Month: January 2021
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ACCC finds lack of competition in ad tech affects publishers, advertisers, and consumers
Australia has turned into one of the key regulatory battlefields for Big Tech – see for example the ongoing acrimonious fight over the news media code, with Google and Facebook threatening to pull out of the country if the proposed code enters into force. In the meantime, following up on its Digital Platforms Inquiry (report…
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The Digital Markets Act proposal: Is this a sound document?
Like most competition lawyers working in the tech space, I eagerly read the Digital Markets Act (DMA) proposal when it came out on 15 December 2020. My first reaction was positive. As a proponent of the idea that some ex ante regulation is needed to address the concerns created by digital gatekeepers, I was pleased…
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CMA opens investigation into Google’s Privacy Sandbox browser changes
The Competition and Markets Authority has just announced it will investigate Google’s decision to remove third-party cookies from its Chrome browser in early 2022 and replace them with a set of proposals known as the Privacy Sandbox (NB: Google has justified this decision on privacy). The investigation – under Chapter II of the Competition Act…
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Digital Platforms and the Law: Ten Predictions for 2021
Happy New Year to the readers of this blog! 2020 was an eventful year for digital platforms – or, at least, the largest of them – with a combination of lawsuits, competition law investigations and regulatory proposals. When we set up our Platform Law Practice at Geradin Partners, we did not know we would be…