By Dr. Konstantina Bania With its Grand Chamber judgment in Meta Platforms Ireland v AGCOM (C‑797/23), the Court of Justice of the EU has handed down a major ruling on Article 15 of the DSM Copyright Directive. Beneath the technicalities lies a clear policy signal: the Court is willing to let Member States wrap the press publishers’…

By Dr. Konstantina Bania and Philine Wassenaar A deep dive into the European Commission’s first wave of Digital Markets Act enforcement, ongoing investigations, and what the 2026 review tells us about regulating Big Tech in the age of AI The promise and the reality Two years ago, the EU launched one of its most ambitious…

Over the past decade, a striking paradox has emerged in digital content markets. On the one hand, we have an unprecedented explosion of creativity; independent journalists, podcasters, musicians, game developers and influencers can, in principle, reach global audiences from a laptop. On the other hand, a shrinking number of platforms increasingly determine which content is…

On 5 March 2026, the Court of Justice of the EU (CJEU) ruled in Žaidimų valiuta (C-472/24)[1] on the VAT treatment of (grey market) transactions concerning an in-game virtual currency (Gold) in Runescape, a game developed by Jagex.  The Court held, in substance, that in-game Gold is not a virtual currency or a voucher. Rather, it is “an electronic service…

By Dr. Konstantina Bania By the time a digital‑markets case reaches a court room, a paradoxical situation has arisen: the business model in the file is obsolete, the market definition section reads like historical fiction, and the junior in chambers is already using the platform that judges were told “doesn’t really exist”. That mismatch between…

By Dr. Konstantina Bania A California jury has done something US courts have long refused to do: hold Meta and YouTube legally responsible not for what users post, but for how their platforms are designed to keep children hooked. By finding defective design and negligence and bypassing the traditional safe harbour of Section 230, the…

Parity clauses remain firmly on the German competition authority’s radar, as the recent CHECK24 case illustrates. More importantly, the authority’s concerns are not limited to classic contractual clauses. They also extend to ranking, visibility and other commercial tools capable of producing similar effects. What happened The German Federal Cartel Office closed its investigation into CHECK24…

In November 2025, the European Commission (“Commission”) proposed a “Digital Omnibus” regulation to amend several EU legislations.[1] Although presented as a simplification exercise to strengthen Europe’s competitiveness, the proposal revisits key provisions of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the e-Privacy-Directive concerning the use of personal data, including for advertising purposes. The changes could…

1. After opening on 9 January 2026 an ex officio investigation in the conversational agents sector, the French Autorité de la concurrence (the “Authority”) has launched on 29 January 2026 a public consultation in this regard (the “Consultation”), marking another step in the Authority’s scrutiny of the generative Artificial Intelligence (“AI”) value chain.[1] 2. Stakeholders still have a bit…