ancillary to Hubert B. C.
Full text of the Decision in Bulgarian, here

Net Neutrality: Department of Telecom panel against Facebook's Internet.org, favours Airtel Zero

IndiaToday, here

Personal Data and Privacy

WIK-Consult for Ofcom, here.

Orphan works in the US: getting rid of “a frustration, a liability risk, and a major cause of gridlock”?

R.Meier, here

Discovering the Miracle of Large Numbers of Antitrust Investigations in Russia: The Role of Competition Authority Incentives

S. Advasheva, D. Tsytsulina, S. Golovanova,  Y. Sidorova, here

Promoting or restricting competition?: Regulation of the UK retail residential energy market since 2008

S. Littlechild, here

Product Redesign and the Abuse of Dominance: The apple IPod Itune Litigation

L. Popofsky, here

The Fine Line Between “Fortuitous Discovery” and “Fishing Expedition:" CoJ Finds Dawn Raids by the EC to be Illegal

Steptoe.com, here

Netzneutralität: Europa schafft ab

FAZ, hier

At last, Uber has found a friend in India

QZ.com, here

UK Energy market investigation

Summary of provisional findings report, here; Notice of possible remedies, here

Marktmachtmissbrauch der Deutsche Post AG im Bereich der Großkundentarife

Bundeskartellamt, hier

Automated Experiments on Ad Privacy Settings: A Tale of Opacity, Choice, and Discrimination

Am.Datta, Michael C. Tschantz, and An. Datta, here.

Probing the Dark Side of Google’s Ad-Targeting System

Technologyreview.com, here

Openness/Open Access for Public Sector information and works — the Creative Commons licensing model

Epsiplatform.eu, here

Monday, July 06, 2015

Why Airbnb needs to be better at search than Google

Wired, here.

Google gets into the carpooling game with the launch of RideWith in Israel

VentureBeat, here. See also here

International cooperation in merger cases as a tool for effective enforcement of competition law

UNCTAD Secretariat, here

The role of competition in the pharmaceutical sector and its benefits for consumers

UNCTAD Secretariat, here.
See other contributions and presentations here

Writers Are Going Cuckoo For Kindle Unlimited

TechCrunch, here

The Internet of Things: Mapping the Value Beyond the Hype

McKinsey, here

Are National Courts the Addressees of the Infosoc Three-Step Test?

R. Arnold, E. Rosati, here

Après Uber, AirBnb dans le collimateur de Bercy ?

Deplacementspros.com, ici

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