As we are now less than 6 weeks away from the expected publication by the Commission of its proposals on ex ante regulation for so-called “digital gatekeepers” and the New Competition Tool (“NCT”), rumours abound as to the exact scope and content of these proposals. What seems clear now is that the ex ante regulation…

Like many antitrust lawyers, yesterday I spent most of my evening reading the DoJ complaint against Google. Although I need to read again several parts, here is my preliminary analysis summarized in ten points: This is not a political case of the type some predicted. It has nothing to do with Google search being allegedly…

As the European Commission is digesting the (voluminous) results of its public consultation on the upcoming Digital Services Act (“DSA”) package and preparing a proposal for what is described in its “Inception Impact Assessment” as an “ex ante regulatory instrument for large online platforms with significant network effects acting as gate-keepers in the European Union’s…

As has been widely reported in the press, Google has decided to adopt a more aggressive approach to the enforcement of the obligation imposed on app developers offering in-app purchases of digital goods on Google Play to use Google’s proprietary payment solution “Google Play In-App Billing” and pay the associated 30% commission. At the same…

The past couple of years have seen the launch and, in most cases, completion of multiple studies by competition authorities as well as independent bodies on what needs to be done to address the competition challenges created by large digital platforms (see, e.g., the UK Furman report, the U.S. Stigler report, the EC Competition Policy…