Monday, December 11, 2023

EU ex-ante regulation for digital gatekeepers (Digital Markets Act): State of play and way ahead

 


Slides, here

Cigna abandons pursuit of Humana, plans $10 billion share buyback, sources say - very likely because of FTC's action

 CNBC, here

Competition and Innovation: Incorporating a More Dynamic Perspective into Enforcement


This is the text of my 15-minute intervention last week at the OECD. Happy I wrote it down and read it because I was a bit overwhelmed, to be honest. Accompanying slides here

The best part, however, was the interaction we had with the OECD States/competition authorities (despite sitting very far from each other).


"Thank you immensely to the Chair and the Committee for the opportunity to be here with you today. I think that we all in this room might agree that the interplay between competition and innovation is increasingly vital in our economies, in which we all face numerous challenges in devising solutions to ever more complex problems.

These challenges are starkly highlighted by the ongoing issues surrounding climate change and the digital revolution. As we know, innovation can be the creative response that entrepreneurs make to changing conditions, to new challenges. To these entrepreneurs, “innovation is the ability to see change as an opportunity - not a threat.” And we as a society, as consumers are provided with choices on how to deal with these challenges, with these changing conditions. Furthermore, the critical role of innovation has been profoundly illustrated in our emergence from the health crisis brought about by COVID-19.

In competition policy circles like this one here, innovation isn't just a buzzword we throw around to sound smart while prices and output is what antitrust law is really about. There is a profound and increasing recognition that innovation is a  real factor in shaping competitive processes and often it should be taken even more seriously than price effects in competition policy enforcement.

We are very lucky here today to stand on the shoulders of this excellent background paper prepared by the OECD Secretariat. In my brief remarks today, I will focus primarily on the highly useful distinction between the approach that focuses on innovation incentives and the approach that instead focuses on the innovation impact or innovation effects.

The clear distinction drawn between a more static and a more dynamic perspective on innovation is particularly commendable and useful. It effectively highlights the progress made in terms of competition policy so far, as well as what remains to be done, both from a theoretical standpoint and in terms of competition policy enforcement.

Both approaches have their merits and limitations, and in a certain sense, they are complementary to each other. Understanding which approach to adopt depends on the crucial assessment by competition authorities of how competition manifests itself in the specific market, sector, or industry at stake.

Is the focus on current or potential competition in identified product markets or is the focus directly on innovation processes or spaces? This differentiation, as I see it, is the real focal point of the background paper, from which the brief considerations I will present in the following emerge.

Although this differentiation is absolutely crucial and we will return to it shortly, I believe the two approaches are driven by many insights that are common to both. I will mention three of these insights here.

The first is the belief that it is possible for competition enforcers to  identify situations, markets in which innovation is a significant dimension of rivalry between companies.

The second is that a longer-term or dynamic perspective is necessary to fully grasp innovation and its relationship with competition.

The third realization or insight is that a longer-term perspective must contend with uncertainty. Here we must decidedly forego the comfort of quantifications that offer the illusion of certainty in the application of antitrust law.

I've created a table, informed by the background paper and my previous research on this topic. It outlines key differences between the two approaches, in addition to the shared insights I've just mentioned.

The first approach focuses on the circumstance that rivalry in the product market is driven by product or process innovation. The second approach, on the other hand, brings directly to the fore the innovation efforts made by competing firms.Top of Form

This is clearly evident from the background paper, to which I would only like to add the idea that it is necessary to also consider the ecosystems where the relative orchestrators appropriate and manage the innovation efforts produced by the ecosystem participants.

The following point relates to the realization that the innovation concerns in the two approaches are distinct. On one side, there is a reduction or delay in introducing new features in a product market. On the other, there's a more direct concern regarding changes to innovation levels and intensity.

The third point is a focus on financial incentives to innovate by the first approach  and on capabilities to innovate in the second.

The fourth point is that, according to the first approach, future markets can be identified in a traditional manner. In contrast, based on the second approach, it is not possible to define markets that may emerge from innovation in such conventional terms.

The fifth aspect is that for the first approach, innovation is mostly of an incremental nature, while the second approach is perhaps more oriented towards innovation that is mostly of a disruptive nature.

The sixth aspect relates to different degrees of uncertainty. For the first approach, uncertainty is linked to the fact that products have not yet entered the market or potential outcomes from innovation are not clearly identifiable. For the second, the uncertainty is more radical as it stems from the circumstance that there is high uncertainty regarding future outcomes of innovation efforts.

The seventh and final aspect concerns theories of harm. For the first approach, profit-cannibalization narratives are particularly relevant, thus analogous to unilateral price effects. Relevant are also traditional foreclosure theories, which are then adapted to an innovation context. Instead, For the impact-based approach to innovation and competition, the theories of harm aim to highlight the direct impact on innovation of a behaviour or a transaction, not merely as a consequence of a reduction in competition.

Certainly, the distinction between these two approaches is valuable for analytical clarity and for promoting theoretical and other developments, but in enforcement practice, they are often also strategically interconnected, as noted in the background document.

So, we can distinguish cases where there is a more static approach to innovation and which aligns closely with the first approach. This involves determining product markets, even if they are in the future, even if the competition is only potential, and then also relying on conventional theories of harm based for instance on a profit cannibalization rationale.

And then there are other cases where the approach to competition is more dynamic, both in terms of determining a product market or an innovation space and in terms of theories of harm.

In the final part of my reflection, I concentrate on some challenges that I still see on the horizon from the perspective of further developing this more dynamic approach to innovation.

From seven, as in the previous table, the points I would like to briefly illustrate are now eight.

The first point is that it seems to me that it’s still necessary to better conceptualize the relevant rivalry between companies as a process of innovation and knowledge creation. From this perspective, it is clear that the traditional, orthodox industrial organization thinking and approaches may provide only limited assistance. Much more useful could be economic theories that focus on innovative, dynamic processes of variation and selection, such as evolutionary economics.

I am absolutely convinced that these alternative economic conceptualizations of dynamism and competition processes should receive greater attention from antitrust enforcers. The monopolization carried out by the industrial organization in the field of so-called competition economics has so far left little room for this and other theoretical contenders or even disruptors to emerge.

The second point is that there is still a significant need to develop a better understanding of innovation capabilities, especially in sectors where innovation processes are less structured. This might be the case because, for instance, the tools of appropriation in theses sectors or market phases might be different from traditional IP rights. A different understanding of innovation capabilities might be required based on the specific type of technology/knowledge production, the specific skills required (for instance, particularly valuable AI talent), and the specialized assets needed, such as data and specific technological tools required for innovation.

The third point is that if a better understanding of innovation capabilities is essential, there are additional innovation factors beyond capabilities that require attention. These include dynamic patterns, path dependencies, absorptive capacities, technological trajectories, and so on.

The fourth point is that greater efforts may be needed in certain contexts to assess the impact of the same innovation efforts on multiple sectors (e.g., digital) – cross-market.

A fifth, more practical challenge is that in some jurisdictions, it may be necessary to clarify in the law that "market definition" under certain circumstances is not necessary, or that the market can be determined in a radically different manner from traditionally employed methods.

A sixth, more challenging point from a theoretical and analytical perspective is that it seems necessary to better understand innovation processes within ecosystems. This, for instance, requires differentiation between the production of innovation and knowledge and the mechanisms of their appropriation. This pertains to contexts and ecosystems where both incremental and disruptive innovation hold significance.

A seventh point to consider is that it would be important to incorporate concerns about the "quality" of innovation into antitrust practice, not just focusing on innovation levels and intensity. From this perspective, close collaboration with data protection authorities and, in the near future, various types of AI regulators, including sector-specific ones, could be crucial.

Last but not least, there is the challenge related to the evidence required to ultimately capture the innovation dimensions mentioned in the background note. Some are already practiced, such as portfolios of R&D activities, commercial and licensing agreements with other companies. Other evidence, for example, to assess innovation capability, may include the analysis of links to universities, participation in scientific conferences, and so on.Top of Form

If the eight challenges, taken together, may seem a bit daunting, I would suggest that antitrust authorities join forces on many common fronts. A very practical and cost-effective suggestion is that one or more antitrust authorities, from different jurisdictions, could facilitate the organization of symposia, seminars, and workshops that bring together economists (including those from non-orthodox economic schools), management experts, behavioural scientists, scientists from different fields, and technologists. These gatherings would provide a platform for cross-disciplinary collaboration, offering diverse perspectives, approaches, and knowledge to enhance the understanding of innovation processes within specific industries and sectors. They could ideally also lead to the development of new assessment tools and methodologies immediately relevant to competition policy enforcement.

Many thanks for your attention."




And as you see here, fun we had! 

EU says incoming rules for general purpose AIs can evolve over time

Natasha The Great, here.  

Behind the Clicks: Can Amazon allocate user attention as it pleases?

 R. Rock et al., here

FTC Files Amicus Brief Outlining Anticompetitive Harm Caused by Improper Orange Book Listings

 FTC, here

Open finance policy considerations

 OECD, here

Commission sends Adobe Statement of Objections over proposed acquisition of Figma

 Here

La CNMC inicia un estudio sobre los servicios de nube

 Aquì.

White Paper on the Definition of Data Intermediation Services

 T. Bobev et al., here.

The potential competition impacts of Big Tech entry and expansion in retail financial services

 FCA, here

Regulatory capture’s third face of power

 W. Y Li, here

LE NUMÉRIQUE AU SERVICE D’UN FUTUR DURABLE

 V. Blun, M. Mathon, ici

noyb files GDPR complaint against Meta over “Pay or Okay”

 Here

MEPs call to ramp up Big Tech enforcement in competition review

 Luca "The AI Hero," here

CAPITALISM RECONNECTED: Toward a Sustainable, Inclusive and Innovative Market Economy in Europe

 J. P. Balkenende, G. Buijs, here

The future of Europe’s data economy

 Economist (sponsored by Microsoft), here

Cyber resilience act: Council and Parliament strike a deal on security requirements for digital products

 Council, here

Generative AI could revolutionize health care — but not if control is ceded to big tech

 Nature, here

Shaping Europe's digital model Building Alliances for a Progressive European Vision

 Video here

Urgent Binding Decision 01/2023 requested by the Norwegian SA for the ordering of final measures regarding Meta Platforms Ireland Ltd (Art. 66(2) GDPR)

 EDPB, here

Commission adopts antitrust Guidelines for sustainability agreements in agriculture

 Here

Public Workshop on the DOJ/FTC Draft Merger Guidelines

 Video here.

Intellectual monopolies as a new pattern of innovation and technological regime

 C. Rikap, here

Press conference following the trilogue on artificial intelligence

 European Council, here

Open, Sovereign, Independent AI: Europe’s greatest challenge?

F. Bria, here.  And Transforming capitalism in the Age of AI

Protection des données et concurrence : une ambition commune

 Adlc, ici

Saturday, December 02, 2023

On innovation and competition at the OECD: happy to help, if I can!



I was only once at the OECD before - as an observer (the topic was Big Data, with Annabelle Gawer and Hal Varian, great fun - my take here).

Next time soon (and determined to enjoy myself, whatever). 

Some of the work I've done specifically on this topic (although I stealthily applied evolutionary/innovation arguments in almost everything I wrote):


 

P.S. This topic is particularly dear to me. My interest for it started 30+ y. ago, as a young legal scholar in Milan. After many difficult and depressing years with my mentor at that time, Prof. Denozza, who didn’t understand/support my research interest for this topic and actually hampered me from pursuing it, I wrote to him that I was quitting his School (call it “Family”) to continue my research in Germany, where I did a PhD in economics on the topic of this week’s discussion in Paris (BTW, losing the support of Prof. Denozza's powerful Academic Family totally ruined my academic prospects in Italy but made me who I am. Reminder: Italy is a country in which you might even become a Competition Commissioner - especially if your father is a good friend of a former neo-fascist who happens to be the President of the Senate - not to mention becoming the AI Chief Technological Strategist because you love potatoes recipes

Tuesday, November 14, 2023

Conceptions of innovation in the DMA

 S. Makris, Video here

Read also Where EU Competition Law and DMA Meet: Innovation Competition – Part I, here

FTC v. Amazon

 Explained by a *customer*, Video  here

Trying to make sense of how all the new chapters in the EU’s digital rulebook

 EDPS, here

Techtonic: The artist suing AI giants

 Article 19, Podcast here

Internet Fatta a Pezzi

 Video qui

Oversight of the Department of Justice Antitrust Division

 Memo, here

Digital Markets Act: Opportunity engine for startups [Hosted by DG Connect - European Commission]

 Web Summit, here

Web Summit 2023: Discussing AI right away (an the AI Act)

 Here (at 41:20). 

Apple Set to Challenge DMA's designations

 Bloomberg, here

Apple says it ‘expects to make’ App Store policy changes due to EU DMA

 TechCrunch, here

FS2/23 – Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning

 Bank of England, here

Digital Market Act designations: the interoperability of Google Android

 F. Scott Morton, here

Licensing high-risk artificial intelligence: Toward ex ante justification for a disruptive technology

 G. Malgieri, F. Pasquale, here

The extraterritorial implications of the Digital Services Act

 DSA Observatory, here

Data Impact: LES USAGES DES DONNÉES AU SERVICE DE LA TRANSITION ÉCOLOGIQUE

Etude, ici; Inventaire des cas d'usage, ici

What Antitrust Experts Want You to Know About the Amazon Trial

 ProMarket, here

The FTC Lawsuit Against Amazon Is the Biggest Antitrust Fight of Our Time

 The Nation, here

Lina Khan in the Lions' Den

Federalist Society, Video, here

New Vision – the DMA, Goals of Antitrust, Compliance

 Olivier Guersent chez Oles, here

Big Tech on Trial: Is Google’s Reckoning Finally Here?

 M. Stoller, here

A Deeper Look into the EU AI Act Trilogues: Fundamental Rights Impact Assessments, Generative AI and a European AI Office

 Kluwer Competition Law Blog, here

Epic v. Google: everything we’re learning live in Fortnite court

 The Verge, here

Wednesday, November 08, 2023

Artificial Intelligence Summit

 Video, here

FTC Approves Final Order Resolving Antitrust Concerns Surrounding ICE, Black Knight Deal

 Here

Google turns to regulators to make Apple open up iMessage

 The Verge, here

G7 Competition Authorities and Policymakers’ Summit Digital Competition Communiqué: Commitment to Address Competition Concerns Arising from Emerging Technologies


 Here

Compendium of approaches to improving competition in digital markets, here

Inventory of ex-ante rules, here

Analytical note on the inventory, here

Governance of foundation models in EU’s AI law starts to take shape

 Luca "Magnus," here

The FTC on copyright and Generative AI

 Here.

"We can't wait for the DMA obligations to be complied with!"

 30 price comparison websites, here




FTC Chair Lina Khan on AI regulation, startup acquisitions, and more

 Y Combinator, here

Monday, November 06, 2023

Is Antitrust policy good for innovation? Yes, amazingly so.

 Lina Khan, Video here

AN EFFECTIVE CHOICE SCREEN UNDER THE DIGITAL MARKETS ACT

 BEUC, here

The Rise of Ecosystem Theories: Where are we after Microsoft/Activision and Booking/etraveli?

 Video, here

Booking / eTraveli: assessing envelopment strategies and mixing up market power thresholds

 D. Mandrescu, here

The EU’s sense for the metaverse

 Euractiv, Podcast here

AI’s proxy war heats up as Google reportedly backs Anthropic with $2B

 TechCrunch, here

U.S. and Plaintiff States v. Google LLC [2020] - Never Stop Giving Trial Exhibits

 Here

OMI on Artificial Intelligence and Copyright

Here.  

16th Annual FTC Microeconomics Conference

 Videos here

FTC v. Amazon, unredacted

Here.  

Meta and Amazon settle UK antitrust probes over use of third-party data to benefit marketplaces

 TechCrunch, here

14 big landlords used software to collude on rent prices, DC lawsuit says

 ArsTechnica, here. Complaint here

Letter From Chair Khan to Rep. Tiffany Regarding Merger Challenges

 Here

Monday, October 16, 2023

The Repressive Power of Artificial Intelligence

 Freedom House, here

8th CUTS-CIRC Biennial Conference on Competition, Regulation and Development

Day one; two.  

Foundation Models Supply Chain

 A recap: 

On compute here;

on accountability here;

on market concentration here


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