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New paper on Chrome and the Privacy Sandbox
Continue reading: New paper on Chrome and the Privacy SandboxIn an earlier post discussing the fate of targeted advertising, I noted that much of the current debate centers around issues of competition and privacy, and the inevitable trade-offs between them. While personalized advertising promises benefits for publishers and advertisers (and in theory users that value relevant ads), it is under increasing pressure from privacy…
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Digital Markets Act: Why the CERRE Recommendations Paper gets it entirely right
Continue reading: Digital Markets Act: Why the CERRE Recommendations Paper gets it entirely rightA lot of things have been written about the Digital Markets Act, which will be proposed by the Commission on 9 December. In most cases, I agree with some of the recommendations made, while disagreeing with others. For the first time, however, I fully agree with a set of recommendations made by others, which is…
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Taming the big tech platforms: DG COMP’s remedy problem (as illustrated by the Google saga)
Continue reading: Taming the big tech platforms: DG COMP’s remedy problem (as illustrated by the Google saga)While the European Commission has often been hailed as the world’s fiercest antitrust enforcer for hanging down two major antitrust decisions against Google, i.e. the so-called Shopping and Android decisions, which were accompanied by hefty fines, the reality is that the companies harmed by Google’s behaviour are highly critical of these decisions given their lack…
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Apple reduces App Store commission for small developers: Shall we all be happy?
Continue reading: Apple reduces App Store commission for small developers: Shall we all be happy?Apple has attracted significant regulatory attention for obliging iOS apps selling “digital goods or services” to use its payment solution In-App Purchase (IAP) to accept user payments and pay a related 30 % commission. Apple’s policy on in-app payments is at the core of the Commission’s ongoing investigation into Apple (following complaints by developers Spotify…
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What should be the fate of targeted advertising?
Continue reading: What should be the fate of targeted advertising?In a video for The New York Times, computer scientist and philosopher Jaron Lanier described online advertising as “the little space in the middle” combining capitalism with the “socialist” concept that Internet content should be free. Now a multi-billion-dollar industry, online advertising is what funds free online content. It is also what has elevated Google…
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Ex ante regulation of digital gatekeepers: Which institutional mechanisms?
Continue reading: Ex ante regulation of digital gatekeepers: Which institutional mechanisms?Over the past few weeks, I have authored several blog posts (see here, here and here) on the Commission’s anticipated proposal for a Digital Markets Act, which would apparently comprise two pillars, i.e. ex ante regulation for so-called “digital gatekeepers” and the New Competition Tool. My posts shared some thoughts on the first of these…
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How tech platforms act as private regulators of privacy
Continue reading: How tech platforms act as private regulators of privacyIn an insightful article on AdExchanger, Allison Schiff notes that the ad industry is facing two interrelated “existential threats“: government legislation (think of e.g., the GDPR or the CCPA) and policy changes coming from big tech (Google and Apple). But, contrary to what one might initially think, it is the platforms’ changes that are the…
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The Digital Markets Act : How should ex ante rules look like?
Continue reading: The Digital Markets Act : How should ex ante rules look like?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…
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The U.S. v. Google: A preliminary analysis in ten points
Continue reading: The U.S. v. Google: A preliminary analysis in ten pointsLike 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…
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What is a digital gatekeeper (Part 2)? The relevance of the single-homing v. multi-homing debate
Continue reading: What is a digital gatekeeper (Part 2)? The relevance of the single-homing v. multi-homing debateAs the Commission has announced that it will issue its proposal for ex ante regulation for so-called digital gatekeepers in the beginning of December, there are growing rumours about the form this regulation will take, the platforms that will be captured and the substantive rules that will be contained in this regulation. As to the…