Monday, October 16, 2023

Intelligence artificielle : la CNIL dévoile ses premières réponses pour une IA innovante et respectueuse de la vie privée

 Ici

Exercising workers’ rights in algorithmic management systems

 ETUI, here

The future of digital mergers in a post-DMA world

 V. Robertson, here

Slingshot on the Amazon FTC Complait

 Podcast here

Green Agreements Guidance

 CMA, here

AN ANTIMONOPOLY APPROACH TO GOVERNING ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

 T. Narechania, G. Sitaraman, here

Microsoft concession a gamechanger that will promote competition

 CMA, here

Connected Conversation: Collective data rights: do we need them and what should they look like?

 Connected by data, here

EDPS Opinion 42/2023 on the Proposal for two Directives on AI liability rules

 Here

Government of Canada launches consultation on the implications of generative artificial intelligence for copyright

 Here

Ubisoft and Activision Blizzard’s deal for cloud gaming rights, explained

 The Verge, here

French Copyright framework for artificial intelligence: a half-hearted attempt

 The IPKat, here

Charting a Course for Global AI Governance: Options and Lessons from Nuclear History

 D. Backovsky, J. Bryson, here

Rising Above Liability: The Digital Services Act as a Blueprint for the Second Generation of Global Internet Rules

 M. Husovec, here

Sustainability and Competition: From Hot Topic to Business As Usual?

 Kluwer Competition Law Blog, here

Global AI Regulation Tracker

 Techie_ray, here

We’re in a new Gilded Age. What did we learn from the last one?

 Vox, here

Monday, October 09, 2023

Contributions to the consultation on the compliance report template published

 Here.

New DMA templates

 EC, here

App developers’ #DMAwishes

 Coalition for App Fairness & Others, here.

The Price-Fixing Economy

 M. Stoller, here

Will AI hamper our ability to crawl the web for useful data?

 Lost Boy, here

Generative AI: the US class action against Google Bard (and other AI tools) for web scraping

Kluwer Copyright Blog, here.  

Trust-busters come for AI’s building blocks

 Politico.com, here

US v. Google: A Primer

 Brookings, here

EU leadership in trustworthy AI: Guardrails, Innovation & Governance

 T. Breton, here

Getty Images CEO Craig Peters has a plan to defend photography from AI

 The Verge, here

Artists across industries are strategizing together around AI concerns

 TechCrunch, here

Antitrust Enforcement in the Crosshairs

 D. Bush at al., here

BBC Will Block ChatGPT AI From Scraping Its Content

 Deadline, here

Concorrenza, mercati digitali, investimenti. Il ruolo guida dell'Europa (Prima giornata)

 Video qui

Industrial Policy with Conditionalities: A Taxonomy and Sample Cases

 M. Mazzucato, D. Rodrik, here

Google’s Commitments under Section 19a of the German Competition Act

 Kluwer Competition Law Blog, here

Wednesday, October 04, 2023

Competition authorities in the 21st century: Adapting to a new economic landscape

M. Bokkerink (CMA), here.

Nach Millionenstrafe gegen Apple: Niederländische Regulierer fordern Öffnung

 Heise.de, hier

Meta planning ad-free subscription or tracking ads ‘choice’ in EU, per WSJ — in latest bid to keep snooping

 #NatashaTheGreat, here

Meta CJEU Judgment – When Competition Meets Privacy

 DMRH (aka as Chez Oles), Video here

Lawsuit Highlights Why Meat Has Been Overpriced for 40 Years

 Prospect, here

DOES EUROPE'S PAYMENTS STRATEGY ADD UP?

 CER, here

France set to regulate cloud market more than EU

 Euractiv, here

When you need to talk to your Students about search advertising - directly from the DOJ v. Google Trial (Exhibit)

 Google, here

Gaming without Frontiers: Copyright and Competition in the Changing Video Game Sector

 CREATe, here

Let's Talk Competition: DMA

 EC, Video here

The EU AI Act Enters Final Negotiations

 Tech Policy Press Podcast, here

Amazon Used Secret ‘Project Nessie’ Algorithm to Raise Prices

 


WSJ here (and here). Listen also to Tech News Briefing, here

Neue Bankdienste von Apple zeigen sich in Großbritannien

 Heise.de, hier

UK IaaS market: Deeper probe by competition regulator lands soon

 The Register, here

Monday, October 02, 2023

The New Law of the European Data Market: Demystifying the European Data Strategy

 B. Botero Arcila, T. Groza, here.

Market concentration implications of foundation models: The Invisible Hand of ChatGPT

 Brookings, here.

The FTC’s landmark case against Amazon tackles the central issue of e-commerce market power

 Geradin Partners, here.

Leitlinien zu Artikel 102 AEUV – Neue Maßstäbe für die Missbrauchsaufsicht?

 Bundeskartellamt, Arbeitspapier hier

Nvidia’s French Offices Raided in Cloud-Computing Antitrust Inquiry

 WSJ, here (and here). 

Big Tech's Role in Contactless Payments: Analysis of Mobile Device Operating Systems and Tap-to-Pay Practices

 CFBP, here

Digital Platform Regulators Forum joint submission to Department of Industry, Science and Resources – Safe and responsible AI in Australia discussion paper

 Australian Goverment, here

WhatsApp beta for Android 2.23.19.8: what’s new?

 Webatinfo, here

The AI Act and General Purpose AI: Key Recommendations to inform EU's AI Act Negotiations regarding General Purpose AI

 Algorithmic Watch, here

6 REFLECTIONS ON THE RECENT DESIGNATION OF GATEKEEPERS UNDER THE DMA

 Copenhagen Economics, here

Q&A: Tim Wu on the U.S. v. Google Trial

 The American Prospect, here

Draft Merger Guidelines: Recommendations to Department of Justice and Federal Trade Commission

 Open Markets  & Co., here

U.S. and Plaintiff States v. Google LLC [2020] - Trial Exhibits

 DOJ, here

Google Says Switching Away From Its Search Engine Is Easy. It’s Not.

 NYTimes, here

DIGITAL PLATFORM ECONOMICS: ESSAYS ON INNOVATION EFFECTS, ASSESSMENT OF MARKET POWER, AND POLICY APPROACHES TO PROMOTE COMPETITION

 T. Sousa Prado, here

What Should Merger Guidelines Do?

 Rethinking Antitrust, Podcast here

European Data Protection Supervisor, Wojciech Wiewiórowski, on GDPR 2.0 and the future of AI regulation

Global Counsel Podcast, here.  

EU Competition policy: Plus ça change…

 EC, here

Microsoft: I feel really good about our competitive position

 Semafor, here

White House could force cloud companies to disclose AI customers

 Semafor, here

The Tragedy of Google Search

 The Atlantic, here

Artificial Intelligence: Transparency

 AEPD, here

Mapping the landscape of data intermediaries

 JRC, here

Sustainability related aspects in EU merger control

 EC, here

Remarks by Commissioner Reynders on the Commission decision to prohibit the proposed acquisition of eTraveli by Booking

EC, here

FTC v. Amazon (I)


 Complaint, here

H7T @antitrustmemes 

Computational Power and AI

AINOW, here

Revising the Merger Guidelines To Return Antitrust to a Sound Economic and Legal Foundation

 J. Kwoka, here

Art. 102 AEUV und die Rolle der Ökonomie

 T. Rohner, hier

Order: Very large online platforms under the DSA (Amazon)

 General Court, here

The age of AI is a time for antitrust

 L. Lowe, here

Regulating the Risks of AI

 M. Kaminski, here

General Purpose AI Systems in the AI Act: trying to fit a square peg into a round hole

 C. Boine, D. Rolnick, here

Geoblocking of videogames and competition law: General Court confirms that Steam and videogame publishers breached Article 101 TFEU

 IPKitten, here

Monday, September 04, 2023

«When AI systems are used, they are usually used for surveillance»

 Schweizermonat.ch, here

Innovation Misunderstood

 A. Ezrachi, M. Stucke, here

What the E.U.’s sweeping rules for Big Tech mean for your life online

 Washington Post, here

The governance of artificial intelligence: interim report

UK House of Commons, here and here.

More tools to combat market power, please

 M. Snoep, here

A market study exploring the level of competition in the segment for online payment transactions in the making

 EC, here

Generative AI: the US Copyright class action against OpenAI

 G. Campus, here

Setapp Planning to Launch Alternative App Store for iOS in Europe

 MacRumors, here

Competition Act: Final report and decision of online intermediation platforms market inquiry to be conducted

 CC South Africa, here

Regulator notifies Google of punishment for unfair practices in app market

The Korea Times, here.  

What Signal are the Draft Merger Guidelines Sending to Enforcers Elsewhere?

 C. Caffarra, here

One Act to Rule Them All: What Is At Stake In the AI Act Trilogue?

 Verfassungsblog, here

AI-generated art cannot be copyrighted, rules a US federal judge

 The Verge, here

Microsoft and Activision Blizzard restructure proposed acquisition and notify restructured transaction to the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority

 Microsoft, here

The New Merger Guidelines Offer an Important Course Correction on Merger Enforcement

 H. Singer, here

EDPS Opinion 39/2023 on the Proposal for a Regulation on payment services in the internal market and the Proposal for a Directive on payment services and electronic money services in the Internal Market

 EDPS, here

Opinion 38/2023 on the Proposal for a Regulation on a framework for Financial Data Access

 EDPS, here

THE DIGITAL PERSONAL DATA PROTECTION ACT OF INDIA, EXPLAINED

 R. Roy, G. Zanfir-Fortuna, here

Commission boosts data sharing and innovation for a smart, sustainable and resilient EU tourism ecosystem

 EC, here

‘Ecosystem’ theories of harm in digital mergers: New insights from network economics

C. Caffarra et al., here.  

When tech says ‘no’

 B. Evans, here

The Rise of AI

 cirsd, here

Is it time to reboot welfare economics? Overview

 D. Coyle et al., here

Who Learns and Who Profits in the Era of Artificial Intelligence?

 C. Rikap, here

A New Contract for Artists in the Age of Generative AI

 Tech Policy Press, here

Open (For Business): Big Tech, Concentrated Power, and the Political Economy of Open AI

 D. Gray Widder et al., here

Contentious areas in the EU AI Act trilogues

 iapp, here

Google, Amazon, Nvidia, and others put $235 million into Hugging Face

 The Verge, here

FTC Secures Settlement with ICE and Black Knight Resolving Antitrust Concerns in Mortgage Technology Deal

FTC, here.  

Do We Collaborate With What We Design?

K. Evans, here.  

Americans Pay a Price for Corporate Consolidation

 NYTimes, here

OTNS: Is Code still Law? (Interview with Lawrence Lessig)

 The Blockchain Socialist, here

Horizontal intervention, sectoral challenges: Evaluating the data act's impact on agricultural data access puzzle in the emerging digital agriculture sector

 C. Atik, here

Google Chat adding voice messages and interoperability with Slack, Teams

 9To5Google, here. 

Microsoft to Unbundle Teams Software in Europe

 WSJ, here

The Mythology of Horizontal Merger Efficiencies

 M. Glick et al., here

The Digital Economy Is Broken—But It’s Not Too Late

 R. Erumi, A. Gurumurthy, here

Digital Services Act: Application of the risk management framework to Russian disinformation campaigns

 EC, here

Going Nuclear?

 D. Backovsky, J. Bryson, here

Carl Shapiro: How Would These Draft Guidelines Work in Practice?

 C. Shapiro, here

The Dynamic Competition Paradigm: Insights and Implications

 D. Teece, here

UK digital regulators discuss interagency enforcement, AI governance coordination

 iapp, here

ANTITRUST ENFORCEMENT INCREASES ECONOMIC ACTIVITY

 T. Babina et al., here

OpenAI on copyright and Gen AI

 Here

Saturday, August 12, 2023

ONDC's Quick Takeoff Expected

 Video here

Position Statement of the Max Planck Institute for Innovation and Competition of 2 May 2023 on the Implementation of the Digital Markets Act (DMA)

 Here

What Are the Thoughts Behind the Changes? Draft DOJ-FTC Merger Guidelines Explained by DOJ DAAGs

 Our Curious Amalgam, here

Meta pledges to ask EU users for consent before showing behavioural ads

 noyb, here

Art 102 TFEU & Exclusionary Conduct – The Reform: Anne Witt, Gönenç Gürkaynak, Massimiliano Kadar

 Chez Oles, here

Although the New Merger Guidelines Should Be Applauded, There Is Still Room for Improvement

 D. Bush et al., here

Zero Trust AI Governance

 AINow, here

We Need Smart Intellectual Property Laws for Artificial Intelligence

 ScientificAmerican, here

Good Governance Is a Bad Idea

 K. Pistor, here

Exploring Antitrust and Platform Power in Generative AI

 K. Kollnig, Q. Li, here

Who Learns and Who Profits in the Era of Artificial Intelligence?

 BotPopuli, here

AI can be a force for good or ill in society, so everyone must shape it, not just the ‘tech guys’

 TheGuardian, here

Caro-voli, come funziona l’algoritmo che ha fatto scattare l’intervento del Governo

 Sole24Ore, here

Cinven (Luxo 1) S.a.r.l. and Others v Competition and Markets Authority

 CAT, here

FTC’s Shaoul Sussman on the Merger Guidelines

 Antitrust Vlog, here

Wednesday, August 02, 2023

The Relationship between Competition and Innovation (Part I)

 OECD Competition Policy Roundtable, here


How Biden Can Get Antitrust Right

 J. Furman and C. Shapiro on the WSJ, here (and here). 

Warner, Colleagues Reintroduce Bipartisan Legislation to Encourage Competition in Social Media

 Here

Meta apparently switches to consent for behavioral ads after five years of litigation

 Noyb, here

What Europe’s AI regulation moment will mean for the world

 360info, here

The AI rules that US policymakers are considering, explained

 Vox, here

Competition Between AI Foundation Models: Dynamics and Policy Recommendations

 T. Schrepel, A. Pentland, here

Saint Lina of the Competitive Markets

 WSJ, Video here

Statement Regarding Termination of CooperCompanies’ Attempted Acquisition of Cook Medical’s Reproductive Health Business

 FTC, here.

Meta says it will offer Europeans a free choice to deny tracking

 Natasha The Great, here

Chocolate and Antitrust

 

H/T 
@nmorenobelloso

Non-price effects of mergers and acquisitions

 J. Haucap, J. Stiebale, here

“Will AI Destroy Us?”: Roundtable with Coleman Hughes, Eliezer Yudkowsky, Gary Marcus, and me (+ GPT-4-enabled transcript!)

 Here

Why Meta is giving away its extremely powerful AI model

 S. Ghaffary, here

Advancing search engine studies: The evolution of Google critique and intervention

 A. Mager et al., here

Denied by Design? Data Access Rights in Encrypted Infrastructures

 M. Veale, here

Thresholds of Merger Notification: The Challenge of Digital Markets, the Turnover Lottery, and the Question of Re-interpreting Rules

 R. Podszun, here

Is America’s Merger Fever Breaking?

 S. Mitchell, R. Knox, here

The Next World System: Can US Trade Policy Make Us More Secure, Democratic, & Prosperous?

 Open Markets, Video here

Antitrust law examination of “Google News Showcase”

 Bundeskartellamt, here

The rise of conversational AI with the co-founder of Siri

 ZenDesk, Video  here

This California agency wants to know what happens to all that connected car data

 TechCrunch, here

Unpacking the 2023 Revised Merger Guidelines: A Conversation With the U.S. Department of Justice

 Ruled by reason, Podcast Episode here

Thursday, July 27, 2023

What a tiny precedent could do...

 


70% Of Generative AI Startups Rely On Google Cloud, AI Capabilities

 Forbes, here

Digital clones made by AI tech could make Hollywood extras obsolete

 Washington Post, here

Analyzing the European Union AI Act: What Works, What Needs Improvement

 HAI, a look from the US..., here

The Opportunities & Threats of AI

 S. Galloway  & G. Marcus, Conversation here

The FTC Is Regulating AI: A Comprehensive Analysis

 HKLaw, here

The little search engine that couldn’t

 TheVerge, here

Biden Declares War on the Cult of Efficiency

 F. Foer, here

Amazon makes bid to settle UK antitrust probe into seller data, Buy Box and Prime

 Natasha The Great, here

Grave concerns’: FTC leader accuses Jim Jordan of intimidating her staff

 


Politico.com (not eu), here.

Antitrust girls and boys, remember Onavo?

 AU FedCourt, here

Hugging Face, GitHub and more unite to defend open source in EU AI legislation

 VentureBeat, here

Artificial intelligence: Development, risks and regulation

 UK Lords, here

Bundeskartellamt vs Meta: what now?

 Euractiv, here

AI AND GENERATIVE AI: TRILOGUE NEGOTIATIONS FOR THE AI ACT

 Beuc, here

A certain danger lurks there’: how the inventor of the first chatbot turned against AI

 The Guardian, here

Tuesday, July 25, 2023

Next-Generation Antitrust Policy in an AI-Driven World

 Me in ProMarket, here

Six years after "Competition by Design", here

Competition Policy Enforcement in a Dynamic World

 P. Régibeau, here





Link: The Incentives Balance Test in the EU Microsoft Case: A More 'Economics-Based' Approach? by Simonetta Vezzoso :: SSRN

The dirty little secret that could bring down Big Tech

 Insider, here

How to implement the DMA in order to attain its goals of contestability and fair digital markets for core platform services

 J. Hoffmann, here

President Joe Biden wanted Gigi Sohn to fix America’s internet — what went wrong?

 The Verge, here

Remarks by President Biden on Artificial Intelligence

 White House, here

What happens to competition when fewer startups go public?

 ProMarket, here

Meta can call Llama 2 open source as much as it likes, but that doesn't mean it is

 The Register, here. 

ON DIGITAL COMPETITION, BRITAIN COULD LEARN FROM ITS REGULATORY MISTAKES

 Z. Meyers (CER), here

UK Lords debate AI

 Here

CMA: Amazon / iRobot merger merger decision

 Here

Valuing Social Data

 A. Parsons, S. Viljoen, here

Is AI Bad for Humanity?

 Podcast with D. Acemoglu, here

Why We’re Updating the Government’s Merger Guidelines

 J. Kanter, L. Kahn, WSJ (of all places), here

"When markets are competitive and companies jostle to win business, everyone benefits. Consumers pay lower prices and get better service. Workers have more options to earn higher wages and get better working conditions. And we all benefit from the breakthrough innovations and diverse views that flourish when markets are open and the best ideas win.

More than a century ago, Congress set out to protect free and fair competition by passing antitrust laws. These laws prohibit mergers that may harm competition, while permitting those that don’t. As federal antitrust enforcers, we want our approach to be clear and predictable. Since 1968, our agencies have issued guidelines to explain how we assess whether mergers might hurt competition.

The Justice Department and Federal Trade Commission have updated the merger guidelines to reflect an evolving economy several times, under Presidents Reagan, George H.W. Bush, Clinton, Obama and Trump. We are continuing that tradition. Our proposed guidelines are faithful to the legal principles that have guided our enforcement efforts for generations. They recognize that firms can compete in a variety of ways and lay out the different ways that mergers may threaten competition.

The guidelines are written to be understood by businesses, consumers, entrepreneurs, workers and the broader public. We focused on three goals while drafting them.

First, as federal antitrust enforcers, we are bound by the antitrust laws as written by Congress and interpreted by the Supreme Court. The Clayton Act of 1914 prohibits any merger that may substantially reduce competition or tend to create a monopoly. Time and again since then—from expanding the Clayton Act to address a broader range of transactions to requiring that companies notify the government in advance of large mergers—Congress has closed loopholes and offered antitrust enforcers and private citizens more tools to stop anticompetitive mergers.

Recognizing Congress’s clear commands, more than a century of Supreme Court and appellate precedent makes clear that the antitrust laws protect the public from mergers that let dominant firms further control a market or create choke points in the economy. To ensure that our approach to merger review is faithful to the law, the proposed guidelines include—for the first time—legal citations to Supreme Court cases.

image
PHOTO: JOSE LUIS MAGANA/ASSOCIATED PRESS

Second, enduring antitrust legal principles must be applied to today’s markets, reflecting how companies operate, compete and grow in the 21st century. To make sure we understand these changes, our proposed merger guidelines encompass the insights of modern analytical tools, taking into account market realities.

Third, we have written the draft guidelines with the broader public, not only antitrust experts, in mind. This makes it easier for businesses and individuals to understand the risk that a merger or acquisition may lead to an antitrust investigation and, where warranted, a lawsuit. But the proposed merger guidelines don’t create rights or responsibilities, nor are they substitutes for the law itself.

The proposed merger guidelines are the result of a public request for information issued in January 2022. We received more than 5,000 comments—from businesses, individuals, farmers, nurses, pharmacists, consumer advocates, worker organizations, antitrust practitioners, academics and trade associations. During four listening sessions, we heard about the effects of mergers and acquisitions on different sectors, which helped us understand how mergers can undermine open markets.

Our work isn’t done. We encourage the public to read the proposed merger guidelines and share its views at regulations.gov. The deadline to comment is Sept. 18. Our agencies will read and reflect on these comments before issuing final merger guidelines.

Congress tasked us with faithfully enforcing the antitrust laws to promote open, resilient markets. By updating the merger guidelines we hope to propel American ingenuity and ensure that the best ideas win.

Mind-reading machines are coming — how can we keep them in check?

 Nature, here

A law for foundation models: the EU AI Act can improve regulation for fairer competition

 K. Zenner, here

Thursday, July 20, 2023

An important step towards secure and interoperable messaging

 Google (no kidding), here

Deutscher Videokonferenzanbieter alfaview reicht Beschwerde bei EU-Kommission gegen Microsoft wegen Missbrauchs von Marktmacht ein

 alfaview, hier

Updated version of the Teramo Cloud Presentation

 Here

French draft law "Sécuriser et réguler l'espace numérique": cloud credits

 


Ici.

Amazon wehrt sich – jetzt ist der BGH am Zug

 WBS, hier

The Data Act trialogue agreement as formally approved

 Here

Microsoft and Meta expand their AI partnership with Llama 2 on Azure and Windows

 Microsoft, here

Ofcom cloud consultation: responses published

 Here (only 8)

Tuesday, July 18, 2023

Data Act: European Mobility Still Needs Sector-Specific Rules

 Euractiv, here

Effective protection against AI harms

 A. `Lawrence-Archer and R. Naik, here

Apple Launches Tap to Pay on iPhone in the UK

 MacRumors, here

Why they're smearing Lina Khan

 C. Doctorow, here

The Gatekeepers of Knowledge Don’t Want Us to See What They Know

 J. Angwin, here

« Charles River Associates s’est déclaré « fier » de la nomination de sa « consultante de haut niveau Fiona Scott Morton ». Faut-il s’en inquiéter ? »

 







































You can bet they were also very proud of all their CRA consultants nominated for the latest so called Antitrust Writing Awards, here

Can A.I. Invent?

 New York Times, here

La CNMC multa a Apple y Amazon con 194 millones por restringir la competencia en la web de Amazon en España

 CNMC, aquì

EU Trilogues: The AI Act must protect people’s rights

 AccessNow, here

The EU Digital Markets Act: A One-of-a-kind Regulation

 A. Malheiro, here

Eine harm­lose Alien-Inva­sion

 LTO, hier

The General Court must rule once more on the lawfulness of the Commission’s prohibition of the acquisition of Telefónica Europe (‘O2’) by Hutchison 3G UK (‘Three’)

 CJEU, here

Adobe / Figma merger inquiry

 CMA (who else?), here

The future of data trusts and the global race to dominate AI

 A. Artyushina, here

The abuses of Popper

 Aeon, here

WhatsApp shifts legal basis for processing personal data in Europe

 Euractiv, here

Vertical Merger Scrutiny Needs an Upgrade After Microsoft-Activision

 L. Hepner, here

FTC's CID re OpenAI

 Here

Meta’s behavioral ads banned in Norway on Facebook and Instagram

 #NatashaTheGreat, here

Isaac Newton to AI

 SEC, here

Right to repair: EP Draft Report

 Here

Chrome für iOS: Google führt Web-Apps ein

 Heise.de, hier

Teslas neue Ladesäulen-Macht

 FAZ, hier

China to name Unicom CEO Liu as head of new data bureau

Reuters, here.  

Regulating AI in the UK

 Ada Lovelace Institute, here

The beauty and complexity of the antitrust policy mind

 


Wednesday, July 12, 2023

Gen AI & Market Power: What Role for Antitrust Regulators?


Amazing webinar, just ended. 

A couple of immediate reactions to what we heard. It appears everyone is still in research mode, which is perfectly acceptable. However, there's already some serious musing afoot, particularly from the cloud services sector perspective (Adlc here, an overview here, if I may). What Big Tech firms are up to is also quite obvious. Well, what's next?

Starting from the recognition that generative AI makes all much, much worse and much more difficult (Andreas Mundt, - 19a and the NCT could come very handy, of course), do we sit on our hands, awaiting one monopolist to be swapped out for "another" (best-case scenario, as suggested by Joshua Gans)? Do we carve out tiny oases of diversity, try to preserve those famous windows of opportunity, cherish those few cracks that might just open up and observe from the sidelines (Susan Athey)? Do we attempt to grab the bull by the horns, seeking to shift the direction of innovation (Daron Acemoglu, with suggestions on how to do so, from AI regulation to tax rules)? Or are we temped to surrender to a sense of discouragement (Tommaso Valletti - not alone)?

Update: The recording  is now available here, and Ian Brown has some in-depth tweets (yes, you also can) on the discussion, all unrolled here.  

Überprüfung einer Bestpreisklausel – Bundeskartellamt stellt Verfahren gegen Lieferando ein

 Bundeskartellamt, hier

("Anlass für das Verfahren war die Überprüfung einer Bestpreisklausel in den Allgemeinen Geschäftsbedingungen (AGB) von Lieferando gegenüber Restaurants. Dieser zufolge müssen die auf Lieferando geforderten Preise den Preisen in den eigenen Vertriebskanälen der Restaurants entsprechen")

"That is what the DMA is all about."

 T. Breton, here

Innovation in the age of digital gatekeepers: It's complicated

 


Twitter blocks links to rival Threads

 TechCrunch, here

Tuesday, July 11, 2023

A very public, successful job interview, for a while.

 

Video, from 5:40:40. 


FSM "resigned", as you heard coming back to shore.

This is now for the archives: 
[BTW
-  her very clear position on interoperability is encouraging :) here;
- the Amazon/iRobot merger in-depth investigation following the Meta ruling is going to be very interesting (but can she say anything about it as former Amazon consultant? How many years ago was it?); 
- her Consultant's stance on cloud gaming being "a nascent technology that does not yet have a compelling use case" is hopefully correct;
- wondering if this roadmap could be of any use now;
- with addictive technologies aplenty, what has antitrust ever done for us? 
- Q: has there ever been an EU Chief Competition Economist who was not a CRA consultant? A: Yes!]]

Google to explore alternatives to robots.txt in wake of generative AI and other emerging technologies

 Search Engine Land, here

US Court denies FTC's bid for a preliminary injunction of Microsoft's Activision deal

 Opinion here.

Virtual Worlds and Web 4.0

 EC, Factsheet here;  Communication here; Information, insights and market trends on web 4.0 and virtual worlds here; Citizens’ panel report on virtual worlds here

The UK Facebook/Giphy Case: Taking Dynamic Competition Seriously

 M. Walker, here

Dynamic Competition, Digital Ecosystems, and Competition Policy

 W. Kerber, here

Bundeskartellamt: Jahresbericht 2022/23

 Digitalwirtschaft, hier

Review of the Digital Markets, Consumer and Competition Bill

 UK Parliament, here (oral evidence). 

CMA Video, from 14:29:20 

Potential addressees 20 June 2023 - Review of the Digital Markets, Consumer and Competition Bill - Oral evidence - Committees - UK Parliamentideo  Parliamentlive.tv - Communications and Digital Committee

Furman, Marsden; Fletcher Parliamentlive.tv - Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Bill

.


(Over)simplifying the "AI control" debate?

"Opening up isn’t altruistic – Meta believes it’s in *her* best interest", writes the Head of Global Affairs at Meta in the FT. Barricading what might have been open was the key to digging digital moats and flexing market power muscles. Before succumbing to the rather misleading term "contestability", in the discussions on the DMA the focus was precisely on "openness and fairness". That's how Big Tech has played the digital competition game. And what does the future hold? 

Waiting to read Meredith Whittaker & Co-authors on this

Monday, July 10, 2023

Data brokers: Issues Paper

 ACCC, here

Commission opens in-depth investigation into the proposed acquisition of iRobot by Amazon

 EC, here. More, from #NatashaTheGreat here.

La CNMC sanciona el cártel de dos de las principales empresas de servicios de bases de datos de información empresarial en España

 Aquì

Sharing a slightly modified version of a recent presentation on vertical restraints in the digital economy

 


Here

Sharing a slightly modified version of a recent presentation on the DMA

 Here

What Can Policymakers Do About Algorithmic Collusion and Discrimination?

 M. Stucke, here

CJEU ruling on Meta referral could close the chapter on surveillance capitalism

 Natasha The Great, here

How do we keep up with the pace of AI development?

 WEF, here

The Ninth Circuit’s Grave Mistake in Epic v. Apple

M.Glick, here.  

FTC Files Amicus Brief to Clarify Antitrust Standards Involving Exclusive-Dealing and Bundling Arrangements

 Here.

Meta v. Bundeskartellamt

  Case C‑252/21, here

Samsung may face tighter scrutiny under new EU rules

 KoreaHerald, here

Implementing the DMA: The role of behavioural insights

 A. Fletcher, Z. Vasas, here

Enforcing the DMA is Easier Said Than Done: Evidence From the Commission’s Draft Template for DMA Compliance Reports

 TruthOnTheMarket, here

Generative AI’s secret sauce — data scraping— comes under attack

 VentureBeat, here

Tesla and Chinese EV Giants: short lived price collusion

In a display of the finest irony, 16 automakers in China, including industry powerhouses like Tesla and BYD, last week committed to a pledge of fair competition and "normal" pricing, only to retract during the weekend as somebody finally realized that it contradicted China's anti-monopoly laws. EV-edition, here

Jumpstarting AI Governance

 

G. Marcus, here

The FTC’s biggest AI enforcement tool? Forcing companies to delete their algorithms

Model deletion, while not new, has seen increased use as a deterrent. It hits at the core of a company's business model, rather than simply imposing fines, which can be seen as mere slaps on the wrist for big tech companies. Cyberscoop, here

UK Approach to LLMs: Call for evidence

The Committee is seeking evidence on several topics, including future trends of LLMs, associated opportunities and risks, domestic regulation, the adequacy of the UK’s regulatory capacity, possible non-regulatory and regulatory options, and comparisons with international approaches. UK Parliament, here

ANTITRUST SUPER TUESDAY

 D-Kart, here

Saturday, July 08, 2023

A Chinese DMA?

Yesterday, I had the pleasure to teach a 90-minute class on the DMA for Chinese competition officials. Despite a) being just after lunch b) enticing weather outside c) lovely but consecutive interpretation slowing down things a lot, I enjoyed the opportunity to provide an overview of this amazing ;-) regulatory tool. I think they felt my enthousiasm (but I very much doubt they directly shared it) and there were some interesting, intriguing questions. Let‘s wait and see…

Sunday, July 02, 2023

Democracy in the digital age

 UC, EGE, here

Webinar and launch of a new report on generative artificial intelligence

 Forbrukerradet, here

Commission seeks feedback on commitments offered by Renfe over possible anticompetitive practices in online rail ticketing in Spain

 EC, here

Article 3 of Regulation 1/2003: a historical and empirical account of an unworkable compromise

 O. Brook, M. Eben, here. Further discussions chez Oles here

GOOGLE СHALLENGES NCLAT ORDER IN AN ANTITRUST CASE

 BricsCompetition, here.

Metaverse

 Study for the JURI Committee, here

CPDP 2023

 Videos, here

Expert explainer: Allocating accountability in AI supply chains

 Dear Ian for the Ada Lovelace Institute, here

Lina Khan Is Coming for Amazon, Armed With an FTC Antitrust Suit

 Bloomberg, here

It'd be lovely to write an update of this, if the occasion presents itself.

Diane Coyle, an economist's (and former journalist's) life dedicated to the digital economy

 Podcast, here

Design software deal could harm UK digital economy

 CMA, who else? Here

A Big Tech Disassembly Manual

 C. Doctorow, here

The True Threat of Artificial Intelligence

 NYTimes, here

AMNC23: How do we keep up with the pace of AI development?

 Here.

Thursday, June 29, 2023

Tête dans les nuages: some early evening reflections on today's Avis by the French competition authority


Avis n° 23-A-08 du 29 juin 2023 portant sur le fonctionnement concurrentiel de l’informatique en nuage (« cloud »).

My perspective comes from someone studying this topic as an independent researcher, and currently writing an article based on a Teramo presentation, so I'm obviously biased. 

I've read some parts of today's 200-page long Opinion and find that it is largely in line with the main conclusions of other important analyses, particularly those of Ofcom and the Dutch competition authority. Opportunistically, I would have hoped for a more detailed discussion of the application of the DMA to the cloud sector, which remains quite general, perhaps (un)surprisingly. But this could be an exciting topic for a paper to be presented at the upcoming November conference in Brussels on "DMA enforcement between opportunities and challenges" (call for papers).  The analysis of the Data Act proposal has also been largely omitted because there has already been a political agreement on the text (two days ago).

The clearest added value, which needs to be evaluated in detail, seems to be the definition of the relevant market, particularly in the presence of digital ecosystems, which I'm happy to cover in a lesson next week in Augusta Treverorum. There are also rich scenarios involving specific competitive risks. It seems clear that the focus, also in view of (likely ?) enforcement actions, is on possible abuses of dominant position, but also Article 101 and other French provisions that could possibly be applicable (also by another French regulator). Regarding mergers in the cloud sector, the Authority is already pleased to receive information regarding any proposed concentration by gatekeepers in the cloud sector under Article 14 DMA. As for the emergence of generative AI,  the Authority remains quite reserved, simply noting that these new technologies could potentially be changing the structure and competitive balance of cloud markets. 

Newsflash: After rapidly dashing off these lines yesterday afternoon, a rather noteworthy contribution emerged from the FTC's Bureau of Competition and Office of Technology on the competition concerns raised by Generative AI, a subject that, as seen above, the French competition authority is still ruminating over. From the point of view of competition in the cloud, the contribution made at least three relevant point:

1) The Bureau refreshed our memories on the successful action to block Nvidia's acquisition of Arm (the merger would have otherwise snuffed out competition in multiple processor markets, including chips for cloud service providers=computational resources);

2) "Incumbents that control key inputs or adjacent markets, including the cloud computing market, may be able to use unfair methods of competition to entrench their current power or use that power to gain control over a new generative AI market";

3) Egress fees, which the EU is trying to regulate, could be a way by which cloud providers can lock in generative AI companies with an insatiable appetite for compute power.


Thursday, June 22, 2023

Google Cloud’s response to the FTC’s call for public comments

 Here

Theories of Harm for Digital Mergers

 OECD Goodies, here

Towards a dynamic concept of competition that includes innovation

 W. Kerber, hier

Dislocated accountabilities in the “AI supply chain”: Modularity and developers’ notions of responsibility

 D. Gray Widder, D. Nafus, here

Statement of objections issued against various of Google’s practices in connection with Google Automotive Services and Google Maps Platform

 Bundeskartellamt, here

Market structure and industrial organization: Do we need a new antitrust standard?

 EfiP Conference, video here

EVP Vestager Concluding Remarks of the Conference "20 Years of Regulation 1/2003

 Here

Open AI on the AI Act

 Here

Artificial intelligence [What Think Tanks are thinking]

 EPRS, here

EU Competition Policy: search Engine

 Here

The Financial Services Sector’s Adoption of Cloud Services

U.S. Department of the Treasury, here.  

A new threat to financial stability lurks in the cloud

 FT, here

Amazon’s purchase of Roomba maker cleared by CMA

 CMA, here

Submissions to the UK and EU competition authorities on the Amazon/iRobot merger

 Privacy International, here.

German Initiative on Sustainable Cocoa – Bundeskartellamt sees no reason for detailed examination

 Press Release, here

Konträre Meinungen zu neuen Befug­nissen für das Bundes­kartellamt

 Deutscher Bundestag, hier

KURS HALTEN FÜR WETTBEWERBSSCHUTZ

 A. Mundt, hier

The global rush to regulate artificial intelligence

 mlex, podcast here

IEO Virtual Seminar: Artificial Intelligence's Economic, Social, and Trade Impacts

 Video here

Recommendation of the Council on Intellectual Property Rights and Competition

 OECD, here

Ioannis Lianos chez Oles!

 Video here

Projet de loi sur l'espace numérique : audition de Jean-Noël Barrot

 Vidéo, ici

L’Autorité de la concurrence lance une étude de marché sur le secteur de la blockchain

 Autorité de la concurrence du Grand-Duché de Luxembourg, ici

TEMPLATE FOR REPORTING PURSUANT TO ARTICLE 11 OF REGULATION (EU) 2022/1925 (Digital Markets Act)

Consultation, here

Quantum-proofing the financial system

 BIS, here

Data Act trilogues – where are we at?

 Euractiv, Audio here.

Creativity in the Age of AI: Generative AI Issues in Art Copyright & Open Source

 Standford HAI, here

Commission adopts new Horizontal Block Exemption Regulations and Horizontal Guidelines

 EC, here

Unfair Software Licensing Practices: A quantification of the cost for cloud customers

 CISPE, here