Tag: privacy
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A Dutch Merricks? Amsterdam Court of Appeal rules on fundamentals of class actions in TPC v Oracle and Salesforce
Class actions in which damages can be awarded on a collective basis are still a relatively new phenomenon in Europe, with the UK, Portuguese and Dutch opt-out collective action regimes seen as frontrunners. It has dawned on policymakers and lawyers alike that damages can be suffered across a broad and disparate group of victims, which…
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The CMA Final Report on the Mobile Ecosystems market study: a repudiation of Apple’s narrative over privacy and safety as justifications for the status quo
On 10 June 2022, the UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) published its Final Report on its year-long market study into mobile ecosystems – namely mobile operating systems, app stores, and web browsers. The CMA found that Apple and Google have a tight grip over these increasingly crucial ecosystems, which in turn places them in…
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CRA and Geradin Partners Conference on Ad Tech, Competition Policy and Privacy Issues
Dear blog readers, I would like to invite you to the above event, which will take place on 19 April 2022 in London from 1 to 6pm. It is possible to attend the event either in-person or online. Please see all details and the registration form here. Access to the conference is free. The event…
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EU probes Google’s ad tech business
Another day, another antitrust investigation into Google’s ad tech business. This time the probe was launched by the European Commission (the “Commission”), which has already fined Google three times for engaging in anticompetitive conduct. As readers of this blog are probably aware, Google’s practices in ad tech have captured considerable regulatory attention: the French Autorité…
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CMA publishes commitments offered by Google with respect to its Privacy Sandbox proposals, seeks comments
Last Friday the UK Competition and Markets Authority (“CMA”) published a 93-page long notice of intention to accept commitments offered by Google in relation to its Privacy Sandbox proposals, inviting all interested parties to submit their observations. By way of reminder, the CMA launched an investigation back in January 2021 into Google’s removal of third-party…
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Unpacking Google’s latest blog post on web tracking
Yesterday Google published a blog post regarding its approach to web tracking once third-party cookies are phased out in Chrome. The post was the talk of the day all over Twitter and the mainstream press, and certain commentators even suggested that Google has pledged to stop selling ads based on individual web browsing (a monumental…
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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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New paper on Chrome and the Privacy Sandbox
In 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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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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Launching The Platform Law Blog
My team and I at Geradin Partners are excited to announce the launch of the Platform Law Blog, a blog dedicated to (digital) platforms and the issues they raise in the digital economy for competition policy and privacy. Do not forget to subscribe to receive the latest news and commentary on these topics! (Image source:…