Big data

Artificial Intelligence, Big data, Competition enforcement, Competition law, Competition policy, Competition proceedings

(ICR Economic Research)/ /Leave a comment

You’ve probably all seen the terror ChatGPT has unleashed on white collars, from research analysts to copywriters, over the past two months. What about lawyers, economists, or paralegals working in competition law? Let’s summarise for those who haven’t heard yet: ChatGPT is a chatbot created by OpenAI. It became the fastest-growing app in history, reaching…

Antitrust, Apple, Big data, Competition enforcement, Digital competition, Digital economy, Digital markets, Dominance, Enforcement, Germany, Online platforms

(Heinz & Zagrosek Partner mbB, Germany)/ /Leave a comment

In January 2021, the latest reform of the German competition law (“ARC”) entered into force, including significant new rules regarding digital platform markets.  These include new powers for the Federal Cartel Office (“FCO”) under Section 19a ARC regarding digital gatekeepers with paramount cross-market significance for competition (for more details on the new norm, see here). A…

Abuse of dominance, Advertising, Algorithms, Apple, Big data, Data protection, Digital economy, Digital Markets Act, Digital Services Act, E-commerce, European Union, Facebook, France, Google, Online advertising, Online advertising restrictions, Online platforms, Platforms

(BEUC, the European Consumer Organisation) and (University of Vienna, Austria)/ /2 Comments

Recently, Google and Apple have changed their policy for targeted online advertising. Privacy-conscious users have been switching to alternatives for years, however, completely avoiding being tracked by online tech giants is virtually impossible. Nevertheless, the online ad industry has grown tremendously in the last decade, and targeted behavioural advertising has become ubiquitous in the online…

Algorithms, Big data, Digital economy, Digital markets, Digital Markets Act, Digital Services Act, E-commerce, European Commission, European Union, New Competition Tool, Online platforms, Platforms, Vestager

(Loyens & Loeff, Netherlands) and (Loyens & Loeff)/ /Leave a comment

“I’ve been wondering how to give a metaphor because these are two quite complex proposals. And the best thing I came to think of was the first-ever traffic light that brought order in the streets, that was actually in the US, in Cleveland Ohio. And that was invented as a response to a major technological…

Abuse of dominance, Antitrust, Big data, Canada, Competition law, Competition policy, Digital competition, Digital markets, Digitisation, E-commerce, E-communications, Enforcement, Merger control, Merger regulation, Mergers, Minority shareholding

(Davies Ward Phillips & Vineberg LLP, Canada)/ /Leave a comment

The Davies Forecast of Top 5 Trends and Issues for Canadian Competition Law in 2020 Jim Dinning, Anita Banicevic and Mark Katz Here is Davies’ annual forecast of Canadian competition law developments for the year ahead. 1. FOCUS ON THE DIGITAL ECONOMY Given the Competition Bureau’s stated priorities during the tenure of current Commissioner of…

Antitrust, Big data, Russia

, (ALRUD)/ /Leave a comment

The trend to digitalization has captured the economies of almost all progressive and developing countries and influenced activities of companies doing business in Russia, as well. As the Federal Antimonopoly Service (“FAS Russia”) stressed, the markets are becoming more complicated and digital. It means that virtually every company that has a computer could be considered…

Big data, Innovation, Merger control, South Korea

, , (Kim & Chang)/ /2 Comments

On February 26, 2019, the Korea Fair Trade Commission (“KFTC”) announced in its official press release that, as of February 27, 2019, a new set of standards for reviewing mergers in R&D-intensive industries and those involving “big data” will be introduced in the Merger Review Guideline (“Amended Guideline”).  The Amended Guideline marks one of the…

Abuse of dominance, Big data, Data protection, Facebook, Germany, Online platforms

(Heinz & Zagrosek Partner mbB, Germany)/ /Leave a comment

On February 7, 2019, Germany’s Federal Cartel Office (“FCO”) issued its long-awaited decision in the Facebook case, see press release and background paper in English here. It qualifies Facebook’s current practice of collecting and matching data of its users from third-party services/websites, including on What’sApp and Instagram, without explicit consent as an abuse of dominance.  Facebook…

Big data, European Union, Mergers

(Baker McKenzie)/ /Leave a comment

Unlike recent merger cases where the Commission looked at the concentration of data within a merged entity, the Commission’s focus in Apple/Shazam was on vertical concerns, including as a result of access to Shazam customer data.  The focus was more about the potential impact on Apple’s rivals rather than whether the acquisition of data would…

Abuse of dominance, Antitrust, Big data, Competition law, Economics, Enforcement, Germany

(Heinz & Zagrosek Partner mbB, Germany)/ /1 Comment

On September 4, 2018, the German Ministry for Economic Affairs has published a report by economic and legal experts analyzing some key issues of abuse of market power in the digital platform economy (see an English summary here.) The report provides an overview of the status quo and recommendations, and is understood to be the…