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The European Commission’s investigation into music streaming: Why Spotify has good reasons to be impatient
Continue reading: The European Commission’s investigation into music streaming: Why Spotify has good reasons to be impatientYesterday, a group of app developers and trade associations urged the Commission to take swift action to bring Apple’s anticompetitive conduct to an end. It is easy to sympathize with their impatience. Almost two years ago, i.e., in April 2021, the Commission sent a statement of objections to Apple on the ground that “it distorted…
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Platform antitrust/regulation in 2023: Our eleven predictions
Continue reading: Platform antitrust/regulation in 2023: Our eleven predictionsHappy New Year to all! The authors of this blog wish you the best for what will be a thrilling year for those interested in platforms. It has never been more exciting to operate in the tech space. To start the new year, we have put our heads together to make eleven predictions about 2023.…
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Amazon settles EU allegations regarding third-party sellers on Amazon Marketplace: some progress made but much remains to be done
Continue reading: Amazon settles EU allegations regarding third-party sellers on Amazon Marketplace: some progress made but much remains to be doneThe European Commission has accepted a set of legally-binding commitments offered by Amazon to settle two long-running antitrust investigations into whether Amazon has abused its dominant position in e-commerce. In doing so, the Commission will not issue a formal infringement decision and will not impose a fine. This is a significant outcome for these…
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The draft Implementing Regulation of the Digital Markets Act: Initial thoughts
Continue reading: The draft Implementing Regulation of the Digital Markets Act: Initial thoughtsOn Friday 9 December 2022, the European Commission (“Commission”) published three documents relating to the implementation of the Digital Markets Act. Interested parties have until 6 January 2023 to comment on these documents. The purpose of this blog post is not to provide a detailed description of these documents, but some first general impressions. These…
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Ofcom’s discussion document on media plurality and online news: Lessons for future regulatory interventions in the UK and beyond
Continue reading: Ofcom’s discussion document on media plurality and online news: Lessons for future regulatory interventions in the UK and beyondOn 16 November, Ofcom published a discussion document on media plurality and online news. The discussion document sets out Ofcom’s understanding of the role that online platforms, such as social media, search engines and news aggregators, play in the UK news ecosystem. Ofcom’s discussion document focuses on hot (yet understudied) topics. Even though it is now widely acknowledged that…
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Some additional thoughts on the General Court’s judgment in Google Android
Continue reading: Some additional thoughts on the General Court’s judgment in Google AndroidThis is the second post on the General Court’s judgment in Google Android (T-604/18) delivered earlier this year (which Google has in the meantime appealed to the Court of Justice). As in the first post (available here), I would like to discuss some issues that caught my attention while reading the judgment, rather than summarize…
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The CMA’s investigation of competition restrictions regarding browsers
Continue reading: The CMA’s investigation of competition restrictions regarding browsersOn 22 November 2022, the CMA launched a market investigation into cloud gaming and mobile browsers. In this post, I focus on this investigation as it relates to mobile browsers. This blog has already discussed cloud gaming in an earlier post, and we will return to the topic in the future. CMA market investigations must…
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Full steam ahead for the UK Digital Markets Unit
Continue reading: Full steam ahead for the UK Digital Markets UnitUK politics has been in a parlous state. Today the UK’s Chancellor of the Exchequer attempted to stabilize the country’s finances by announcing some eye-watering tax rises and spending cuts in the Autumn Statement. However, of more relevance to readers of this blog, he also made a significant announcement about the legislation required to implement…
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Why it is now clear that the Australian ex ante regime will be much closer to the proposed UK regime than the EU Digital Markets Act
Continue reading: Why it is now clear that the Australian ex ante regime will be much closer to the proposed UK regime than the EU Digital Markets ActOn 11 November 2022, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (“ACCC”) released the fifth interim report for the Digital Platform Services inquiry (the “Interim Report”). This report recommends a range of new measures to address harms from digital platforms to Australian consumers, small businesses and competition. The diagnostic of the ACCC is not different from…
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The Commission’s proposals for AI Liability Rules
Continue reading: The Commission’s proposals for AI Liability RulesAs part of its ongoing work to regulate the digital economy, the European Commission (“the Commission”) recently put forward the proposal for a Revised Product Liability Directive (“RPLD”) and the proposal for the Artificial Intelligence (“AI”) Liability Directive. Both proposals are relevant for the regulation of AI systems in Europe, each approaching this issue from…