Another regulatory brick in the wall for Apple: The iPhone maker agreed this weekend to changes to its App Store in the Netherlands focused on dating apps, agreeing to allow local developers of dating apps to be able to offer non-Apple based payments (via Reuters). In December, the Netherlands Authority for Consumers and Markets (ACM) […]
Google offers behavioral pledges on news payments in France to try to end costly antitrust litigation
In its latest move to placate European competition regulators, Google has offered a set of commitments to France’s antitrust watchdog — in the hopes of settling a costly (for it) intervention over legally mandated payments for displaying snippets of news publishers’ content. Back in July, France’s Autorité de la Concurrence slapped the tech giant with […]
UK’s antitrust watchdog orders Facebook to sell Giphy
In a significant push against big tech’s ability to maintain market dominance through sheer buying power, the UK’s competition watchdog has ordered Facebook (now Meta) to reverse its acquisition of animated GIF platform, Giphy — confirming the Financial Times‘ earlier reporting. The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said its phase 2 investigation cemented its earlier […]
UK privacy watchdog warns adtech the end of tracking is nigh
It’s been well over two years since the UK’s data protection watchdog warned the behavioural advertising industry it’s wildly out of control. The ICO hasn’t done anything to stop the systematic unlawfulness of the tracking and targeting industry abusing Internet users’ personal data to try to manipulate their attention — not in terms of actually […]
Regulator drops BA and Ryanair lockdown flights refund case
Competition and Markets Authority ends four-month investigation saying it cannot justify expenseCoronavirus – latest updatesSee all our coronavirus coverageThe competition regulator has dropped its investigation into whether British Airways and Ryanair…
UK marketing-led group takes antitrust complaint against Google’s Privacy Sandbox to the EU
A coalition of digital marketing firms and others has taken its lobbying against Google’s plan to phase out tracking cookies — by replacing them with alternative technologies which the tech giant claims will protect user privacy — to the European Union, lodging a formal complaint with the bloc’s antitrust regulators. The self-styled “Movement for an […]
UK clears Facebook’s purchase of CRM maker, Kustomer
The UK’s competition watchdog has cleared Facebook’s acquisition of Kustomer, a maker of CRM tools. The purchase was announced last November — with a price-tag we reported as $1BN — but is pending closing after facing regulatory scrutiny. The UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) opened an inquiry on the proposed merger this summer, at […]
Thousands of leaseholders freed from doubling of ground rents
CMA says it will take further action against developers which do not remove such terms from contractsThousands of people who bought leasehold homes from the housing developer Countryside Properties will be freed from costly contract terms, following an…
As UK Gov reaches out to tech, investors threaten to ‘pull capital’ over M&A regulator over-reach
UK competition regulators are spooking tech investors in the country with an implied threat to clamp down on startup M&A, according to a new survey of the industry. As the UK’s Chancellor of the Exchequer engaged with the tech industry at a ‘Chatham House’ style event today, the Coalition for a Digital Economy (Coadec) think-tank […]
UK orders national security review of graphene firm’s takeover by Chinese scientist
Watchdog to look at potential takeover of Wales-based Perpetuus Group by Dr Zhongfu Zhou or Taurus InternationalBusiness secretary Kwasi Kwarteng has ordered a national security review of a takeover by a Chinese academic of a small Welsh manufacturer o…