Wednesday, January 16, 2019

AWS, MongoDB, and the Economic Realities of Open Source

Stratechery, here

Wyoming Lawmakers Advance Blockchain ‘Sandbox’ Bill

Coindesk, here

A Grand Bargain on Data Privacy Legislation for America

ITIF, here.
"

Der Jäger der missbrauchten Daten

Republik.ch, hier

The Age of Surveillance Capitalism’ Review: The New Big Brother

WSJ, here

Die zweite EU-Richtlinie zu Zahlungsdiensten hat eine Revolution im Verborgenen ausgelöst

Handelsblatt, hier

Fake News, Real Money: Ad Tech Platforms, Profit-Driven Hoaxes, and the Business of Journalism

J. Braun, J. Eklund, here

Große Koalition nimmt WhatsApp ins Visier

Handelsblatt, hier

Gartner Predicts for the Future of Privacy 2019

Gartner, here

Colonised by data: the hollowing out of digital society

M. Pirogan, here

Fusion Alstom-Siemens : « La constitution d’un Airbus du ferroviaire sera-t-elle favorable pour le consommateur européen ? »

Le Monde, ici

Buying a new purse? This startup wants to help you pay for it — but could also get you into debt.

Vox, here

Market Dominance in Chip Manufacturing Will Mean Higher Prices

InsideSources, here

Facial and emotional recognition; how one man is advancing artificial intelligence

CBS, video here

Japan’s Robot Hotel Just Laid Off Half Its Robots

Futurism, here

Facebook’s Privacy Problems Get Real in Germany

Bloomberg, here

WeChat is quietly ranking user behavior to play catch-up with Alibaba

TechCrunch, here

PRESSURE MOUNTS ON AMAZON, MICROSOFT, AND GOOGLE AGAINST SELLING FACIAL RECOGNITION TO GOVERNMENT

ACLU, here

Antitrust’s Messy Breakup Fallacy

R. Woodcock, here

The Most Powerful Person in Tech Is … David Cicilline?

Bloomberg, here

Thieves of Experience: How Google and Facebook Corrupted Capitalism

LA Review of Books, here

« Les deux visages des fusions-acquisitions »

E. Combe, ici

Facebook made a $300 million pledge to help journalists — just like Google did last year

Recode, here

FINA RELAXES RULES, WON’T BAN ATHLETES FOR COMPETING IN NON-FINA MEETS

SwimSwam, here

Open banking quietly delayed

InnovationAus, here

Good Data Ethics

A. Zeffiro, here

Korea to tear down barriers to fintech innovation

FinExtra, here

FACEBOOK'S '10 YEAR CHALLENGE' IS JUST A HARMLESS MEME—RIGHT?

Wired, here

After GDPR, The New York Times cut off ad exchanges in Europe — and kept growing ad revenue

DigiDay, here

Monday, January 14, 2019

Basic Private Auctions Are ‘Going The Way Of The Dinosaur’ As Programmatic Cleans Up

AdExchanger, here

THE QUEST TO TOPPLE SCIENCE-STYMYING ACADEMIC PAYWALLS

J. Ito, here

Data-rich Markets: The Best of Possible Worlds?

ICLE, here (heavily redacted title ;-) - SV), here

Experian responds

Here; Appendices here

ONLINE ADVERTISING: TRENDS, BENEFITS AND RISKS FOR CONSUMERS

OECD Digital Economy Paper No.272, here

Geo-blocking of Audio-visual Services in the EU: Gone with the Wind?

S. Vezzoso (this Blog's Author), here.



(...years waiting for this moment)

BLOCKING THE DATA STALKERS

New Economics Foundation, here

La ACCO considera discriminatorio y restrictivo de la competencia imponer a los VTC’s la obligación que se les pre-contraten los servicios con una antelación mínima de 6 horas.

ACCO, Nota de Prensa aquí.

Kartellamt knöpft sich Facebook vor

Bild.de, hier

When data is capital: Datafication, accumulation, and extraction

J. Sadowski, here

CONFERENCE DEBRIEFING (5A): WIE GEFÄHRLICH SIND BIG DATA, KÜNSTLICHE INTELLIGENZ UND ALGORITHMEN FÜR DEN WETTBEWERB?

A. Rösner, hier

“Alexa, play some music” isn’t the only time Amazon is listening to you.

J. Voiovich, here

The Creative Industries

J. Waldfogel, here

From Mad Men to Maths Men: Concentration and Buyer Power in Online Advertising

F. Decarolis, G. Rovigatti, here

Data Brokers Co-Opetition

Y. Gu, L. Madio, C. Reggiani, here

S.M.A.R.T.


FTC v. Qualcomm: Trial and Implications?

Orrick, here

India central bank convenes digital payments panel

FinExtra, here

Coopération, dépendance et éviction. Quelle appréhension concurrentielle des liens inter-entreprises dans les écosystèmes de téléphonie mobile ?

F. Marty, J. Pillot, ici

AI for international economists

R. Baldwin, here.

Status quo on fighting planned obsolescence

Recent-ecl.blogspot.com, here

Why Regulators Went Soft on Monopolies

J. Tepper, here

Vente-Privée et « l’illusion de faire une bonne affaire » : le site rejette les accusations

Numérama, here.

Auf die digitale folgt die analoge Revolution

NZZ, hier

'Rule of Trust': The Power and Perils of China’s Social Credit Megaproject

Y.-J. Chen, C.-F.Lin, H.-W. Liu, here.

Jeff Bezos, Jack Ma, and the Quest to Kill eBay

S. Yegge, here

Female Economists Push Their Field Toward a #MeToo Reckoning

NYTimes, here

Automatorts: How Should Accident Law Adapt to Autonomous Vehicles? Lessons from Law and Economics

E. Talley, here

Liability Rules in the Internet of Things: Why Traditional Legal Relations Encourage Modern Technological Innovation

R. Epstein, here.

Open Banking year one: Insights from the CMA9 and more

FinExtra, here

Le lien unissant un chauffeur et Uber reconnu « contrat de travail »

Le Monde, ici

What if algorithms could abide by ethical principles?

STOA, here.

Robotic Milkers and an Automated Greenhouse: Inside a High-Tech Small Farm

NYTimes, here

The California Consumer Privacy Act will have a significant business impact on the digital advertising industry.

IAB, here

Congress spends $0 on independent assessments of technology issues

Washington Post, here

German watchdog deals new blow to Alstom-Siemens rail tie-up

FT, here

Online Manipulation: Hidden Influences in a Digital World

D. Susser, B. Rossler, H. Nissenbaum, here

Monday, January 07, 2019

Apple Admits The Obvious: User Repairs Harm The Bottom Line

TechDirt, here

Preview


Professors Hartzog and Richards Insist It’s Time to Try Something Different on Internet Privacy

TAP, here

Should we think of Big Tech as Big Brother?

FT, here

Ansip: "La fragmentación del mercado digital es un rompecabezas malo"

Cadenaser, aquì.

FTC Displays Its Anti-Innovation Folly

Investors.com, here

“It’s Crucial to Break Up Facebook”

Pro-Market, here

Major Consulting Firm McKinsey Finds Little Evidence of Practical Blockchain Use Cases

CoinTelegraph, here

WILL REDIGI ASK THE SUPREME COURT TO WEIGH IN ON THE RESALE OF “USED” DIGITAL MUSIC FILES?

All Rights Reserved, here

NOWCASTING PRIVATE CONSUMPTION: TRADITIONAL INDICATORS, UNCERTAINTY MEASURES, CREDIT CARDS AND SOME INTERNET DATA

Banco de EspaÑa, here

Google gets payments licence in Ireland

FinExtra, here

Understanding the Unplanned Internet - How Ad Tech is Broken By Design

A. Zucker-Scharff, Video here

Friday, January 04, 2019

Online Advertisers Embrace Blockchain to Fight Fraud

Bloomberg, here

Structural presumption in U.S. merger control policy would strengthen modern antitrust enforcement

J. Kwoka, here

The Day Antitrust Died?: Episode 1, Frederic M. Scherer

Ipse Dixit podcast here

Senators aim to give internet companies doctor-like duties to protect our data

TechCrunch, here

Consumer data right: Rules outline

ACCC, here

Options to maintain a competitive digital economy

ESB, here (Google translate), original here

Facebook Is Developing a Cryptocurrency for WhatsApp Transfers, Sources Say

Bloomberg, here

The Law and Economics of Apple Inc. v. Pepper

Technology Policy Institute, here

Contre le pouvoir des plateformes, établir une portabilité sociale des données

S.I.Lex, here

Competitive Enhancement involving Digital Platformers: Japanese authorities

White & Case, here. And here.

The New ECN+ Directive: Towards an Even More Integrated Antitrust Enforcement in the EU

Arnold & Porter, here

WHY IT'S HARD TO ESCAPE AMAZON'S LONG REACH

Wired, here

How Much of the Internet Is Fake? Turns Out, a Lot of It, Actually.

M. Read, here

2018 Code of conduct on internet quality of service

ARCEP, here

Google ofrecerá servicios bancarios: por una competencia financiera real y justa

El Economista, aquì.

Economists calculate the true value of Facebook to its users in new study

ArsTechnica, here

AncestryDNA ist in Deutschland - Und wo ist der Datenschutz?

T. Weichert, hier

AutomatedPricingAlgorithmsandCollusion:ABraveNewWorldorOldWineinNewBottles?

S. Li, C. Xie, here

How Apps on Android Share Data with Facebook - Report

Privacy International, here

How to Fix America's Monopoly Problem

L. Khan, here

The U.S. Needs Conglomerate Merger Legislation

R. Lande, here

Infectious healthcare waste disposal sector in Corsica: excessive prices

Autorité de la concurrence, here

Regulating the disrupters

J. Tirole, here

Banken sind Marktführer; aber welche Chance haben sie im Zahlungsverkehr gegen Apple, Google und PayPal?

IT-Finanzmagazin.de, hier

BLACK MIRROR: BANDERSNATCH COULD BECOME NETFLIX’S SECRET MARKETING WEAPON

The Verge, here

Thou shalt not sample… without permission!

J. Quintais, B. Jütte, here

Microsoft is privately testing 'Bali,' a way to give users control of data collected about them

ZDNet, here

What They Are Saying: Experts Continue To Point Out Flaws In EC’s Android Decision

Springboard, here

Perils of Surveillance capitalism

S. Zuboff, Video here

The Competitive Landscape of AI Startups

HBR, here

Qualcomm-FTC lawsuit: Everything you need to know

Cnet, here.

A Real Remedy the FTC Should Demand of Facebook

Public Knowledge, here

Bayer/Monsanto: Summary of the Decision (and the whole 946 pp.)

Here. and the whole Decision here.

Wednesday, December 19, 2018

Comparative approaches of the United States and the European Union to the monopoly/abuse of dominance problem

E. Fox, here

Competition Policy in the European Union and the United States: The Treatment of Dominant Firms

B. Kovacic, here

Prime and Punishment

The Verge, here

Why US Antitrust Law Should Not Emulate European Competition Policy

G. Manne, here

AG Racine Sues Facebook for Failing to Protect Millions of Users' Data

Office of the Attorney General for the District of Columbia, here.
Complaint here

Travel agents seek EU antitrust probe into Lufthansa pricing

Reuters, here

Amazon and Facebook Reportedly Had a Secret Data-Sharing Agreement, and It Explains So Much

Gizmodo, here

Google Keeps Yelp, Consumer Watchdog Out of EU Court Appeal

Bloomberg, here. The Order here.

The Web (in this part of the world?) now belongs to Google, and that should worry us

ArsTechnica, here.
And Google says it was just a bug, here

As Facebook Raised a Privacy Wall, It Carved an Opening for Tech Giants

NYTimes, here

CMA tackles loyalty penalty charges

CMA, here

A Painting Given to Eric Clapton Cannot be Used on Album Cover Rules French Supreme Court

The 1709 Blog, here

Vorwurf an Google: Microsoft Edge mit unfairen Mitteln verdrängt

Heise.de, hier and here and here

AG Bobek opinion on embedded plugins

EUCJ, here (and here)

Tuesday, December 18, 2018

The Tactics & Tropes of the Internet Research Agency

New Knowledge, Whitepaper here; slide deck here.

Google still claimed to be blocking search rivals on Android, despite Europe’s antitrust action

TechCrunch, here

UK watchdog says Big Tech pose biggest threat to banks

Reuters, here

Structuralist Innovation: A Shaky Legal Presumption in Need of an Overhaul

D. Auer, here

YES, BIG PLATFORMS COULD CHANGE THEIR BUSINESS MODELS

Wired, here

Warren bill would get feds into generic drug manufacturing

Politico, here

GOOGLE ANDROID: RECORD-BREAKING FINE ON ANTI-COMPETITIVE PRACTICES UNDER ARTICLE 102 TFEU

A. Chirita, here

THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION’S ANDROID DECISION AND BROADER LESSONS FOR ARTICLE 102 ENFORCEMENT

N. Banasevic, here

AMAZON AND THE LAW OF THE JUNGLE

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

A PRELIMINARY ASSESSMENT OF THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION’S GOOGLE ANDROID DECISION

P. Akmar, here

WITH UNCERTAIN DAMAGE THEORY COME UNPREDICTABLE EFFECTS OF REMEDIES: “LIBRES PROPOS” ON THE ANDROID CASE

F. Marty, J. Pillot, here

Google Android Antitrust: Dominance Pivots and a Business Model Clash in Brussels

R. Picker, here

DRAFT ETHICS GUIDELINES FOR TRUSTWORTHY AI

EC's HIGH-LEVEL EXPERT GROUP ON ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE, here

THE IP RIGHTS EXEMPTION TO THE AUSTRALIAN COMPETITION LAW RULES TO BE REPEALED

Clifford Chance, here

Commission approves plan by France, Germany, Italy and the UK to give €1.75 billion public support to joint research and innovation project in microelectronics

EC, here.
Statement here.

Trento also involved: Fondazione Bruno Kessler.

Mercedes-Benz customers benefit from new data services

Daimler, here

CMA proposes reforms to improve competition in audit sector

CMA, here

Modernisation of EU consumer protection rules: A new deal for consumers

EP ThinkTank, Briefing here.

The IRA, Social Media and Political Polarization in the United States, 2012-2018

P. Howard, B. Ganesh, D. Liotsiou, J. Kelly & C. François, here.

Strategic Review of Retail Banking Business Models

FCA, Final Report, here; Annexes here

COMCO Secretariat agrees with Apple about a TWINT-friendly solution

WEKO, here

GOOGLE’S SECRET CHINA PROJECT “EFFECTIVELY ENDED” AFTER INTERNAL CONFRONTATION

The Intercept, here

Monday, December 17, 2018

The folly of trolleys: Ethical challenges and autonomous vehicles

Brookings, here

Amazon Targets Unprofitable Items, With a Sharper Focus on the Bottom Line

WSJ, here

The End of the Ad-Supported Web - What if we got the business model of the web wrong?

Unlock, here

Shaping competition policy in the era of digitisation: Contributions Received

EC, here.
All of them in one single, searchable pdf file, here (930 pp.). You're welcome.

Commission fines BEH Group € 77 million for blocking access to key natural gas infrastructure in Bulgaria

EC, here

Apple Pay und nun?

IT-Finanzmagazin.de, hier

Year in a Word: Techlash

FT, here

UK Fintech Revolut Receives EU Banking Licence through the central bank in Lithuania

Financemagnates.com, here

ApplePay ist digitale Wegelagerei

H. Bender, hier

Judge Koh rejects Qualcomm's bid to introduce new evidence related to Intel's success with Apple, Qualcomm's new 5G agreements

FOSS Patents, here

Commission fines Guess €40 million for anticompetitive agreements to block cross-border sales

EC, here

It’s time for a Bill of Data Rights

M. Tisné, here

Vom Datenschutz zur human-zentrierten Datenwirtschaft

M. Beyer-Katzenberger, hier (s. 71 ff.), hier.

DEMOCRACY UNDER THREAT: RISKS AND SOLUTIONS IN THE ERA OF DISINFORMATION AND DATA MONOPOLY

House of Commons, Canada, Report of the Standing Committee on Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics, here

Wednesday, December 12, 2018

An EU Competition law Analysis of Online Display Advertising in the Programmatic Age

D. Geradin, D. Katsifis, here

Sorry, your data can still be identified even if it’s anonymized

FastCompany, here

The Case Against Idealising Control

W. Hartzog, here

Report: Google PLA antitrust remedy turning comparison engines into agencies

SearchEngineLang, here

You Should Have the Right to Sue Apple

NYTimes, here

Google Pay se lance enfin en France, mais sans les banques traditionnelles

Numérama, ici

SideCar v. Uber

Here. See also ArsTechnica, here

Streambait Pop

The Baffler, here

Accenture will acquire digital ad company Adaptly

TechCrunch, here

Appeals Court Weighs in on Resale of Digital Files

Hollywood Reporter, here

Building a European Data Infrastructure

Konrad Adenauer Stiftung, here

Killer Acquisitions

C. Cunningham, F.  Ederer. S. Ma, here.

Groupe Canal + SA contre CE

T-873/16, ici.

Tuesday, December 11, 2018

Freigabe des Zusammenschlusses der CTS Eventim AG & Co. KGaA mit der FKP SCORPIO Konzertproduktionen GmbH

Bundeskartellamt, Fallbericht hier

Google 2018 Hearing

Live here.
For a piece of history, you can compare with Eric Schmidt's 2011 Hearing, Video here

On the privacy-conscientious use of mobile phone data

Y. de Montjoye et al., here.

Comments on Developing the Administration’s Approach to Consumer Privacy

NTIA, here

Tencent: WeChat Is More Than A Product, It’s ‘An Ecosystem’

AdExchanger, here

The Business of Selling Your Location

NYTimes, Podcast here.

Investigation of generic ‘cartel’ expands to 300 drugs

WashingtonPost, here

Apple Pay finally launches in Germany

TechCrunch, here

Competition Cases Involving Platforms: Lessons from Europe

N. Petit, here

BEUC: Eine Europäische Strategie für die Daten und Platformwirtschaft (in 3 Bildern)


Image

Image



Image

Economic dependence: what can we learn from the industrial organization approach?

P. Bougette, O. Budzinski, F. Marty, here

Apple Pay in Deutschland – Fragen und Antworten

Heise.de, hier

EU's Vestager may investigate Apple Pay if there are formal complaints

Reuters, here

Written Testimony

S. Pichai, Before the House Judiciary Committee, Hearing on “​Transparency & Accountability: Examining Google and its Data Collection, Use, and Filtering Practices” December 11, 2018, here.

Delete All Your Apps

Motherboard, here.

Monday, December 10, 2018

Regulating Big Tech

CRA Conference Panel, Video here

Here’s how to quit Google

Google Transparency Project, here

Après moi, le déluge! Tech giants in the digital age

T. Valletti, Presentation here; Video here

Affaire AT.39885 – Interactive Lab Décision de la Commission rejetant la plainte (AdWords)

EC, ici

Wettbewerbsbehörde untersucht Marktmanipulation von Amazon

Der Standard, hier

Trudeau government studying reforms for protecting consumer data amid tech scandals

CTVnews.ca, here

The SEC and its new financial technology division

Compliancex, here

Amazon might have a Cambridge Analytica-size problem

BigThink, here.

Facebook’s Refusal to Deal in Excellence

R. Woodcock, here

Your Apps Know Where You Were Last Night, and They’re Not Keeping It Secret

NYTimes, here

Thursday, December 06, 2018

Antitrust’s Most Wanted

T. Wu, here

Location Data: GPS, Wi-Fi, and Spatial Analytics

Class 2 of Digital Data Flows Masterclass: Emerging Technologies, Presentation here

The State of Data 2018

IAB, here

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE: A EUROPEAN PERSPECTIVE

JRC, here.

Big tech in finance and new challenges for public policy

BIS, here

Collaborative Economy: Challenges & Opportunities

Proceedings of the 14th International Conference on Internet, Law & Politics. Universitat Oberta de Catalunya, Barcelona, 21-22 June, 2018, here

Could GDPR Consent String Fraud Bring Down the Whole Ad Tech Ecosystem?

CPO Magazine, here

AI Now Report 2018

AI Now, here

EU lawmakers agree on tough line against tech companies

Reuters, here.
IMCO Procedure File here.

Facebook Emails Could Add Fuel to Regulatory Bonfire

Bloomberg (@aoifewhite101), here.

What has Android got to do with the Advent?

J. Topel, here.

Facebook Used People’s Data to Favor Certain Partners and Punish Rivals, Documents Show

NYTimes, here.

Wednesday, December 05, 2018

Near the end of her term, the world’s toughest tech regulator is moving “as fast as possible”

Quartz, here.

The Myth of Capitalism?

With Caron Beaton-Wells and Jonathan Tepper, Podcast here.

These (Confidential?) Charts Show Why Facebook Bought WhatsApp

Buzzfeednews.com, here

Emails show Facebook offered preferential access to data, UK alleges

FT, here

Gender and Competition (Policy)


Seized cache of Facebook docs raise competition and consent questions

TechCrunch, here

Facebook Struck Deals Over Data and Burnt Rivals, Say Lawmakers

Bloomberg, here.
Note by Damian Collins MP, Chair of the DCMS Committee Summary of key issues from the Six4Three files, here.

The Digital Ad Market Is Overdue for Antitrust Review

BloombergQuint, here

The Economics of Big Data, Privacy, and Competition – An Introduction

G. Zhe Jin - FTC Hearings 2018/19, edited by @Wavesblog (for her students – teaching exception), here. Video here

PayPal dismisses competition concerns after $2.2 billion takeover of iZettle

CNBC, here.

Tuesday, December 04, 2018

Fortnite-maker aims for Steam’s head with Epic Games Store

TechCrunch, here.

Google personalizes search results even when you’re logged out, new study finds

The Verge, here.

Internet giants pose existential threat to banks: BIS chief

Reuters, here.

When Considering Federal Privacy Legislation

N. Chilson, here.

Experian/ClearScore

CMA, Provisional findings report here.

(What I find a bit surprising is the playing down of the PSD2-Open Banking effects)

Apple/Shazam: Data Is Power, But Not a Problem Here

N. Zingales, here.

Some Considerations on Intelligent Online Behavioural Advertising

G. Noto La Diega, here. 

Antitrust by Design – Kartellrechtliche Technik-Compliance für Algorithmen, Blockchain und Plattformen?

S. Louven, hier. 

The State of European Tech 2018

Orrick, here

EU's Vestager Urged to Probe How Tech Giants Cash In on Ads

Bloomberg, here.
Brave's letter here.
Transcript of the FTCHearing mentioned here, but you can also enjoy the video 🍿.

Apple Lawsuit Could Impact How Courts View Antitrust Cases

Legal Tech News, here

Datenschutzbehörde: STANDARD-Angebot entspricht DSGVO

Der Standard, hier

Thursday, November 29, 2018

How Google manipulates users into constant location tracking

TACD, here

United States v AT&T/Time Warner

S. Salop, J. Wright, J. Rybnicek, here

What's in the water in Germany?

Competition Lore, with C. Beaton Wells and R. Podzun, Podcast here.

(Recorded before the Bundeskartellamt's Amazon investigation).

Our data-driven future in healthcare

The Academy of Medical Sciences, here

The complaint, and what comes next

Brave (@johnnyryan), here

Misguided ‘consumer welfare’ standard is hampering antitrust enforcement

FT, here

Comparison Guide: GDPR vs. CCPA

FPF, here.

An Amazon revolt could be brewing as the tech giant exerts more control over brands

Recode, here,.

Mergers: Commission approves acquisition of Shire by Takeda, subject to conditions

EC, here.

On fair markets and gender equality

M. Vestager, here.

Facebook staff discussed selling API access to apps in 2012-2014

TechCrunch, here.

Can FTC consent orders effectively police privacy?

Iapp, here.

Einleitung eines Missbrauchsverfahrens gegen Amazon

Bundeskartellamt, hier.

Amazon Under Fire in Europe as Germany Adds Antitrust Probe

Bloomberg, here.

Wednesday, November 28, 2018

Didi Chuxing ‘lost control’ of safety, Chinese government says

FT, here.

Joint industry letter on the ePrivacy Regulation

#moretechnologicalapproach



@ashk4n

Former FTC official says Facebook representative made false statements to international leaders about how the company handles personal data

CNBC, here

COMPETITION LAW AND STATE-OWNED ENTERPRISES: ENFORCEMENT

D. Healey, here

Zero-price markets: Updating the Analytical Toolkit

M. Botta, Presentation here.

  1. 1. COMPETITION POLICY IN ZERO-PRICE MARKETS UPDATING THE ANALYTICAL TOOLKIT MARCO BOTTA Joint meeting of the OECD Competition and Consumer Policy Committees Paris, 28th November 2018 Max Planck Institute for Innovation and Competition | Munich
  2. 2. Outline 2 • Updating the competition analytical tools: 1) Relevant market. 2) Market power. 3) Anti-competitive conducts. 4) Potential remedies. • Conclusions – questions for further debate. 
  3. 3. Limits of the SSNIP test 3 • The relevant market is traditionally defined via the SSNIP test. • Problem: what is “small, but significant price increase” in a zero-price market? • ‘Free effect’ : when the reference price is zero, consumers will automatically switch to any competing product in case of price increase ➢ excessively broad definition of the relevant market. • Multi-sided markets: SSNIP test will limit market definition to one side of the market. 
  4. 4. Alternative tools to define therelevant market 4 • Alternative tools follow a similar logic as the SSNIP test: 1) SSNIC (i.e. increase consumers’ costs): + data / attention ➢ + consumers’ costs. 2) SSNDQ (i.e. decline product quality): + data / attention ➢ - product quality. • Limits of the alternative tools in zero-price markets: 1) Quantification: +5% amount of personal data / attention? 2) Heterogeneous consumers’ preferences: what type of data/attention should we take into consideration? 3) Positive effects: + data transferred can increase the product quality. 4) SSNIC and SSDQ do NOT catch multi-sided markets. 
  5. 5. Market power in zero-price markets 5 • Market power within the relevant market: element to trigger enforcement of competition policy (e.g. unilateral conducts, merger control, vertical agreements). • Traditional definition of market power: ability of the firm to raise prices above the competitive level. • ‘Free effect’ : in zero-price markets firms can never raise prices above 0 ➢ consumers would always switch to other products = NO firm has market power. • The market share has limited relevance to assess market power in zero- price markets. 
  6. 6. Factors to estimate market power in zero-price markets 6 • A number of factors can be assessed to estimate the degree of market power in zero-price markets: 1) Attention degree: users’ attention on the Internet is a ‘scarce’ resource. 2) Direct and indirect network effects: number of users; product quality. 3) Multi-homing and switching costs. 4) Access to data ➢ possibility to purchase data from third parties. 5) Sunk investment costs. 6) Degree of innovation: a) Relevance of innovation in the market; b) Evidence of past radical innovations; c) Evidence of past entry. 
  7. 7. Updating anti-competitive conducts 7 • Assessment of anti-competitive conducts based on ‘price’ should be revised in zero-price markets. • Cartels fixing the price at zero: shift from a per se prohibition to an effect analysis. • Predatory pricing ➢ what is ‘predatory’ in a zero-price market? 1) Fallacies in accordance with the current legal standards: a) EU: presumption of predation when prices are below average marginal costs. b) USA: requirement of likely recoupment in the same market. 2) Recoupment requirement should be always required, BUT extended to other ‘sides’ of the market. 
  8. 8. Updating anti-competitive conducts 8 • Exploitative conducts in zero-price markets (EU): 1) Excessive pricing (i.e. asking ‘too much data’) ➢ NOT relevant. 2) Discriminatory pricing ➢ NOT relevant. 3) Unfair contractual clauses: relevant in zero-price markets a) Clauses ‘unilaterally’ imposed by the dominant firms (e.g. social network unilaterally modified the data protection terms). b) ’Unfair’: clauses ‘un-related’ to the product, and outside the ordinary commercial business practices (e.g. users’ data are transferred to third parties without the user’s consent). c) Relationship with consumer and data protection law: open question. 
  9. 9. Competition law remedies in zero-price markets 9 • Zero-price markets pose new challenges to the application of the traditional antitrust toolkit ➢ infringement decision + fine is NOT an effective remedy. • Structural v. behavioural remedies: 1) Structural remedies (e.g. un-bundling; divestiture of a subsidiary): NOT efficient ➢ negative effect on direct network effects and product quality. 2) Behavioural remedies: the NCA ‘guides’ the firm in terms of competition law compliance: a) Tailor-made ➢ designed in cooperation with the firm (i.e. commitments); b) Possible periodic revision ➢ adaptation to the market dynamics. c) Need of monitoring. d) Risk of market regulation ➢ overlap with data protection and consumer law. 
  10. 10. Behavioural remedies in zero-price markets 10 • Examples of behavioural remedies in zero-price markets: 1) Increase consumers’ awareness (e.g. increase transparency of the contractual terms; info about the personal data collected); 2) Setting minimum standards of data protection terms (e.g. max. duration of data storage); 3) Giving consumers the opportunity to periodically revise the consent to the processing of their personal data; 4) Right to data portability. 
  11. 11. Relationship with sector-regulation 11 • Antitrust remedies can clarify unclear aspects in data/consumer law protection. • Cooperation between NCA and data protection /consumer law authorities: 1) Exchange of information during the investigations; 2) Joint sector-inquiries; 3) Consultation in designing behavioural remedies. • Competition v. consumer / data protection remedies: 1) Advantage: antitrust remedies ensure higher degree of deterrence. 2) Disadvantage: definition relevant market and market power. 
  12. 12. Conclusions – questions for further debate 12 • Are SSNIC and SSNDQ effective tools to define the relevant market? • What aspects should be taken into consideration to assess market power in zero-price markets? • How should the assessment of anti-competitive conducts be adjusted to the peculiarities of zero-price markets? • What type of competition law remedies could be introduced in zero-price markets? • What are the possible forms of cooperation between NCAs and sector regulators when it comes to designing the remedies? 
  13. 13. 13 Thank you very much for your attention! marco.botta@ip.mpg.de 

The regulation of personalised pricing in the digital era

M. Bourreau and A. de Streel, here

In Support of Privacy Engineering

IEEE, here

Google CEO Sets Date for House Panel After Senate No-Show

Bloomberg, here

‘Principles of the Law Governing the Internet’

Members of the national Parliaments of: the Argentine Republic; the Kingdom of Belgium; the Federative Republic of Brazil; Canada; the French Republic; Ireland; the Republic of Latvia; the Republic of Singapore; and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, here

What Facebook Really Doesn’t Want You to Talk About

Bloomberg, here

Britain may block Experian-ClearScore credit data merger

Reuters, here.

PSD2 sparks rise in UK reported tech and cyber incidents

Out-law.com, here

Disinformation and ‘fake news’ (and FB privacy and antitrust)

House of Commons, Digital, Culture, Media and Sport International Grand Committee, here (both videos and transcripts). 

New Parents Complain Amazon Ads Are Deceptive

WSJ, here and here

Tuesday, November 27, 2018

If You Don’t Think Today’s Tech Giants Are Vicious, Just Ask Venture Capitalists

Pro Market, here

On sandboxes, Europe and China

M. Vestager, here.


How Apple hopes to stop a customer lawsuit over its App Store monopoly

Art Technica, here

Antitrust, the App Store, and Apple

Stratechery, here

Is a zero-price platform (for consumers) also a zero-ban platform (for app developers)?


GDPR complaints against Google’s deceptive practices to track user location

BEUC, here

EVERY STEP YOU TAKE: How deceptive design lets Google track users 24/7

Norwegian Consumer Council’s (NCC), here
And this video.

Consumer-Lending Discrimination in the Era of FinTech

R. Bartlett, A. Morse, R. Stanton, N. Wallace, here

YouTube and the music industry are wrong on copyright

FT, here

Google showing zero results again for many time, calculations & conversions search results

Search Engine Land, here

Verkehrsminister Andreas Scheuer: Die Massenüberwachung von Autos ist doch kein „Überwachungsstaat“

Netzpolitik, hier

Monday, November 26, 2018

Marginally Everywhere

R. Woocock, here

Apple v, Pepper

Oral argument transcript, here.

Personalised Pricing in the Digital Era

Note by the European Union, here.

RECHTE AN DATEN

J. Kühling, F. Sackmann, hier.  S. auch Positionspapier, hier

Quality considerations in the zero-price economy

Note by Germany, here and the EU, here.

RGPD : 45 000 Européens ont rejoint un recours collectif contre les géants du web

Numérama, ici.

PayPal / iZettle merger raises competition concerns

CMA, here

„Kommission Wettbewerbsrecht 4.0"

Stellungnahme der Bundesrechtsanwaltskammer. hier

Brussels launches probe into airline ticket system groups

FT, here

Privacy in the Age of Artificial Intelligence

TRPC, here.

Why the U.S. Is Beyond the Gilded Age

MSN.com, Video here

Why a French ruling against a small mobile ad firm has ad tech on the defensive

Marketing Land, here

ICO tells Washington Post it offers invalid cookie consent under GDPR

IAPP, here

Wie KI-Forscher sich die nötigen Trainingsdaten verschaffen

Heise.de, hier

Glen Weyl: “We need to find ways to organize collectively to exercise our rights online”

LINC, here

Superintendência-Geral recomenda arquivamento de investigação contra o Google

CADE, aqui.
Super interesting aqui, aqui, aqui, aqui, aqui e mais aqui

Kreditscoring: Urteil aus Finnland wirft Fragen zur Diskriminierung auf

Algorithmwatch.org, hier

3D printing and intellectual property futures

T. Birtchnell, A. Daly, T. Rayna and L. Striukova for the UK IPO, here

Vectaury: IAB statement and @johnnyryan's comments

Here

Das Ende des Bargelds – bald auch in Deutschland?

Handelsblatt, hier

How the GDPR will Help Europe Win the Race for AI

Yo-Da, here

Best of frenemies? Reflections on privacy and competition four years after the EDPS Preliminary Opinion

C. D'Cunha, here

AIRLINES FACE CRACK DOWN ON USE OF ‘EXPLOITATIVE’ ALGORITHM THAT SPLITS UP FAMILIES ON FLIGHTS

Independent, here

A study of the implications of advanced digital technologies (including AI systems) for the concept of responsibility within a human rights framework

K. Yeung, here

China’s Orwellian Social Credit Score Isn’t Real

Foreign Policy, here

Arreglar el desastre de Internet

El Pais, aquì

Rule by robots is easy to imagine – we’re already victims of superintelligent firms

The Guardian, here

Edward Snowden Explains Blockchain to His Lawyer — and the Rest of Us

ACLU, here

NFC im iPhone: Lufthansa erstes bekanntes Unternehmen, das die Schnittstelle nutzt

ComputerBild, hier

Sabbiere, Innovazione e Concorrenza: Il Caso Fintech

S. Vezzoso (autrice del blog), qui. Primissima bozza, commenti più che graditi!