MLex Market Insight: Recent Episodes
MLex Market Insight
Listen in as MLex expert contributors discuss some of the most important developments in regulatory risk and opportunity worldwide.
In April, MLex Chief Global Digital Risk Correspondent Mike Swift sat down with Benjamin Wiseman, the US Federal Trade Commission's Associate Director, Division of Privacy and Identity Protection, for a deep-dive discussion of pressing privacy issues for 2024—including child privacy and addictive algorithms, healthcare data, personal data autonomy and unfair use of AI.
As 5,000 lawyers, regulators, academics and technologists convened for the International Association of Privacy Professionals Global Privacy Summit 2024, a team of MLex journalists were in Washington DC to chronicle the most important yearly gathering of the world’s privacy community. Covering GPS panels on artificial intelligence, data transfers and an array of privacy issues, and interviewing key regulators on the sidelines of the conference, the MLex team gathered after the conference to share their insights on the event.
Polish Justice Minister Adam Bodnar talks about his country's steps to reverse eight years of policies by the previous government. Bodnar, a former human rights commissioner, wants to show European Union officials that Poland has turned the page from the Law and Justice Party. Restoring ties with the EU — and unblocking EU funds that were suspended over a rule-of-law dispute — are top priorities.
Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen talks about the regulatory and legal fallout that followed her release of documents to the press that detailed internal studies about how Facebook’s algorithm worked. She’s now using her nonprofit Beyond the Screen to push for regulatory change as the company is fighting hundreds of lawsuits for allegedly harming its youngest users for big profits.
Even as it surpasses a database of 40 billion faces to train its algorithms, the founder and chief executive of Clearview AI told MLex in an exclusive interview that it isn't going back to doing business in Europe, the UK, Canada or Australia, where the controversial facial-recognition startup has faced regulatory opposition. In the US, however, Clearview has put many of its most thorny legal problems behind it, according to Hoan Ton-That.
Australian merger laws are facing a revamp, amid concerns that the voluntary-notification system was being gamed by global dealmakers. But while there’s broad agreement that the voluntary component of the existing regime needs to be scrapped, there are divisions about which model Australia should embrace. The antitrust regulator is campaigning for a formal but speedy model; lawyers are campaigning for a US-style model that would give their clients ready access to the Federal Court of Australia. MLex has covered all the twists and turns of the debate and spoken to key players in the process, including Chief Adviser to the Competition Taskforce Marcus Bezzi and Australian Competition & Consumer Commission Chair Gina Cass-Gottlieb.
Věra Jourová is a Czech politician and lawyer who has been European Commissioner for Values and Transparency since 2019. She previously served as the EU’s Justice Commissioner. More recently, she has added digital duties after the EU’s digital commissioner Margethe Vestager took a leave of absence. Jourová is now responsible for the enforcement of the Digital Services Act, the EU’s landmark content-moderation legislation. The tragic events unfolding in the Middle East and social-media platforms’ role in spreading disinformation has been the first test for the DSA. Jourová is also focused on the AI Act, which is another initiative that has caught global attention. In an extended conversation with MLex reporters Matthew Newman and Sam Clark, Jourová goes over how she handles meetings with some of the biggest leaders of Silicon Valley to ensure they follow the EU’s new rules.
Anu Talus, who succeeded Andrea Jelinek to become the second chair of the European Data Protection Board in May, hopes to build on Jelinek’s work as she focuses on making GDPR enforcement more coherent, efficient and harmonized across the bloc’s member states. In an extended conversation with MLex on the sidelines of the Global Privacy Assembly meetings this year, Talus discussed issues ranging from the EDPB’s highly unusual step of making permanent and EU-wide a temporary Norwegian ban on Meta Platforms targeting users with behavioral-based ads without their consent issued under the GDPR’s urgency procedure, to how she entered the data protection field years ago.
Approaching his second anniversary as the UK’s Information Commissioner, John Edwards believes the culture change he has led since taking the job at the start of 2022 has the regulator ready for an “agile” spectrum of responses to data protection problems.Sitting down with MLex recently for an extended conversation at the Global Privacy Assembly meetings in Bermuda, Edwards discussed the need for data protection regulators to have a more assertive response to the privacy risks of generative artificial intelligence than they had to the rise of social media business models more than a decade ago. For companies that want to comply with UK data protection law, Edwards said the ICO now has an array of tools and guidance showing that “we’re there to walk with you and to help you” comply with the law.Edwards believes the UK has a unique and important place on the world’s data protection stage — close to Europe in terms of its privacy law but influenced by the US and the Pacific Rim in terms of its interpretation. “We have potential to act as a bridge between different data protection traditions,” he said.
Halimah DeLaine Prado is Google’s top lawyer, leading what she describes as an in-house, multidisciplinary law firm within the tech giant. As Google marks its 25th birthday this fall, it has rarely, if ever, been under more legal pressure around the world, including multiple antitrust and privacy trials in the US that could force changes to the crown jewels of its business – search, the Google Play app store and its digital ads ecosystem. During an extended conversation with MLex, DeLaine Prado talked about her hopes that Google can avoid “a race to the bottom” on privacy by nudging the ad industry toward a more privacy-protective future.
On today’s podcast we interview a leading European Union lawmaker about the EU’s proposed Artificial Intelligence Act. Eva Maydell, a member of the European Parliament involved in the final talks on the AI Act, discusses how the EU's pioneering bill shouldn’t be made “so burdensome or so uninviting” that AI investors avoid or leave Europe. She describes how the bill could be a "global standard" and how the parliament's approach balances a stress on centralized enforcement and innovation. She also gives a hint on the prospects of finalizing negotiations on the law this year.
Sam Levine, the new head of the Federal Trade Commission’s Bureau of Consumer Protection, says he’s proud of his agency’s recent achievements on protecting the public by using the “very broad, flexible authority” conferred by the law. In an in-depth interview with MLex, Levine says that the FTC Act allows the Bureau to pursue technology companies over privacy concerns, even if practices have been disclosed in a privacy policy. As for generative AI, while the technology may be new, Levine says that the FTC has been thinking about issues involving artificial intelligence for many years.
New draft merger guidelines published by the US Federal Trade Commission and the Department of Justice appear designed to give the two antitrust enforcers a much-needed boost to how they tackle the review of big deals. The 13 principles outlined shed light on the departments’ thinking. However, critics say that the document’s selective use of caselaw, along with its much tighter review thresholds, is cause for concern. What’s more, it remains unclear whether the guidelines will be embraced by the courts.
The European Union has new powers to police subsidies handed out by foreign governments — powers designed to ensure that state support doesn’t distort merger activity and public procurement. However, with new powers comes great responsibility — and a solid supply of red tape. The European Commission will also be able to open investigations into state subsidies of its own initiative — yet achieving the goal of a level playing field may yet prove elusive.
The ultimately unsuccessful attempt to hire an American competition expert to fill the coveted role of chief economist with the European Commission’s antitrust division has highlighted institutional divisions in the bloc. No-one involved in the Fiona Scott Morton affair has emerged well from the fiasco, which pitted French President Emmanuel Macron against EU Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager. The controversy has also raised questions about revolving doors with Big Tech and whether an American should ever be considered for key roles in the EU executive.
There’s a growing sense of frustration and disquiet among European carmakers, as they become increasingly vocal about how EU emissions policies will affect them. While they’re broadly on board with the need to build up the production of electric vehicles, they’re calling for a more flexible and pragmatic approach from the regulators over the timelines for the transition. Above all, automakers fear that jurisdictions around the world that aren’t facing the same regulatory burdens and state-aid restrictions may be getting the upper hand.
New rules designed to curb the European Union’s outbound investment in the name of geo-political security may prove politically fraught, with European business bristling at the announcement. At the heart of these new rules lies the hope that the capital, research, expertise and knowledge of EU companies isn’t used to fuel technological advances that could enhance foreign military and intelligence capabilities. Yet imposing these rules without harming the EU’s economic interests may prove problematic.
On paper, the EU’s proposal to pursue a design for a digital euro should be viewed favorably by the bloc’s banks, because the model targets retail consumers, intermediated by banks and payment-service providers. This should allay the banks’ fear of being sidelined by the digital-euro ecosystem. However, the problem may now lie with convincing consumers of the attractiveness of a digital currency.
Google is back in the European Union’s firing line over its ad businesses, with the bloc’s enforcer suggesting that the tech giant’s operations may be anticompetitive. But what’s truly radical about this most recent clash is the remedy that top official Margrethe Vestager is putting on the table: a requirement that Google divest part of its services. A forced breakup of a significant company isn’t how the European Commission usually does business. This time, however, EU enforcers can look across the Atlantic to build its case for some old-school trust-busting.
The whirlwind tour of Asia by the head of OpenAI has been unfolding against the backdrop of growing concern over the need to regulate generative artificial intelligence. Yet the call by Sam Altman for authorities in Asia to consider a light-touch approach appears in synch with at least some jurisdictions in the region, where policy makers appear both aware of the concerns and determined to harness a technology they believe could boost efficiency and productivity.
On today’s podcast we examine the regulatory scramble around the world to meet the challenge posed by artificial intelligence and its many applications. The European Union and the United States are urgently seeking to develop a code of conduct, in a bid to establish “guardrails” for generative AI. Meanwhile, the CEO of OpenAI, Sam Altman, is on a barnstorming tour of national capitals, hoping to convince regulators around the world to rein in the very technology his company is developing. But while there may be some synergy between regulators and industry, the development of AI regulation is still likely to be contentious.
Article 102 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the EU has a glorious past, having been used by the bloc’s antitrust regulators to inflict real pain on Big Tech — including Microsoft, Google and Intel. But over the past few years, the legislation has lost some of its shine, with lawyers, economists and the companies themselves deploying an increased level of sophistication when challenging enforcement action by the European Commission. Now, the EU’s antitrust regulator is working on changes designed to again showcase the weapon it had previously deployed so effectively.
Five years have gone by since the implementation of the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation but managers at Meta Platforms aren’t likely celebrate the milestone. On Monday of this week, the tech giant’s Facebook social-media platform received a whopping $1.3 billion fine. The Meta unit was also told to stop transferring personal data from the EU to the US, in what is being described as the most consequential GDPR enforcement action that could be taken. On this week’s podcast, our reporters mull over the impact of the EU privacy regulators’ decision and what the GDPR has meant globally for privacy and data-security legislation.
The “Brexit dividend” was the assurance that the United Kingdom’s economy stood to gain from the country leaving the European Union. The theory was that, once unshackled from the EU’s burdensome regulation, the UK be able to apply a light-touch to rules and become a European economic powerhouse. That dividend has yet to materialize, however, with some businesses complaining that the red tape they’re facing in post-Brexit Britain, along with overbearing regulators, is worse than ever. Recent developments suggest the government has its work cut out for it if it wants to change that narrative.
With inflation rampant around the globe, antitrust authorities are facing public and political pressure to act against companies seen as using the global trend to ramp up prices. However, a lack of evidence of collusion has left many regulators feeling impotent. In this week’s podcast, we discuss ways in which some jurisdictions are using market investigations or rules on unilateral conduct to combat anticompetitive behavior, in the shadow of high inflation.
Microsoft has lashed out at the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority over its decision to veto the software giant’s $69 billion acquisition of gaming company Activision Blizzard. Microsoft President Brad Smith called the decision “the darkest day of our four decades in Britain,” warning that the regulator’s red light had shaken the company’s confidence about doing business in the UK. On this week’s podcast, MLex’s M&A team examines the fallout of the CMA’s decision and what it means for the prospects of the global deal.
South Korea has been at the forefront of digital-platform regulation for many years now. But since 2022, the country has been trying something new: self-regulation. The concept has been put forward as an alternative to platform-specific legislation and it requires powerful platforms, to create their own rules and standards. Now, in an exclusive interview, Korea Fair Trade Commission Chairman Han Ki-jeong talks about the new direction and what it means for antitrust enforcement.
It’s one thing to lose a high-profile antitrust lawsuit targeting a tech behemoth on the merits of the case; having a judge rule against you for missing deadlines is another. Yet a procedural stumble was enough to place the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority on the receiving end of a court ruling that upended its probe of Apple’s mobile browser and cloud-gaming services. The recent ruling of the Competition Appeal Tribunal in Apple’s favor was a reminder that, whatever its motives, the regulator can’t escape statutory obligations over procedure.
The trade confrontation between the US and China is reverberating in Japan, where businesses are facing a flurry of regulations imposed as a result of the growing tension between the two powers. It’s a particularly complex issue for Japan, given that China is the country’s largest trading partner and the US its second-largest. The geopolitical concerns have prompted some Japanese businesses to diversify their supply chains; however, given the size of the Chinese market, Japanese companies aren’t expected to walk away from China any time soon.
MLex’s data-privacy and security team was out in force at the International Association of Privacy Professionals Global Privacy Summit 2023, held in Washington, DC. And there was no shortage of news for our reporters to cover — including the latest chatter on the pesky chatbot ChatGPT. Perhaps unusually, there was also a degree of optimism on the part of those who believe that democracies are converging on data protection, with hope that the privacy chasm that has endangered the legal flow of data between the EU and the US will be bridged. Our reporters were also able to sit down with the top privacy officials from Canada and South Korea.
For antitrust enforcers wanting to get a message out to the world, the American Bar Association’s Antitrust Spring Meeting is a time to shine. This year was no exception — in fact, with Covid-related travel restrictions now a thing of the past, attendance at the Washington DC even was up. US federal and state enforcers were there to remind the antitrust community that they’re nobody’s concierge — with both civil and criminal enforcement now on the cards. Senior European regulators were also out in force at the ABA, with discussion about the UK’s merger reviews and the European Commission’s decision to examine its policy framework on how it applies dominance rules. MLex’s reporters were at the event, keeping an eye out for the trends and an ear to the ground for all of the latest antitrust gossip.
Whether it’s the enormous — even subversive — potential of the GPTChat program, or the “Balenciaga Pope” Internet meme, artificial intelligence remains in the news. But in Europe, as in the United States, regulators are playing catch-up — albeit to differing degrees. In the European Union, AI regulation is advancing swiftly, even as it gets caught up in the bloc’s complex legislative processes; In the United Kingdom, a policy proposal is still firmly on the drawing board. The two jurisdictions’ approaches are comparable, yet different in key areas. The UK is opting for light-touch policy; the EU appears set to lock in more specific regulation. But both models are facing a challenge: how to harness the innovative potential of AI.
The recent European Court of Justice victory for TowerCast has reverberated around the European Union, with the court’s decision suggesting a path for regulators to deal with so-called killer acquisitions. The court sided with an interpretation confirming that a prohibition on abuse of a dominant position is an acceptable avenue for officials wanting to block deals that involve established companies buying startups to shut down any risk of future competition. The decision is now casting a shadow over Illumina’s jurisdictional appeal for its acquisition of Grail — an acquisition that has been vetoed by the European Commission.
Last week’s collapse of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank has again focused world attention on the health of US-based lenders and the regulatory framework in which they operate. The US government stepped in to protect deposits, as investors rushed to withdraw their funds — Silicon Valley Bank suffered a $42 billion run in a single day. However, attention in now turning to whether more stringent regulation could have detected the problems sooner. Meanwhile, the Bank of England moved swiftly to stabilize Silicon Valley Bank’s UK unit — a move that suggests the BOE’s resolution powers are working as they should.
Once the realm of science fiction, today the prospect of artificial intelligence having a say in our lives is demanding the attention of regulators and lawmakers. In the US, a patchwork of state privacy laws taking effect this year includes the right not to let increasingly sophisticated AI and machine-learning technologies use personal data to make decisions about consumers. Yet for companies planning to deploy AI for the processing of personal data, the impact of these rules remains uncertain.
The technology developments for connected and automated cars are intersecting across a number of global policy areas. From privacy regulation, to global trade discussions and national energy policy debates, these breakthrough vehicles look set to not only revolutionize our daily lives, but also global auto markets and the rules that govern them.
Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, the foundational law that underpins the modern Internet, is facing its first-ever review in the US Supreme Court. The lawsuits targeting Twitter and YouTube are set to establish whether the platforms should be held responsible for hosting extremist content. The case could lead to one of the most important court decisions of the first three decades of online commercial activity, with Big Tech lawyers warning that the court’s decision could “upend the Internet.
On paper, Meta won its court case against the US Federal Trade Commission fair and square, allowing it to acquire Within, a software company that develops apps for virtual-reality devices. Yet the outcome could have been worse for the US antitrust enforcer: Meta failed in its attempt to convince the judge that the FTC had used “dead letter” law; the tech giant also fell short in its claim that the relevant market for VR fitness apps was particularly competitive. Yet the FTC’s failure to provide evidence to prove the counterfactual — that Meta’s “Operation Twinkie” would have seen the company develop its own VR fitness app — is likely to prompt some soul-searching.
US President Joe Biden has sounded a warning to social-media companies: Put child safety ahead of profits. Meanwhile, some lawmakers and policy officials are arguing that the best way to keep children out of harm’s way is to ensure they stay off social-media platforms altogether. For its part, the FTC says that to address the problem, it needs to get a better understanding of the kind of harm children may be suffering when logging on to digital platforms — an understanding that may require the agency to hire staff psychologists.
In the first of a three-part podcast series about the US Federal Trade Commission, the MLex panel discusses the high-profile clashes at the very top of the agency. The antitrust world was rocked recently about the very noisy resignation of Commissioner Christine Wilson. Today’s program examines the extent to which the criticisms leveled by Wilson at FTC Chair Lina Khan go beyond the normal cut-and-thrust of US political divisions.
Assa Abloy’s move to outflank a US Department of Justice attempt to block the Swedish-based conglomerate’s acquisition of a Spectrum Brands unit has sparked a heated debate. After the DOJ moved to block the deal, amid competition concerns, Assa Abloy announced it was ready to divest two of its divisions to scupper the DOJ’s competition concerns. But its next move was to take those remedies to a court — a move dubbed “litigating the fix.” The tactic is likely to advance federal caselaw and may set the stage for future clashes, as the US’s antitrust agencies strengthen their position on remedies.
As one of Australia’s top antitrust lawyers, Gina Cass-Gottlieb had a reputation for being calm, measured and in control — honing a consensus-based leadership style that appears to have served her well. Now, as the head of the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission, Cass-Gottlieb’s sang froid will be put to the test, as the competition enforcer grapples with its criminal-cartel enforcement agenda, while taking on well-resourced tech companies and holding payment companies up to scrutiny. In an extended interview with MLex’s Sydney-based correspondent Laurel Henning, Cass-Gottlieb discusses both how she got to where she is and the way forward for her agency.
Why would US automakers be taking such a close interest in privacy policy in the US? The answer is simple: smart cars. The personal data generated by the next generation of connected vehicles means that, as data harvesters, carmakers will be comparable to smartphone makers and app developers. And with state governments developing their own privacy legislation, the auto industry is doing what it can to ensure that the management of the data vehicles collect isn’t caught up in restrictive regulation.
Today’s podcast brings together MLex financial-services reporters around the globe to discuss our most recent special report, covering the regulation of crypto assets and policies that address sustainable finance.
Google has found itself fighting essentially the same battle in two different courts against two different coalitions of enforcers. In so doing, the search giant is exposing itself to a potential court loss that could see it forced to divest parts of its digital advertising business. Meanwhile, Google is also alone among the tech giants in its adversarial relationship with California’s attorney general.
Meta Platforms can expect a bruising 2023 when it comes to data protection enforcement in Europe, with a series of cases taking aim at its business model and the possibility of more hefty fines and settlements on the horizon. And in the United States, the road ahead is just as rough, with the company agreeing to pay $725 million to settle claims relating to its decision to allow apps on Facebook’s platform to access users’ personal data. Yet with the tech company’s access to data now being challenged worldwide, the hefty fines may prove to be the least of the tech giant’s problems.
The Year of the Rabbit will play out against an interesting background for Chinese antitrust policy and enforcement. On the one hand, the government will be keen to kickstart the economy, following the abandonment of the zero-Covid policy — leading to enforcement being dialed down. Yet competition policy is likely to remain prominent, as the government moves to create a more competitive environment for businesses. In today’s special podcast to mark the start of 2023, our correspondent, Yonnex Li, ponders what the year is likely to bring.
On today’s 2023 preview podcast, our London-based financial-crime reporter, Martin Coyle, walks us through some of the legislative and enforcement changes that lie ahead, both in the UK and internationally. And top of the agenda: the departure of the UK Serious Fraud Office head, Lisa Osofsky, whose tenure had become mired in controversy.
The issue of how best to regulate cryptocurrencies came to the fore in 2022, with the spectacular implosion of crypto-exchange FTX prompting plenty of soul-searching. The upheaval appears to have paved the way for what is likely to be the big regulatory story of 2023: how best to rein in the excesses of the new ledger-based technologies. Yet as officials around the globe grapple with the challenge, our London-based reporter Phoebe Seers tells us there’s no clear path forward.
With several antitrust battles between the European Commission and Big Tech likely to come to a head in 2023, the next 12 months are likely to tell us something about the legacy of the bloc’s antitrust chief. In this special podcast to mark the start of 2023, Nicholas Hirst ponders the challenges facing Vestager, as she nears the end of what’s expected to be her final term as the EU’s competition commissioner.
If there’s one thing that Southeast Asian jurisdictions have in common, it’s the rapid pace of regulatory developments. In this review of what we can expect in 2023, our correspondent ponders recent changes and how regulators across the region are gearing up for the challenges that lie ahead.
In this letter from Brussels, chief correspondent covering data privacy and security, Matthew Newman, explains why the enforcement of the EU’s Digital Markets Act and Digital Services Act is likely to be dominating MLex’s coverage in 2023. It will come down to what Big Tech companies are designated as gatekeepers and what they will need to do to comply with the legislation.
Big Tech can expect a big year of policy, litigation and legislation in the US — although it’s still unclear whether digital platforms will suffer any significant setbacks in 2023. According to MLex’s Washington-based chief antitrust correspondent for the US, the year ahead is most likely to reveal itself as a mixed bag for the tech giants.
In today’s podcast, MLex’s London-based financial services chief correspondent, Fiona Maxwell, outlines what she expects will be the most important areas of interest for her reporting in 2023: Shadow-banking, Basel 3.1 and the UK’s post-Brexit Financial Services Markets Bill. In this special, forward-looking edition of the program, Fiona walks us through the detail of her top three and explains why these regulatory issues matter.
MLex Global Chief Correspondent Mike Swift walks us through privacy and data-protection challenges that lie ahead for Big Tech in 2023. With a raft of state-based rules set to come into effect, and the Federal Trade Commission likely to maintain its focus on location data privacy, there will be plenty to keep MLex’s US data-privacy team very busy over coming months.
In today’s podcast, MLex editor-in-chief Lewis Crofts walks us through the complex regulatory landscape facing global technology companies — from app stores to self-preferencing. But there’s more than just legislative changes on the horizon, with several significant instances of enforcement expected to capture international headlines in 2023.
A new Brazilian law could help the victims of anticompetitive conduct to bring civil lawsuits against cartelists and be compensated for the damages they have suffered. Yet a key provision that would double the size of damages payable to the victims would only apply to new civil lawsuits — bad news for those with existing cases before the courts.
This week’s European Commission post-Brexit proposal to repatriate the EU’s clearing activity from the City of London’s three major clearinghouses was, as expected, a moderate affair. With an energy crisis underway and financial stability concerns now top of mind, the EU executive’s proposal was a remarkably conciliatory first step. But there’s a catch: it will now be up to EU governments and lawmakers to work out how tough they need the legislation to be.
Seven company board members from five companies in the US have recently been ousted by the US Department of Justice. The directors’ dramatic defenestration is linked to the DOJ’s decision to breathe new life into Section 8 of the Clayton Act, which prohibits interlocking directorates among competitors. The logic behind the law is that shared board members can lead to a dampening of competition or even to the illegal exchange of information among rivals. The DOJ’s decision to reawaken the dormant 1914 provision will prompt some particularly serious soul-searching among directors appointed by private equity firms.
Japan’s top antitrust official, Kazuyuki Furuya, has a lot on his plate. The chairman of the Japan Fair Trade Commission is grappling with the role his agency can play as inflation soars and the country’s population declines, amid concerns that large companies may be saddling smaller businesses with rising costs. To mark the publication of MLex’s special report, based on an extended interview with Furuya, our Tokyo correspondents weigh up the issues confronting Japan and the qualities the JFTC chief is bringing to the regulatory table.
The International Association of Privacy Professionals’ Europe Data Protection Congress attracted large crowds in Brussels last week, with a plenty of meaty policy and enforcement issues on the table. Irish Data Protection Commission head Helen Dixon suggested that the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation’s system of cross-border enforcement wasn’t “built for speed;” while a trio of Meta Platforms companies — Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram — are being scrutinized by the bloc’s national data-protection authorities over privacy concerns. Privacy advocate Max Schrems delighted the audience with some props – a black box and rubber stamp – to criticize a new court set up by the latest EU-US data transfer agreement, which he vowed to challenge. MLex’s Brussels-based data-privacy team was able to beat the crowds, follow the ins and outs of the debates and buttonhole key players at the margins of the conference. Our reporters recorded this podcast as the conference wound down.
It wasn’t long ago that Sam Bankman-Fried, the former CEO of crypto-currency company FTX, was talking about bailing out his struggling rivals in order to safeguard the “crypto ecosystem.” But Bankman-Fried is now in no position to bail out anyone, following a week of turmoil that saw FTX filed for bankruptcy and freeze all withdrawals. What has emerged since then is what the company’s new CEO, John J. Ray, has described as a “complete failure of corporate controls” that has prompted renewed calls to regulate the crypto industry. But for now, the FTX implosion appears likely to tarnish other crypto players and, indeed, the entire ecosystem.
As the global drive to regulate Big Tech gains momentum, Asia has become a laboratory for new and at times controversial methods of bringing recalcitrant platforms to heel. Even more importantly, there is growing evidence that regulators in the region are taking their cues from one another, observing what approaches work and swapping notes on how best to tackle the gargantuan task of enforcement.
Stricter export controls imposed by the US are likely to have a very real impact on China’s semiconductor industry and had triggered concerns about compliance risks for China’s merger decisions. The reason is that China’s merger policy is design to ensure that domestic supply commitments are maintained. But with the manufacture of advanced semiconductors disrupted by the ban, the country’s competition regulator is facing the prospect of having to recalibrate its approach to mergers in the industry.
The decision by the UK Competition and Markets Authority to oppose Meta’s controversial acquisition of gif database Giphy has forced the companies to unwind what had been a completed global deal. While the CMA’s decision was a significant setback for Meta, it did help clarify — or, in some cases, correct — problematic aspects of the UK’s merger-control regime.
After years of discussion and soul-searching, Indonesia’s ambitious data-protection legislation, which borrows heavily from the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation, has landed. The new rules will change the way businesses process data and how that data can be transferred across borders. But many of the new law’s key provisions still require further detail before companies can map out their compliance plans.
Norsk Hydro seems to have been taken by surprise by the regulatory speedbumps now faced by its plan to buy metals recycler Alumetal, with the EU merger regulator referring the deal for an in-depth probe. It’s another example of the European Commission’s heightened vigilance about large companies snapping up smaller, innovative competitors — but with an interesting twist. A “green killer acquisition” is when smaller players with strong environmental credentials are snapped up by bigger companies looking for shortcuts in their transition towards a low-emissions economy. This probe may offer the EU regulator a chance to place the green dimensions of M&A under the microscope.
The EU’s new envoy for digital says his office in San Francisco will pave the way towards a more cooperative relationship with Big Tech companies. In an interview with MLex, Gerard de Graaf discussed the role of the new office, the EU’s landmark legislation targeting tech platforms and the future of the internet. The envoy expects his new office to provide the bloc with a direct line of communication with key decisionmakers in tech companies including Amazon, Apple, Google and Meta Platforms.
The conviction of Joe Sullivan, Uber’s former head of security, over his handling of a 2016 data breach has sent shockwaves through the tech industry. Sullivan was found guilty of obstructing a US Federal Trade Commission investigation into the breach and of failing to report a crime. The prosecution is believed to be the first of its kind in the US and has raised legal questions about how tech companies should respond to data breaches and what, if any, relationship they should have with hackers trying to extort a ransom in return for stolen data.
The American Airlines and JetBlue antitrust trial now unfolding in the United States is set to test the government’s ability to fight consolidation in concentrated industries when partnership and joint venture agreements are proposed, rather than full acquisitions. The ruling is also expected to spill over into the US Department of Justice’s decision in JetBlue Airways’ proposed buyout of Spirit Airlines.
The recent firing of two directors at Belgium’s Data Protection Authority has highlighted the challenge faced by EU member states in establishing truly independent privacy watchdogs, as they are required to do by the bloc’s General Data Protection Regulation. After years of political infighting, Belgium now faces the challenge of rebuilding a regulator that can rise above the country’s often heated political fray and operate at arm’s length from government.
As leading automated vehicle companies including General Motors’ Cruise, Alphabet’s Waymo and Intel’s Mobileye prepare for deployment, regulators and lawmakers are still grappling with how to manage the challenge posed by self-driving cars. As for data generated from connected vehicles, they’ve increasingly become a source of contention among different market players — everyone wants the data, but in the United States companies are facing litigation over how that data is processed. On this special edition of the MLex podcast, our future-mobility team teases out some of the themes covered by our most recent special report.
In a decision that ricocheted around the world this month, the European Commission announced it had blocked the $8 billion Illumina-Grail merger. Arguing that Illumina’s acquisition of Grail, a cancer-testing company, would stifle innovation, Commissioner Margrethe Vestager appeared to be harking back to a theory of harm that was the talk of the town back in the late 2010s, when the Dow-Dupont and Bayer-Monsanto deals were making headlines. More importantly, though, the European Commission’s decision leaves the EU out of sync with the US, where a court has overturned a regulator’s attempt to block the deal.
Rightly or wrongly, the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation — the bloc’s landmark privacy legislation — is now held up as a global regulatory standard. But does the GDPR live up to the hype? MLex’s data privacy & security team has done a deep dive into the legislation, crunching the numbers to work out the extent to which, four years after their implementation, the rules have delivered on the promise of tougher privacy standards. In this podcast, MLex reporters will tease out the key themes of their GDPR special report.
The rise of Liz Truss to the United Kingdom’s highest elected office has the potential to reshape the country’s regulatory landscape. Truss based her leadership campaign within the center-right Conservative Party on the promise to deliver the benefits she believes are yet to be claimed from Britain’s departure from the European Union — including slashing through any residual red tape and making regulation nimbler and more business friendly. But it’s the prospect of an executive having the final say on decisions by independent regulators that has sparked a broader debate on whether politics and regulation can — and should — mix.
There were good reasons for Meta to settle a four-year lawsuit in a Californian federal court over the sharing of user data to third parties — including controversial political consultancy Cambridge Analytica. For a start, it would mean that Meta boss Mark Zuckerberg would avoid grueling questioning on the stand. But the settlement doesn’t mean that the case is over, with the social-platform giant still facing discovery sanctions, amid claims that it “stonewalled” the plaintiffs’ requests for documents.
When officials from Australia’s competition enforcer raided a disability-aid store in the town of Mildura, they were making history. It was the first time that an individual had been charged under the country’s 2009 criminal-cartel offenses; and the first time in over 100 years that an Australian company had been targeted by a criminal antitrust prosecution. It took Rob Hogan, the owner of the retail business, five years and millions of dollars to be acquitted of the charges. A year after the trial wrapped up, Hogan has decided to speak out about his ordeal. In this audio documentary, MLex reporter Laurel Henning takes us behind the scenes of the 12-week trial and examines the legal strategies used to clear Hogan of the charges.
The promise of Brexit, the United Kingdom’s controversial departure from the European Union, was that financial-services industries in the City of London would break free of EU red tape. However, UK regulators appear not to have received the “Brexit dividend” memo — as demonstrated by the recent clash over how much capital insurers should have in their coffers. The government had pledged to make life easier for insurers; but the industry is claiming that, under new proposals, insurers may in fact have to hold more capital than they would under EU rules. It’s a clash that’s feeding into the ruling Conservative Party’s leadership contest. Also on today’s podcast: A controversial data-protection penalty imposed on a Dutch football TV broadcaster has been overturned — but wider questions about the interpretation of the GDPR’s legitimate interests rule remain.
MLex's reporters have had a frantic start to 2022, with global competition lawsuits against Google and Apple spilling over into the Federal Court of Australia and a criminal-cartel prosecution involving local foreign-exchange businesses culminating in guilty pleas. Laurel Henning and James Panichi have also been examining Australian lawmakers' slow progress in updating the 1988 Privacy Act and concerns over how big business manages personal data. For example: Why are private-health insurance companies in Australia so keen to get their hands on fitness data collected by Australian smart-watches? Laurel and James talk through the challenges and the highlights of their Australian regulatory coverage.
The prosecution in Italy of oil and gas giants Shell and Eni over allegations of bribery in a $1.3 billion Nigerian oil-license deal had all the makings of a Hollywood blockbuster: oil executives, Nigerian politicians, middlemen and a former justice minister. But movie never made it to our screens, with the prosecutor assigned to handle the appeal pulling the plug on the case. Now, anti-bribery campaigners are saying that the dramatic collapse of the prosecution has undermined Italy’s international anti-bribery obligations. Also on today’s podcast: The FBI recently brought the first insider trading cases ever for crypto trades and NFT, or non fungible tokens. Where are prosecutors heading?
After years of inaction in the face of widespread calls for federal privacy legislation, US lawmakers have sprung into action, with a potentially game-changing bill springing forward in Congress. The thrilling ride may be a short one, but the American Data Privacy and Protection Act has cracked a nut that stymied progress in the past and if passed, would tackle some of the biggest, global privacy challenges on the horizon. But how will the proposed legislation interact with the myriad state-based privacy regimes established, largely, in response to federal inaction? Also on today’s podcast: a Japanese court slams restaurant-booking portal Tabelog for allowing its algorithms to mess with review-based rankings.
In the US, the Department of Justice’s drawn-out criminal prosecution of chicken suppliers over cartel claims has come to an end — again. The acquittal of five industry executives marks the third time that the DOJ has prosecuted the men — a defeat that may prove damaging not just to the reputation of the DOJ’s antitrust division, but also to its ability to encourage whistleblowers to come forward in exchange for immunity deals. But this isn’t the end of the chicken price-fixing saga as prosecutors gear up for two more trials against other defendants in October and April. Also on the podcast: How an historic EU court ruling on Illumina-Grail deal is likely to boost the European Commission’s confidence in tackling deals targeting smaller companies.
Against the backdrop of the political turmoil affecting the UK, an interesting power dynamic is developing between the government, insurers and the central bank’s prudential regulator. Solvency II, a key piece of legislation for the insurance industry, is being overhauled and there’s a growing chasm between the government and the insurance industry on the one side, and regulators on the other. The stakes are high, with the government awarded powers to undermine anything the regulator does — powers that are prompting some soul-searching about regulatory independence. Also on today’s podcast: Judges ponder the future of European sport, with EU courts weighing up whether UEFA should be allowed special leeway to nurture grass-roots sport or whether it falls under competition laws and should allow the emergence of a rival Super League.
The logic of leniency rules is rock-solid in the eyes of enforcers: Deals promising lighter sentencing can coax cartelists out of the woodwork and reveal otherwise undetectable anticompetitive agreements. But in Malaysia, leniency rules have been in place for eight years without a single successful application, sparking soul-searching about what changes are needed to make the rules work. Also on today’s podcast: Why are insurers so keen to get their hands on fitness data generated by your smartwatch? Australia is pondering this very question, with data-driven discounts raising the question of whether those unwilling to hand over the data from a wearable device risk facing discrimination from insurers amassing new levels of information.
Ongoing concerns over the struggles of those tasked with enforcing the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation have raised questions about whether the bloc’s landmark privacy legislation remains fit for purpose — a mere four years after it came into effect. But while the European Data Protection Supervisor has sounded the alarm over cross-border privacy-enforcement challenges, there are those who argue that the GDPR is already equipped with all the enforcement tools it needs. Also on today’s podcast: The US Securities and Exchange Commission’s defense of whistleblowers returns to centerstage in the Biden Administration.
The data breach that affected US bank-holding company Capital One was one of the largest in US history. Now, the woman behind that breach, Paige Thompson, has been found guilty of wire fraud and hacking by a court in Seattle, and is awaiting sentencing. But Thompson’s trial revealed a complicated backstory that veered from the usual hacker-for-profit narrative. Also on today’s podcast: Is trash-talk directed at your competitors an antitrust issue? A probe by the European Commission into disparaging remarks made by a pharmaceutical company appears set to answer that question
A European court’s decision to overturn a 1 billion euro penalty that had been imposed on Qualcomm is being seen as a watershed moment for antitrust enforcement in the EU, with judges faulting competition investigators over both the procedures and the substance of their claims against the US chipmaker. Also on today’s podcast: why reports of the Asia-Pacific region’s CBPR privacy mechanism demise may have been premature.
Lina Khan’s leadership of the US Federal Trade Commission has come under fire recently, with surveys suggesting the agency’s regulatory force of 1,100 staffers is particularly unhappy. But is the disquiet simply the result of institutional reluctant to embrace new directions? Or is there more to it? MLex reporters have investigated the issue. Also on today’s podcast: The mechanism designed to bring privacy regulators in different EU jurisdictions to the negotiating table when they disagree on privacy enforcement. While the mechanism under the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation hasn’t been used much, there are already suggestions the system may be facing challenging times ahead.
The nature of Broadcom’s $61 billion buyout of California-based cloud giant VMware is posing new challenges for regulators on both sides of the Atlantic, with horizontal overlaps no longer the biggest show in town. The nature of the deal has left M&A observers to review parallels with the Nvidia’s bid to acquire British software designer Arm; and for both deals, the issue of how innovation could be affected is playing a big part in the reviews. Also on today’s podcast, the incredible story of Swiss mining and commodities company Glencore, which has agreed to pay a fine of $1 billion for having paid over $100 million in bribes to officials in Africa and South America. And there may be more enforcement pain on the way.
The growing use of smart speakers and TV sets has prompted a global conversation about privacy and the use of personal data on the part of the Big Tech companies behind them: Amazon, Apple and Google. But there’s another smart-device debate — once based in antitrust concerns — that’s gaining momentum. What happens if your smart device directs you not to the free-to-air version of a podcast or a TV drama, but to the paywalled property managed by the platform itself? In Australia, these concerns are being driven by commercial radio operators that fear Echo, Siri and Assistant may increasingly get in between their station and their listeners. Also on today’s podcast: Why planned tougher penalties for privacy violations in the Philippines look good on paper but may be facing a baptism of fire.
For years, financial regulators in the US have urged banks and other financial institutions to experiment with new products to help combat money laundering and other illicit financial activity. And they have increasingly done so. So, why the enthusiasm for automation in anti-money laundering practices? Also on this week’s podcast: the UK bottling businesses that found themselves on the wrong side of the Bribery Act. The take-away from it all wasn’t just that managers should watch out for corrupt behavior, but that if they don’t enforce and promote their internal safeguards, they could wind up in court.
All eyes were on top US competition regulators Lina Khan and Jonathan Kanter at a recent conference in Berlin, with European officials keen to know how the relatively new heads of the Federal Trade Commission and the Department of Justice’s antitrust division would manage what appears to be a remarkable overhaul in the US’s regulatory landscape. MLex’s Nicholas Hirst was at this year’s ICN conference and was able to cover the comments by the heavy hitters of global antitrust. Also on this week’s podcast: How the FTC and DOJ’s revamp of antitrust reviews is likely to unfold in Washington, amid a growing consensus that past practices have been too lax.
There’s a lot riding on Meta’s recent attempt to overturn a decision by the UK’s competition watchdog to block the tech giant’s acquisition of Giphy, an online database of gifs — visual aids popular in social-media postings. It’s significant because it’s the Competition and Markets Authority’s first ever prohibition of a Big Tech deal; the case in the Competition Appeal Tribunal could also illustrate how a completed global deal may be affected by the recalcitrance of one, significant jurisdiction. Also on today’s podcast: How the regulatory reverberations of the Archegos scandal in the US are raising concerns among activist shareholders.
Elon Musk’s 44-billion-US-dollar bid for social-media platform Twitter has fired up a conversation about freedom of speech, with the flamboyant Tesla boss saying the platform should be politically neutral to allow conversations to flourish. But why unbridled freedom of expression may resonate in the United States, Musk may yet have to temper his laissez-faire ambition when faced with a global mosaic of content-moderation rules — with the European Union’s brand-new regulation just one of the obstacles facing Twitter-unchained. Also on today’s podcast: South Korea’s seismic changes to its privacy legislation and how future tweaks could affect the role — and the powers — of the country’s top privacy official, Yoon Jong-in.
MLex brings you a very special edition of the Market Insights podcast. Matthew Newman speaks to Mike Swift about the 2022 IAPP Global Privacy Summit in Washington DC. They discuss their thoughts on this year’s meeting including the key themes and key data privacy and security stories and trends to keep your eyes on this year.
MLex brings you a very special edition of the Market Insights podcast. Lewis Crofts speaks to Khushita Vasant and Nicholas Hirst about the 2022 ABA Antitrust Spring Meeting. They discuss their thoughts on this year’s meeting including the key take-aways and themes.
The collapse of a deal involving two Finnish crane companies — Cargotec and Konecranes — as a result of regulatory obstacles has thrust into the spotlight differences in outlook between the UK and the European Union on mergers and acquisitions. The European Commission had been prepared to wave the deal through — albeit with undertakings from the companies to divest an array of assets; but the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority concluded that the undertakings on the table wouldn’t be enough to allay its fears of competitive harm. The deal highlighted and solidify the differences between those regulators that are prepared to work with undertakings; and those who aren’t. Also on the podcast today: Brazil’s CADE faces scrutiny over antitrust penalties.
The European Union’s unexpectedly swift review of the $8.5 billion Amazon-Metro Goldwyn Mayer deal was surprising and left merger experts speculating on what it could mean for other deals on the horizon. The European Commission’s reluctance to take a deep dive into a large transaction involving a digital platform with oodles of data at its disposal also challenges the assumption that the EU is a tough regulatory environment for US-based Big Tech. Also on today’s podcast: the EU’s Digital Services Act and what it means for targeted advertising. While a full ban of the practice is no longer on the negotiating table, a proposal to stop targeting minors with ads is raising questions about enforcement.
With privacy laws now being considered by lawmakers in many of the US’s 50 states, Virginia appears to have become the leading alternative to California — that is, Virginia’s business-friendly privacy laws offering a model in stark contrast with California’s stricter approach to enforcement. Now, the Virginia Consumer Data Protection Act is becoming a blueprint for other state-based privacy legislation, with Utah the most recent jurisdiction to follow the Virginian lead. Also on today’s podcast: Fees charged by credit-card companies are back in the news in Europe. Why the Netherlands’ highest court is reviewing Amex’s co-branding deals and questioning whether they too should be subject to an EU-wide cap on credit-card fees.
Following the invasion of Ukraine, an American pair of major providers of global Internet backbone services announced they had discontinued services to Russia, in a move that sparked immediate conjecture that Moscow could splinter off from the Internet. But it’s more complicated than that; what’s more, there are those who believe that the cause of those opposing the invasion would be better served by ensuring that the Russian people were able to stay online. Also on this week’s podcast: China’s so-called Two Sessions meetings shift the policy emphasis from competition to economic stability, job creation and fiscal support for enterprises. But where does that leave last year’s emphasis on antitrust?
When the global community announced economic sanctions against Russia over the invasion of Ukraine, a consensus quickly developed that cryptocurrencies may offer Moscow a way to sidestep the tough measures. Yet despite their seemingly secretive nature, cryptocurrency transactions can be traced and early signs are that they aren’t posing a significant threat to the sanctions regime. Nonetheless, the Ukraine crisis has highlighted concerns about crypto trading and now authorities are preparing to consider the regulation of the currencies. Also on today’s podcast: the 1MDB scandal hits a New York courtroom. The honesty of a key witness in the bribery trial of a former Goldman Sachs banker has come under sustained pressure in court.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine isn’t the first war to be chronicled online, but social media and other Internet platforms have played a particularly important role in the conflict. That prominence may now lead to tighter regulatory scrutiny from governments on both sides of the conflict, amid claims and counterclaims about state-back disinformation campaigns. Also on the podcast: After years of dithering, the UK government appears to be serious about introducing tough legislation that will target suspect money flowing through the country’s financial system. The proposed law, which would also introduce a register of foreign entities, had long been considered; but it was the crisis in Ukraine and the need to address Russian interests in the UK that got the bill off the drawing board.
On paper, there’s plenty for privacy advocates to celebrate in Google’s announcement that it will gradually change the access to personal data available to apps on its Android platform. Others may also be encouraged to hear that Google’s approach will be more collaborative and deliberate than Apple’s. Yet the prospect of a tech company that relies on personal data to power its advertising setting rules for what data should be available to third-party app developers will lead to delicate privacy and antitrust scrutiny. Also on the podcast this week: Why the European Union wants to declutter your drawers and stop you from having to accumulate old chargers. But moves to toughen existing plans to standardize how devices are charged appears to have set EU lawmakers on a collision course with electronics manufacturers — including Apple.
The UK’s competition enforcer’s approach to Big Tech has come to a fork in the road: it can either wait for its Digital Markets Unit to be empowered and operational; or it can pursue the global platforms with the tools already at its disposal. The Competition and Markets Authority may prefer to wait, but with lawmakers unwilling to commit to a timeline, antitrust officials may find themselves playing catchup. Also on today’s podcast: Australia’s top antitrust official Rod Sims announces a review of his agency’s investigation of an alleged criminal cartel in the banking industry, following the collapse of the high-profile Citigroup, Deutsche Bank prosecution.
The Artificial Intelligence Act is still on the EU’s legislative drawing board, but the debate over how the new law will be enforced has already begun. National data-protection authorities say they’re best placed to police the new rules; but some governments in the bloc are already starting to set up designated AI regulators — a move that may hamper coordinated EU oversight. Also on today’s podcast: Why the makers of connected cars aren’t keen to emulate the crash-or-crash-through approach to data collection embraced by digital platforms.
Intel’s 13-year legal battle against a 1.06 billion euro antitrust fine imposed by the European Commission has hit a significant milestone, with an EU court ruling in the chipmaker’s favor. It was a significant defeat for the European regulator, which had argued that Intel’s chip rebates were anticompetitive. But this doesn’t mean that the clash is over: the Commission may yet appeal the decision in a last-ditch attempt to avoid repaying the fine — plus interest. Also on today’s podcast: Hewlett-Packard wins a multi-billion dollar fraud claim against the founder of software provider Autonomy. But the legal battle for Mike Lynch to avoid extradition to the United States is continuing.
Microsoft’s play for Activision Blizzard — the company behind games such as Call of Duty and World of Warcraft — could prompt some regulatory soul-searching in the United States. The merging companies say the $68.7 deal will make more games available and lower consumer costs. But the merger is a vertical one and it may tap into the Federal Trade Commission’s growing concerns over Big Tech snapping up companies in new, innovative markets. Also on today’s podcast, Australia’s action-packed BlueScope Steel cartel trial. Court hearings have involved heated clashes over the use of language and an itemized bill pointing to the alcohol consumption of key witnesses.
Amazon, Facebook and Google are on a mission: to ensure that the United States Federal Trade Commission Chair Lina Khan and Department of Justice antitrust division head Jonathan Kanter recuse themselves from key decisions affecting the digital platforms. Why? Because, they argue, the two officials’ past work and public utterances mean they’re incapable of overseeing their agencies’ investigations impartially. But a court ruling is suggesting the tech giants may be facing an uphill battle. Also on today’s podcast: Facebook’s 2019 settlement with the FTC included a commitment to make changes to its privacy compliance structure and carry out internal privacy assessments. But what’s in those assessments? We may never know, with a US Supreme Court ruling on the US’s Freedom of Information Act allowing Facebook — or Meta Platforms, as it’s now known — to demand heavy-handed redactions of FTC documents.
The collection and storage of biometric data is now occurring on an industrial scale in the United States. However, with no federal privacy rules in place, it has been largely left to the states to develop a data-privacy framework. To date, the states haven’t had much success — but that doesn’t mean that biometric-data regulation is off the agenda in 2022. Also on today’s podcast: how Singapore’s antitrust regulator is gearing up to take into account environmental policy objectives.
Divestitures are part and parcel of the US regulatory landscape: When a deal raises red flags, the merging companies offer to shed parts of their businesses, in a bid to get the proposal over the line. But who buys those divested assets and businesses? According to an investigation by MLex’s sister publication FTC Watch, black-owned and black-backed businesses are missing out. In fact, over a recent three-year period, no African American businesses have been involved in acquiring divested assets. It’s something that goes to the heart of the merger operations of both the Federal Trade Commission and the Department of Justice because they are the regulators that sign off on acquisitions of this kind and, therefore, are the gatekeepers of divestitures. The federal agencies argue that they’re just applying the rules; But black businesses and lawyers who spoke to FTC Watch argue that the underrepresentation of minority acquisitions in divestitures is a result of structural racism.
Killer acquisitions are back on the agenda — and it’s disrupting the European Union’s review of an acquisition by Meta, the parent company of Facebook. Germany’s competition regulator has decided to do its own review of this deal, creating a rift with the European Commission, which was well advanced in its own analysis. Why the differences? It’s all about how best to catch killer acquisitions — that is, when an established tech company acquires a fledgling startup to neutralize a future competitor. Also on the podcast: the United States Strategy on Countering Corruption. The latest offering from the Biden Administration is laying out some nuts-and-bolts initiatives to fight corruption. But how new are these initiatives?
Meta’s acquisition of Giphy, the database of looped videos known as gifs, has run into trouble in the United Kingdom, where the competition authority has demanded that the deal be unwound. It’s a big call — and one likely to have an impact on other jurisdictions where the deal has also raised significant concerns. But what does the acquisition by the company formerly known as Facebook tell us about the evolving regulatory landscape? Also on today’s podcast: Didi buckles under pressure. The China-based ride-hailing app has had to walk away from the New York stock exchange and has instead announced a float in Hong Kong." What happened? Security concerns over access to data appear to be a significant part of the story.
It has been two years since Facebook was accused of illegally copying the world’s largest repository of digitized and realistic three-dimension objects and scenes from a Lithuanian startup. At the time, the allegations appeared highly unlikely — why would a social-media platform need digitized objects? But now that Facebook’s parent company has rebranded as Meta Platforms and launched a bold vision of enhanced reality called the metaverse, the allegations appear less fanciful….”Meta’s unsuccessful attempt to have a US judge take the unprecedented step of blocking a non-US company from downloading court documents in a case that it’s a party to has only stoked interest in the case. Also on today’s podcast: UK regulators come under pressure to start paving the way for automated cars. There’s a lot riding on the regulators’ response, with proponents of the technology hopeful Britain could soon be leading the world.
If you’re a small retailer and you’re unhappy with the fees set by the world’s two credit-card giants, Visa and Mastercard, there’s not much you can do. But when you’re a colossus of online shopping, you might just have enough clout to demand changes. This is the titanic clash unfolding in the UK, where Amazon has taken on Visa and warned that it will stop taking payments from customers using locally issued Visa credit cards. The threat appears likely to force Visa to the negotiating table. Also on today’s podcast: why South Korea’s bold attempt to crack open Apple and Google app stores is struggling to achieve its goals.
The Biden administration’s appointment of Lina Khan as chair of the US Federal Trade Commission — an advocate of the New Brandeisian school of antitrust — has sparked an unprecedented level of animosity within the agency. One commissioner has described the FTC’s new direction as “appalling and gut-wrenching” — an attack some observers say was unprecedented in the regulator’s recent history. The high-profile clash raises the question of whether the agency’s new chair, Lina Khan, is forcefully pursuing the Biden administration’s antitrust agenda, or is deliberately undermining the FTC’s tradition of bipartisan cooperation. Also on the podcast: Everything you ever wanted to know about the UN Climate Change Conference COP26 but were too afraid to ask.
There’s no getting around it: This week’s EU court ruling upholding the European Commission’s 2.42 billion euro antitrust fine against Google is a vindication of the enforcer’s decision to go after the tech giant over online shopping services. The fight may not be over — the decision by the lower-tier court may yet be appealed. But the Commission, which now has additional powers to reign in Big Tech, is likely to see the win as proof it was right to take on Silicon Valley. Also on today’s podcast: liquidity in the US Treasury market. Regulators are now discussing ways to ensure that the deeply dysfunctional debt-securities market never again faces the liquidity crunch of the March 2020 Covid-19 stampede.
Facebook has undertaken a radical project in rebranding and reframing. The tech company that you have come to know and like — or dislike, as the case may be — will now be known as Meta, although the popular social-media platform will still be called Facebook. But it’s not just about changing the letterhead: Mark Zuckerberg wants to build a company around immersive experiences, through virtual and augmented reality. It should come as no surprise that the road ahead features regulatory hurdles, with the inevitable accumulation of data underpinning Meta’s vision raising both privacy and antitrust concerns. Also on the podcast: How Brazil’s anti-corruption efforts are feeding into the country’s deep political divisions, ahead of the next federal election.
Both Apple and Google are grappling with mounting antitrust concerns over the way they manage their app stores. In a stunning development, Google has agreed to slash its Play Store commission fee from 30 percent to 15 percent — ending the set-in-stone cut that has become synonymous with doing business with app stores. Meanwhile, Apple is hoping to reach a settlement with small developers, in what is shaping up as a do-or-die struggle for the Big Tech company as it attempts to retain unfettered control of its App Store. Also on today’s podcast: the monster penalty imposed on Credit Suisse over financial-crime failings. The “tuna bonds” affair isn’t so much about the eye-watering $475 million fine as it is about how far the long arm of US justice can reach.
Whether you’re looking for a bike, an antique lamp or even a rental property, Facebook’s Marketplace is fast becoming your neighborhood’s go-to e-commerce platform. But in the US, there’s growing concern among businesses that Marketplace is being used to sell counterfeit goods, sparking calls for the US Trade Representative to include Facebook in its Notorious Markets List. But just what would that mean for Marketplace’s future, and what is Facebook doing to manage the counterfeit and intellectual property risks? Also on today’s podcast: CADE’s high-profile clash. How disquiet in the Brazilian regulator’s in-house tribunal may affect those on the receiving end of the antitrust watchdog’s probes.
The successful prosecution of UK bank NatWest over money-laundering charges was a watershed moment for the country’s Financial Conduct Authority - the first time such criminal offenses have been successfully deployed. Now, attention is turning to the size of the fine that courts will be willing to impose on the lender. Also on today’s podcast: Europe’s spike in energy prices is prompting some soul-searching in the European Union over the bloc’s energy-policy settings.
New technology is revolutionizing the way we get from A to B. Gone are the gas-guzzling, analog cars of yore; tomorrow’s roads are likely to feature high-tech electric vehicles, pumping data back to manufacturers and pulling up at specially designed service stations to recharge. This new frontier comes with immense regulatory challenges — challenges that have to be met today, given the frantic pace at which the new paradigm is taking shape. Our Future Mobility service will be bringing MLex’s in-depth coverage to the new smart-car reality and the accompanying uncharted regulatory landscape.
Facebook’s finances have never looked better, with the social-media platform posting earnings of $29 billion for the second quarter of 2021. So why is speculation mounting that privacy regulation in the EU and California, as well as new privacy settings for Apple’s iOS operating system, could present a significant challenge to Facebook’s business model? Also on today’s podcast: Google had its week in a European court to fight a record 4.34 billion euro antitrust fine over its Android operating system. We cross to Luxembourg to discuss why Google’s clash with the European Commission is attracting global attention.
Google’s clash with South Korea’s antitrust enforcer over allegations the search giant engaged in abuse of dominance against smart-device markers in the Android operating-system market isn’t over yet: Google is set to appeal the $176 million fine it received from the Korea Fair Trade Commission. Yet the landmark penalty has set the tone for the regulator’s clash with digital platforms over concerns they are stifling innovation on smart devices. Also on today’s podcast: Stars align in the US Congress over anti-corruption laws, with bipartisan support for the slate of bills now being considered.
Apple may have hoped that its decision to search the contents of its iPhones to identify images of child sexual abuse would have been welcomed. Instead, the prospect of Apple delving into the contents of people’s handsets, and the fear that any backdoor into devices could be widened, sparked a backlash, prompting the tech giant to back away from the proposal — at least, for now. But the controversy has served to highlight Apple’s predicament, with its reputation as a company focused on strong privacy safeguards making it attractive to those wanting to keep their affairs away from the gaze of law-enforcement agencies. Also on today’s podcast: the regulatory challenges posed by electric, connected and automated cars. From antitrust, to data privacy and security, to designing the recharging stations of the future — lawmakers are being asked to make decisions today about the future of mobility.
US chipmaker Nvidia’s move to buy Arm, a UK chip designer, for $40 billion is facing regulatory headwinds, with UK competition authority knocking back Nvidia’s proposed legal undertakings. Now, the deal is being considered by the EU’s competition regulator — something that may highlight the fissures between the approach of the EU and UK to managing complex, vertical acquisitions in the tech industry. Also on the podcast: China gears up for the regulation of connected cars — and there’s more to it than just privacy.
The MLex podcast team is taking some time off for the northern-hemisphere summer. But our global team of reporters will be back in your feed from Friday, Sept. 10, with all of the latest in regulatory news.
A United States review of the combination between Lockheed Martin and Aerojet Rocketdyne is set to continue for months, amid growing questions about whether the Federal Trade Commission is ready to accept behavioral remedies, rather than a structural solution. But there are other regulatory factors at play — including the role of the Department of Defense, which finds itself in the unusual position of having a say in all defense-related mergers because it is often the sole customer of military products and services. Meanwhile, concerns over a lack of competition in Australia’s banking industry are playing out in the review of National Australia Bank’s play for Citigroup’s consumer business.
Zoom’s offer to pay $85 million to settle privacy litigation over so-called Zoombomings — disruptive and often highly offensive messages that interrupted meetings — has eased litigation risks for the company, which failed to gain protection under the controversial US legal shield protecting websites. If approved by a US federal judge, Zoom subscribers will be eligible for refunds on their subscriptions — an unusual outcome, but one that the video-conferencing company is willing to embrace. Also on today’s podcast: the day the European Union walked into a US court. Why the European Commission is asking an American judge to limit the disclosure of documents in a class action against salmon companies suspected of cartel conduct.
The UK’s competition watchdog is set to receive a shot in the arm, with the government putting forward proposals that would upgrade the regulator’s enforcement toolkit. If implemented, the changes would hand the Competition and Markets Authority consumer-law powers on par with antitrust enforcement powers, with the ability to fine companies up to 10 percent of their global turnover. But does the CMA now risk becoming a jack-of-all-trades but master of none? Also on today’s podcast: The clock starts to tick for the UK’s financial clearinghouses — the culmination of years of uncertainty brought about by Brexit.
In the biggest merger regulatory challenge to hit the US under the Biden Administration, insurance broker Aon announced that it would walk away from its proposed union with Willis Towers Watson. The collapse of the deal amounted to a victory for the US Department of Justice and Attorney General Merrick Garland, with Aon concluding that the opposition to the deal was just too great to proceed. It was a victory predicated on a conventional interpretation of the law — the same old-school rules that had previously been disparaged by President Joe Biden. Also on the podcast this week: How the appointment of Alexandre Cordeiro to the Brazilian competition authority’s tribunal is likely to affect CADE’s operations in coming years.
The sudden and unprecedented enforcement action targeting China’s largest ride-hailing company Didi appears to have opened yet another chapter in Beijing’s crackdown on the country’s tech giants. The order for Didi to remove a suite of apps just days after the company’s IPO in the US may have been driven by security and commercial concerns over foreign access to large swathes of data generated by the service’s users. Also on today’s podcast, we mark the first-year anniversary of the “Schrems II” court ruling, which nullified the so-called Privacy Shield that had allowed for data transfers to take place between the European Union and the United States. The decision brought deep uncertainty to transatlantic business dealings, yet a solution to the problem remains elusive, complicated by the absence of a federal privacy legislation in the US.
The European Union’s ambitious plan to transform the region’s economy in a bid to combat climate change took a step forward this week, with the announcement of a series of proposals that would help reach ambitious targets to cut the bloc’s carbon emissions. Under the EU’s proposed “Fit for 55” package, which sets a 55 percent emissions cut from 1990 levels by 2030, companies across the energy, transport and heavy industry sectors face a mix of carbon-pricing measures and regulations to accelerate the switch to cleaner fuels and energy sources. Also on this week’s podcast: the Biden administration’s wide-ranging executive order sets out an antitrust and privacy vision with wide-ranging implications for Big Tech.
The green credentials of nuclear power have come under recent scrutiny in the European Union, as the bloc ponders whether to label as environmentally friendly investment in the industry. The argument of what’s referred to as the taxonomy of nuclear energy is pitting scientist against scientist and, more importantly, the pro-nuclear energy France against the nuclear skeptic Germany. Yet the impasse over how to classify the investment status of nuclear may suit the European Commission, as it navigates its way through a politically charged scientific debate. Also on today’s podcast, we take a look at the 10-year anniversary of the UK Bribery Act. The legislation is being regarded as a qualified success that has provided a strong deterrent against corporate wrongdoing. However, the low number of criminal convictions means that corrupt top executives won’t be losing much sleep.
Digital advertising is back on the agenda in Europe, with the announcement of a fresh EU antitrust probe targeting Google’s practice of hoovering up data to better target advertising. However, the new investigation will also leave room for parallel action by regulators in Germany and France, with the European Commission skirting around the national watchdogs’ focus areas: online market power and the market for serving online ads. Meanwhile, in South Korea the local competition regulator is looking into the adtech practices of both Facebook and Google, while an Australian report into digital advertising is expected to put forward recommendations for the regulation of digital advertising.
A central part of the EU’s ambitious privacy legislation, the General Data Protection Regulation, or GDPR, was put to the test recently, with a European court asked to rule on whether Belgium’s data-privacy regulator had the right to pursue an investigation into Facebook. The question went to the heart of a central mechanism of the GDPR: the so-called one-stop-shop. But the EU court’s ruling wasn’t as cut and dried as some may have hoped. Also on this week’s podcast: UK steelmakers are facing stiffer competition from foreign rivals, while also facing limits on selling in their competitors’ markets. The predicament is linked to “safeguards” — trade tools that have highlighted trade-policy differences between the UK and the EU in a post-Brexit world.
The next time you ask Alexa for information or bark out an order at Siri — or even just order a burger at your McDonald’s drive through — you’ll find yourself at the heart of what could become one of the most significant regulatory challenges of the next decade. Whether it’s your fingerprints, the retina or your eyes or the sound of your voice, your biometric data is of value to any company wanting to get a sense of what you like and what products you’re likely to buy. On today’s podcast, we look at how biometric data concerns are playing out in US courts, as well as the European Union’s probe of antitrust concerns tied to Big Tech’s use of your vocal-cord vibrations as the access point to a world of services and products.
The global push for registries revealing what people and interests lie behind even the most obscure of shell companies is gaining momentum, with a UN special session prompting a renewal of commitment to establishing ownership databases. But while the mounting interest in the registries is being welcomed, the models being embraced by key players in the fight against corruption can differ. Also on today’s podcast: The Kazakh mining company ENRC has been under investigation by the UK’s Serious Fraud Office since 2013. But in a London court, the company has taken aim at both one of its former lawyers and the SFO itself over their communications in the course of the ongoing probe.
This week’s failure by Australian prosecutors to secure a conviction in the first criminal-cartel trial in over 100 years spells trouble for the country’s competition enforcer, which investigated the case. The Country Care prosecution has been widely regarded as a dry run for next year’s criminal-cartel trial targeting some of the world’s largest and best resourced banks. Also on the podcast this week, the death by a thousand cuts of Indonesia’s highly regarded anti-corruption agency.
Fish for finance” may sound like a trendy eatery in London’s West End, but it is simply the latest round of post-Brexit animosity between the United Kingdom and the European Union over access to each other’s markets. The case has attracted some public attention — in no small part as a result of London’s decision to send navy ships to protect its territorial waters around the island of Jersey from French fishermen. But the mechanics of the case are part of the dry, procedural side of negotiating Britain’s departure from the EU. Also on this week’s podcast: why European environmentalists are increasingly turning to the courts to pressure governments into climate-change action, and why they’re succeeding.
The legal clash between Epic, the maker of the popular videogame Fortnite, and tech company Apple has prompted some unusual exchanges in a US court, with senior company executives questioned over their anatomical understanding of a tuxedoed, anthropomorphic banana called Agent Peely. It’s all part of Epic’s antitrust lawsuit over Apple’s management of its App Store and accusations that the tech giant’s high security standards are leading to violations of competition law.
Like a good murder novel, the demise of ABLV Bank of Latvia has left us with a chalk silhouette on the sidewalk, but with little clarity about who committed the crime. Now, the demise of the bank in the wake of a money-laundering scandal has left out-of-pocket investors determined to crack open the European Union’s byzantine financial-services oversight mechanism. Also on the podcast: the European Union’s new discretionary powers to fight foreign subsidies. There’s no name checking of China in the official documents, but the bloc’s efforts appear squarely targeted in managing the behaviors of Beijing-backed enterprises.
The acquittal of two Serco executives who had been facing fraud charges in the UK amounts to a serious blow for the Serious Fraud Office. The enforcer has been struggling to secure the conviction of individuals, even when it has succeeded in demanding fines and admissions of guilt from the companies that employ those charged. Meanwhile, anyone accepting a bribe on the idyllic island of Barbados could soon be facing the long arm of US law, with a court sentencing a former minister of the Caribbean country to two years’ jail over money-laundering charges. The case of Donville Inniss has highlighted how US money-laundering laws can be used as a backdoor avenue for prosecutors to target foreign officials.
China has demonstrated to some of the country’s largest technology players that antitrust oversight isn’t limited to the State Administration for Market Regulation — the top competition enforcer. Recent events in the country show that, when needed, all regulatory agencies are prepared to pitch in. Also on today’s podcast: the Petroecuador bribery saga. The company wanted to recover money from a bribe payer; but a US judge baulked at granting the troubled Latin American oil company its restitution claim.
The joint statement by the antitrust regulators of Australia, Germany and the UK this week was a chance for antitrust officials to call for sharper tools to manage mergers and acquisitions — with particular regard to fast-moving digital markets. The regulators also warned that behavioral remedies of the type put forward by Google to get its acquisition of smartwatch maker Fitbit past regulators in the European Union may be unenforceable. Also on the podcast: What the super-implosion of soccer’s Super League tells us about European antitrust.
On March 30, the US Federal Trade Commission challenged Illumina’s proposed acquisition of cancer diagnostic startup Grail, arguing that Illumina would have both the incentive and the ability to disadvantage Grail’s competitors by denying them access to its essential, next-generation sequencing technology. The deal has tapped into global regulatory concerns over vertical acquisitions, pharmaceutical deals and so-called killer acquisitions.
Google’s United States Supreme Court copyright win against Oracle over the development of the Android operating system was a huge development, with the case spending the past 10 years bouncing around courts in the US. The ruling is significant because it may shed some light on how tech developers can add value to existing coding. Also on the podcast this week: How China’s electronic media is playing a role in increasing the public’s understanding of privacy.
Australia’s world-first antitrust review of Facebook and Google’s business models has spawned a new generation of regulation and enforcement, with the country’s competition watchdog using consumer lawsuits, market inquiries and merger reviews to create one of the western world’s most assertive regulatory regimes. But as a recent MLex Special Report argues, there are signs that the legacy of the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission’s 18-month Digital Platforms Inquiry, which wound up in 2019, could yet be tarnished by the reluctance of Australia’s courts to embrace significant parts of the regulator’s agenda.
Expert witnesses that struggle to converse in a way that is accessible to both judges and juries and who can’t write a report that doesn’t run into thousands of pages may be doing more harm than good to the antitrust case they are supporting. According to a judge who spoke at a recent American Bar Association antitrust conference, the quality of an expert witness can make or break a competition lawsuit. Also on today’s podcast, the case for Southeast Asian countries to work together in regulating both international and home-grown digital companies.
It has happened: The California Privacy Protection Agency has become the first standalone privacy enforcer to be established in the United States. California Governor Gavin Newsom’s appointment of five people to the board of the new agency has focused public attention on the CPPA’s role; it has also raised the prospect of other states following California’s lead and establishing their own privacy frameworks.
Although Democrats now have a majority in both houses of the US Congress, the Biden administration may still struggle to have its ambitious plans for an antitrust revamp adopted. Meanwhile, the EU is preparing a legal battle with the UK over one of the most controversial aspects of Brexit: the trade status of Northern Ireland.
If enacted, the European Union’s Digital Markets Act will significantly curb the power of Google, Facebook, Amazon.com and Apple. The legislation is now percolating through the EU’s labyrinthine lawmaking processes and, although widely supported, fault-lines are emerging over how rigorous the law should be, and how much in-built flexibility it requires. It’s a sensitive debate touching on the very philosophy of regulation: rigid rules versus more flexible lawmaking to account for business specificities. It also addresses the limitations of the EU regulator’s success in regulating Big Tech under existing rules.
The rollercoaster ride that shares of GameStop went on earlier this year had little to do with the value of the US videogame and electronics retailer and more to do with a “short squeeze” — a buying frenzy designed to hurt those who had bet on the share value going down. The unusual move was orchestrated by members of a Reddit community and led to the controversial move by the go-to app used by small-time investors, Robinhood, to suspend trading as it built up cash reserves. The controversy has sparked a discussion on both sides of the Atlantic about what regulatory measures are needed to manage these new challenges.
A long-term, successful North Korean hacking heist targeting banks around the world has sparked a conversation about financial institutions’ readiness to take on cyberattacks. The hackers’ ability to make away with the loot and launder large sums has also raised questions about how lax practices have played into the hands of criminals. Meanwhile, in Japan the 500.com bribery scandal has left observers to question how effective the country is likely to be in regulating its new, growing gambling industry.
Facebook users in Australia will no longer have access to news in their news feed. In a dramatic turn of events this week, the US-based tech giant decided that Australia’s new mandatory code of conduct forcing platforms to pay for news content meant including media content was no longer viable. If the move was attempt to force the government to back down, it failed, with Canberra as determined as ever to push ahead with its landmark legislation. Meanwhile, in the UK, consumer champions competing to sue some of the world’s biggest investment banks over currency-market rigging are now waiting for a court decision that could shed some light on the future of mass claims.
The growing interest in financial services on the part of tech giants including Amazon.com, Facebook and Alibaba is likely to shake up an industry long dominated by a handful of large lenders. But Big Tech’s decision to massage its data ascendency into a new banking business model has also raised questions about whether the new players have been able to sidestep the industry’s tough regulation targeting risks such as money laundering, consumer protection and competition. On today’s podcast, we examine how this debate is playing out in the US and China.
A landmark antitrust lawsuit targeting Google over its management of digital advertising services is underway in a Texas court, with a preliminary hearing this week focusing on how the 10 US states behind the legal action, as well as Google itself, will safeguard evidence. The debate was more than academic: selected members of the news media have received leaked versions of unredacted court documents. Meanwhile, Australia’s competition watchdog has just released a draft report into adtech that points to a fraught regulatory landscape ahead for Google.
The underrepresentation of African Americans in the two US departments that cover antitrust is stark. Only 2.85 percent of the lawyers in the Department of Justice’s antitrust division are African American; and only 4.1 percent of the lawyers in the Federal Trade Commission’s Bureau of Competition are Black. And when it comes to senior management levels, the statistics are even worse. There is now a growing consensus in antitrust circles that the poor representation of minorities needs to be addressed, but there is little agreement on how to proceed.
To mark Data Privacy Day, this special-edition MLex podcast examines the year that was and glances ahead at what lies in store for privacy regulation and enforcement. Mike Swift will chat about the impact of new data-privacy enforcement agencies around the world, the controversial collapse of the Privacy Shield allowing trans-Atlantic data transfers and the advent of muscular national sovereignty in regulating global digital companies. We also examine how the incoming Biden administration may want to ride the wave of privacy enforcement directed at Big Tech.
Users of the popular messaging service WhatsApp may have noticed a recent privacy-policy update from the Facebook-owned company. But how many of those users would have read and understood the 4,000-word document in full? Not many — something that is concerning regulators around the globe. Even though the company argues that the updates themselves are not significant, the way in which the changes have been communicated to users has fed into residual animosity towards Facebook over its 2014 acquisition of WhatsApp and mistrust about its handling of personal data. Meanwhile, some WhatsApp users are voting with their virtual feet, dumping the service in favor of rivals Signal and Telegram. Facebook vowed to boost its transparency about the changes and delayed the deadline to accept the policy update to May 15.
It has been a dramatic start to 2021: Insurgents storming the US Capitol and digital giants agreeing to de-platform the leader of the free world. Yet the discussion over the fate of the much-maligned Section 230, which offers platforms legal protection, is being hampered by a lack of clarity over what the rules actually achieve. Meanwhile, South Korea’s proposed revamp of its privacy rules has taken on a sense of urgency, with the fate of a racist and data-disclosing chatbot illustrating the need for tighter regulation.
It’s high noon in Texas, where a posse of state attorneys general have filed one of two, multistate complaints against search and advertising giant Google. The first was submitted by Texas and nine other states alleging antitrust violations in Google’s display ads business; a second filed in Washington DC by 38 attorneys general focuses on Google’s alleged illegal search monopolization. And at the heart of one of the lawsuits is the allegation that Google colluded with Facebook in a secret deal with a “Star Wars” themed code name. Meanwhile, professional European ice skaters will be taking to the rink with renewed enthusiasm over the holidays, following an EU court decision that’s likely to resonate throughout professional sporting bodies.
The revamp of digital regulation announced this week suggests that the “too big to care” culture of digital platforms may be on borrowed time.
It’s hard to understate the significance of the two lawsuits targeting Facebook that were announced in the United States this week. The ambition of the court action by the US Federal Trade Commission and a collection of 48 states and territories is, quite simply, staggering. If enforcers have their way, Facebook could be broken up, its future acquisitions could be challenged and the novel theory of antitrust harm centering on privacy and innovation could wreak havoc on the social-media platform’s business model. And in another setback for tech giants this week, Australia’s bold plan to force both Facebook and Google to pay news publishers for content entered the home stretch.
Just a few months into the job, Singapore’s antitrust chief had to quickly adjust to changing realities amid the Covid-19 pandemic. But on the road to recovery, Sia Aik Kor says the stakes of ensuring competitive markets have never been higher. In this special edition of MLex’s regulatory podcast, our Southeast Asia correspondent, Jet Damazo-Santos, walks us through Sia’s eventful year and examines the regulatory challenges facing both the city-state and the region, along with other highlights of the December edition of MLex’s special report.
With Facebook’s Libra set to take on the world, the question in global financial-services circles has now turned to how best to regulate, or even whether to allow, the digital currency. Facebook is no stranger to conversations about regulation; but in Europe the advent of Libra has prompted a broader discussion about whether there isn’t a better way to cut high bank transfer charges. In the EU, commercial banks plan a rival to Visa and Mastercard – while central banks are also considering launching their own, state-backed, cryptocurrencies.
End-to-end encryption in messaging services has been a boon for privacy. In fact, it’s hard to see a downside to the fact that you can send someone your banking details, or medical records or other personal information without having to worry about it falling into the wrong hands. Yet encryption hasn’t been kind to law-enforcement agencies, as criminals embrace secure channels of communication, sidestepping surveillance. Against a backdrop of growing concern over terrorism, some European national governments are now pushing to grant investigators access to encrypted messages, and the European Union appears set to consider regulatory change — despite mounting concerns over privacy. Meanwhile, Australia’s encryption laws are almost two years old, although to date police have left the strongest part of the measures untouched, raising questions about why the legislation was needed in the first place.
Mergers and acquisitions involving foreign investors will be facing tough new standards in the UK, amid growing concerns over national security. London isn’t alone in beefing up its foreign-investment regime in response to geo-political tensions, but Britain is facing the unique challenge of having to balance the uptick in regulation with the need to attract foreign investment in a difficult, post-Brexit international climate. Meanwhile, in South Korea there is growing concern over the competition regulator’s practice of cramming key antitrust hearings into just one day. The procedural matter is about more than just bathroom breaks: Local companies say they’re facing a tougher enforcement regime than their foreign counterparts.
Following Joe Biden’s victory in the US presidential election, attention has now turned to what policy settings are likely to be affected by the new administration. In the world of antitrust, it’s likely that the impact won’t be dramatic, with the transfer of presidential power usually not eliciting substantial shifts in enforcement. However, when it comes to policy affecting online platforms, speculation is mounting that a Biden administration may want to tweak Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act 1996 — the legislation that means tech giants aren’t held accountable for what appears online. Meanwhile, for California’s electorate, Nov. 3 brought with it an additional poll — one that could have an impact on data protection rules across the country.
Speak to regulators around the world and you’re likely to hear the same complaint: With technology moving so fast, those overseeing digital giants need an expanded toolbox. The European Commission is tackling the problem by putting forward a proposal that would give the EU regulator new powers with which to tackle the antitrust challenges posed by Big Tech — a proposal named the Digital Markets Act. Meanwhile, UK competition regulators are considering additional firepower to tackle what are referred to as “killer acquisitions” — tech giants swooping in on startups to ward off future competition. However, drawing the line between a killer acquisition and a strategically savvy investment may prove problematic.
As corruption and embezzlement scandals go, the 1MDB affair was breathtaking in both its scale and its audacity. In 2015, then Malaysian prime minister Najib Razak was accused of channeling into personal bank accounts funds from 1Malaysia Development Berhard, a government-run strategic development company. A total of 4.5 billion US dollars went missing, with most of it still unaccounted for. The role played in moving the stolen funds out of the country by commercial bank Goldman Sachs has prompted the US investigation that culminated in a record fine, earmarked for enforcers in the US, the UK and Singapore. The $2.9 billion penalty has highlighted how the bank’s safeguards failed to stop the suspicious transfers and how enforcers around the world can work together to clamp down on lax oversight.
It’s hard to overstate the significance of the US government’s lawsuit targeting Google over allegations that its agreements with Apple and Android phonemakers to make the search engine the default on their devices has made it too difficult for search rivals to compete. The court action is the most significant antitrust case to affect Big Tech since the 1998 suit against Microsoft and this week’s news of the enforcement action has reverberated around the world. And while the outcome of the Department of Justice lawsuit is hard to predict, there are those who would argue that by avoiding antitrust action of this kind in the US until now, Google has already won.
The future of data flows between the United Kingdom and the European Union in a post-Brexit world aren’t at the top of the agenda in negotiations between the two sides, but a failure to reach an agreement could have a significant impact on trade. The impasse centers on concerns by EU courts that the UK’s surveillance laws that allow for “general and indiscriminate” bulk collection of data are at odds with the EU’s data-protection rules. Meanwhile, provincial governments in Canada are so concerned about the shortcomings of the country’s federal data-protection legislation that they’re preparing to go their own way to meet the requirements of the EU’s sprawling General Data Protection Regulation.
You don’t have to be a gamer to know that the company behind Fortnite, Epic Games, has picked a fight with two powerful Silicon Valley giants: Apple and Google. The makers of the popular online game argue that Apple’s restrictions preventing other forms of app distribution from being available to Apple users amount to the company exercising — and abusing — its monopoly power. The legal challenge in the US is just the latest example of antitrust concerns surrounding how both Apple and Google manage their app stores. In South Korea, concerns focusing on Google’s plans to restrict on-line payments through its Android store to just one payment method — its own — has attracted the attention of regulators and government. It has also seen some outspoken lawmakers vowing to take whatever measures are required to bring the platforms to heel.
Brazil’s new privacy legislation is expected to boost the country’s chances of tapping into the global digital economy, by safeguarding the flow of data across international borders. But uncertainty over the establishment of a regulator has left companies with no guidance on how to comply with the General Law for Data Protection. Also this week, we take a look at the EU’s proposal for new e-privacy rules, which has been caught up in a clash among EU member states. Nonetheless, governments’ determination to combat online child abuse may yet provide the impetus needed to get the draft legislation back on track.
A revised merger-remedies manual published by the US Department of Justice is reverberating around the world, as the government agency’s antitrust chief, Makan Delrahim, puts forward rules that place divestitures — rather than conduct commitments — at center stage. The new guidelines will have direct consequences for dealmakers, who may now have to think twice before offering behavioral assurances over promises to simply sell off problematic assets. In Europe, meanwhile, LSE’s $27 billion deal to acquire financial-data company Refinitiv is set to put the European Commission’s regulatory acceptance of conduct commitments to the test.
Two recent developments in Japan are likely to have a significant impact on the country’s regulatory landscape. Firstly, the influential chairman of the Japan Fair Trade Commission, Kazuyuki Sugimoto, stepped down from his role to make way for his successor, Kazuyuki Furuya; secondly, Yoshihide Suga was appointed as Japan’s prime minister, following the abrupt resignation of Shinzo Abe. The two events are unrelated, yet the professional connection between Suga and Furuya suggests the two men are likely to be on the same page regarding key enforcement issues. Meanwhile, the UK is grappling with proposed legislation centering on state aid, which is attracting attention — and criticism — from both sides of the English Channel.
The Covid-19 pandemic has sparked a raft of regulatory measures addressing antitrust and state-subsidy programs, as well as mergers and acquisitions. Some of these measures will be lifting as the economy emerges from its lockdown-induced slumber; others may have a lasting effect. In this special podcast, we address three examples of three policy areas over which the coronavirus has cast a shadow: M&A in the United States; the enforcement hiatus in the European Union; and the Philippines's controversial decision to wave through significant deals, without regulatory scrutiny. MLex journalists walk us through their reporting for the Covid-19 special report, which is now available for download.
When Canadian engineering company SNC-Lavalin was named in a bribery investigation in Brazil, it suggested that the company had failed to put its governance failures behind it. The probe by Brazilian federal prosecutors into corruption allegations involving the country’s state-owned nuclear plant is likely to add to the Montreal-based company’s woes back in Canada, where prosecutors have accused SNC-Lavalin of funneling millions of dollars to corrupt Libyan officials. The Brazilian probe is now likely to create a new headache for the company back in Canada.
As the US gears up for a crucial presidential vote in November, the announcement that Senator Kamala Harris was to be the Democratic vice-presidential nomination sparked intense interest among those observing developments in Silicon Valley. Harris’ background as a public official in California means that she has had to grapple with Big Tech’s often fraught relationship with antitrust and privacy enforcement. On antitrust, not too much is known about how Harris, if elected to office, would approach the challenges of regulating the online giants that grew up in and around her home in the San Francisco Bay Area. On privacy, however, Harris’ track record is solid, suggesting a tougher regulatory stance, should a Biden presidency become reality.
As the first criminal-cartel prosecutions in over 100 years start to percolate through Australia’s legal system, MLex’s local team of reporters examines how the country’s competition watchdog has used the offenses to tackle anticompetitive agreements. In a new, in-depth special report, we examine the challenges faced by the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission, along with the defense strategies put forward by the accused companies and individuals. We also contemplate how similar legislation now adopted by New Zealand may mold the antitrust landscape in that country.
A radical plan by the European Union to impose a levy on carbon-intensive imports is increasingly popular among national leaders, although it remains unclear what shape it’s likely to take — a tariff, a tax or an extension of the bloc’s internal Emissions Trading System. Many EU leaders are now of the view that some form of tariff is required to avoid “carbon leaking” — that’s the risk that business will move production to other jurisdictions to sidestep European environmental standards. Yet any EU move to impose a tariff will play out against a backdrop of growing protectionism around the globe, with political uncertainty in the United States contributing to an increasingly difficult trade environment.
Payment processor Wirecard had been hailed as a German superstar in the world of financial services — an example of how a strong idea could see Europe compete with the Silicon Valley giants. Then things went awry, with media reports of behind-the-scenes irregularities. Finally, it was revealed that Wirecard had a 1.9 billion-euro accounting blackhole, leading the company to collapse, leaving aggrieved creditors and shareholders in its wake. The debate over Wirecard’s implosion is now centering on Germany’s financial regulator, BaFin, and the shortcomings of its oversight; the failure of the company’s auditor, EY, to identify the accounting problems is also attracting scrutiny.
TikTok has taken the world by storm, with the video-sharing app’s appeal among teenagers making its Chinese owner, ByteDance, into a global tech player. But there’s trouble brewing, with concerns mounting over TikTok’s use and storage of personal data, along with fears that the Chinese government could gain access to that data. Now, US President Donald Trump has told the ByteDance that it must either sell TikTok or shut down the app entirely. Microsoft has emerged as a leading candidate to buy at least part of the company, but that won’t be enough to put to rest global privacy concerns over TikTok’s data use.
With the clash between media publishers and online platforms Facebook and Google over the use of news content now playing out across the world, governments and regulators in different jurisdictions are grappling with how best to regulate the relationship. In some European jurisdictions, moves are underway to use copyright laws to force the platforms to cough up cash to compensate media companies. In Australia, however, the clash between the platforms and newspapers is being seen through the prism of competition law, with a proposed code of conduct likely to force the tech giants to compensate content producers. Despite the apparent differences of approach, there are many parallels between the two regulatory models.
The recent court success of European privacy activist Max Schrems has cast a shadow over the operations of companies needing to move data across the Atlantic. The European Court of Justice’s ruling that the “Privacy Shield” data-transfer arrangement between was invalid because of the surveillance risks in the US. It’s still unclear the extent to which the court’s decision will affect global digital transfers, however lawmakers and regulators will still have to scramble to find new solutions. The judges have also highlighted what is likely to remain a stumbling block for trans-Atlantic data exchanges: the absence of national privacy laws in the US.
The harshness of the penalties faced by three foreigners who have faced jailed time in the United States over criminal-antitrust offenses is being read as a cautionary tale for anyone, anywhere in the world, who has violated US cartel laws. The offenses may amount to white-collar crime, but the unforgiving prison regime faced by those who have been convicted, along with the readiness of US authorities to extradite those accused from third countries, is a reminder that even senior managers of wealthy companies can’t expect leniency from the Department of Justice. As MLex’s reporting has revealed, this unforgiving regime may work as a deterrent, but the three foreigners nabbed by the long arm of US justice have paid a very high price.
Unaoil bribery trial of former executives holds uncomfortable lessons for UK’s Serious Fraud Office by MLex Market Insight
At the end of a long, delayed and controversial trial in San Francisco, a jury in a US court accepted claims that Yevgeniy Nikulin, a Russian citizen, was responsible for the hacking of tech companies including LinkedIn and Dropbox eight years ago. Despite the often-complex technical discussion before the court and the absence of a smoking gun, the circumstantial evidence before the jury was enough for it to return a guilty verdict. The success of a prosecution that was hampered but not halted by logistical challenges posed by the Covid-19 outbreak is a boost for US authorities in their fight against damaging hacker attacks on tech companies.
There’s no denying that tech giants Facebook and Google dominate the markets for online advertising, or adtech. The social media and search platforms argue that there’s nothing anticompetitive about this fact and the tailor-made connection between consumers and the products they want to buy amounts to a win-win. Yet a new report by the UK’s competition regulator has raised serious concerns about the platforms’ large market share and has raised the prospect of tough new regulation – even the breaking up of Big Tech businesses – to counter this unprecedented market power. If the recommendations are embraced by government they could have a serious impact on the platforms’ business model.
The notion that decisions on antitrust investigations and merger reviews are made by the US Department of Justice at arm’s length from politics was challenged last month, with whistleblowers in the department suggesting the Trump administration interfered with the process. DOJ prosecutor John Elias told a US Congressional hearing about interference by DOJ leadership in decisions to open multiple investigations. The first was a probe of the car industry, following a deal struck by the state of California with four automakers on emissions standards — something that irked President Donald Trump. The second was an intervention by Attorney General William Barr to initiate burdensome reviews of 10 different acquisitions involving legal marijuana companies.
A penalty of $47 million imposed on German investment bank Commerzbank by the UK’s financial regulator has provided a timely reminder of the risks posed by fraud, as companies and state actors across the globe face increased risks in the wake of the Covid-19 epidemic. The Financial Conduct Authority imposed the fine after repeated missteps in fighting money laundering by the London branch of Commerzbank. And with the likelihood of similar cases arising as a result of inadequate safeguards during the pandemic, the FCA’s response to Commerzbank may set the tone for future enforcement.
Short, humorous looping videos that you can attach to an online message or a tweet don’t sound like something likely to prompt regulators to take on the world’s largest social-media platform. Yet Facebook’s May acquisition of GIF database Giphy is indeed shaping up as an antitrust test case centering on so-called killer acquisitions and Big Tech’s use and collection of data. What’s more, the probe into the Giphy deal launched by the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority may even set the tone of the regulator’s post-Brexit approach to online deals.
It’s the perennial question for European Union policymakers: Should the state aid granted to Chinese companies prompt regulatory responses? And if so, what form should those responses take? With Europe still smarting from the effects of Covid-19, a new policy initiative appears set to impose strong, tangible rules on Chinese investment in the EU — rules that could also hit other countries doing business in the bloc. While these new policy directions are being considered in Brussels, China is itself pondering how it can prevent local authorities supporting favored companies and, in so doing, create market distortions that reverberate throughout the country.
Amazon.com, Google, Facebook and a range of global digital platforms are facing a regulatory onslaught in the EU, as the European Commission floats a plan for a comprehensive overhaul designed to tackle digital “gatekeepers,” market concentration and online services. The biggest change is a new tool to investigate markets and impose behavioral or structural remedies — even when no company has been found to be in violation of competition laws. If adopted, the suite of proposals would mark a turning point in the EU’s regulatory battle with Big Tech.
The decision by Ireland’s privacy regulator to take on Twitter marks an important moment in the history of the EU’s landmark GDPR privacy legislation, with the matter now in the hands of other European privacy watchdogs for their input. The case is significant because it tells us as much about how such investigations will be managed in the future as it does about Twitter’s alleged privacy breach. Meanwhile, China’s top legislative and advisory bodies have renewed calls for greater privacy safeguards, just as Beijing is considering two pieces of legislation designed to achieve just that.
Governments around the world are scrambling to roll out contact-tracing mobile technology that would enable health authorities to track those who have been exposed to the Covid-19 coronavirus. Supporters of the different types of technology involved say the apps will be a powerful tool in fighting the spread of the pandemic. Yet privacy concerns are prompting lawmakers in many jurisdictions to examine whether they have sufficient legal safeguards to encourage the higher rates of take-up that would make the apps more effective.
The Covid-19 pandemic has wreaked regulatory havoc around the globe, with the agencies responsible for reviewing mergers and acquisitions facing problems on two fronts. First up, the logistical challenges: Officials working from home may struggle to gain access to the material they need to finalize their review and interested parties may not be able to submit key information. But even more disruptive is the coronavirus’s impact on the markets. How can a regulator assess a deal’s impact on competition when the relevant market has been turned upside down by the lockdown?
As governments around the world scramble to respond to the economic downturn sparked by the Covid-19 pandemic, fears are mounting that state intervention to prop up specific businesses could harm competition. In the European Union, divisions over state aid have led to unusual divisions between northern and southern member states, while the readiness of governments to help national airlines has sparked criticism on the part of competing airlines that aren’t receiving support. While in Australia, the government is steadfastly refusing to step in to save a local airlines, despite the prospect of the country being left with one, monopoly domestic airline.
Australian steel-product manufacturer BlueScope Steel is embroiled in two court cases brought by the country’s competition regulator. The company’s former manager Jason Ellis is involved in both cases --- alleged attempted cartel conduct and criminal obstruction charges. Obstruction charges are often used in the US to aid cartel probes, but it’s the first time the measures have been used in Australia in this context. Australasian Managing Editor James Panichi and Senior Correspondent Laurel Henning discuss what Australia could learn from the US when it comes to obstruction charges.
The staff at Indonesia's Corruption Eradication Commission have found their respected agency under attack from a seemingly unlikely source: parliament. A new bill passed just this week is set to clip its wings by making its activities and independence subject to the whims of a handpicked supervisory panel. It's an unwelcome development for an agency that is the most trusted of any state body in Southeast Asia's biggest economy, particularly because the legal offensive comes from the country's least trusted, the legislature itself. The uncharacteristic quiescence of the country's "clean-hands" president, Joko Widodo, seems set to allow the bill pass into law, potentially setting the nation's successful anticorruption efforts back years. MLex Asia Managing Editor David Plott spoke with Jakarta Correspondent Jet Damazo-Santos to explore how the bill came to pass, and what it means for a country that's trying to shed its unenviable reputation as one of the world's most corrupt places in which to do business.
Facebook’s argument that users suing over the Cambridge Analytica scandal had no expectation of privacy after sharing information with friends has been dealt a blow in a federal court, with a judge in California saying the argument “could not be more wrong.” But the digital platform’s reasoning on what privacy safeguards its users believed they were entitled to have also raised questions among members the US House Judiciary Subcommittee, who have asked the platform to explain the disparity between its claims in court and reassurances on privacy offered by its boss, Mark Zuckerberg.
The content-licensing practices of Tencent Music – far and away China’s biggest music download service – have struck a discordant note with the country’s antitrust regulator, which is looking into the company’s exclusive licensing arrangements amid concerns that they are locking competitors out of the action in the world’s 7th-largest music market. The investigation of Tencent Music – the first such Chinese probe targeting a local tech giant, and the first involving non-price vertical agreements – has roped in the world’s biggest music labels, Universal Music, Sony Music Entertainment and Warner Music, alongside such corporate heavyweights as Apple, Alibaba, Baidu, NetEase and Huawei. It’s more than an attempt to rein in the dominant player in the market; it’s set to be a game changer for the entire industry. MLex Asia Managing Editor David Plott sat down with Chief China Correspondent Yonnex Li to explore the issues, and where the probe goes next.
The announcement that Curaleaf was aiming to create the US’s biggest cannabis company with its $875 million GrassRoots merger is likely to attract scrutiny, as officials from the US Department of Justice review the deal. In fact, the US regulator has issued second requests for information on nearly every cannabis merger is has dealt with, suggesting an interest on the part of government agencies to increase their expertise in dealing with a relatively new industry.
Sam Wilkin and Jack Schickler of MLex discuss Facebook's foray into cryptocurrency, Libra, and the regulation impact already expected in its home jurisdiction of Switzerland.
Some 48 American states – that’s all members of the union except for Alabama and California – have announced plans to launch antitrust probes into Google, warning the search giant that they’re ready to follow their investigations wherever they may lead. It’s sobering news from Google – and for Facebook, which is also facing an antitrust or privacy probe by the states. The take-home is this: bashing Silicon Valley has become good politics for both the right and the left in the US.
A recent increase in Australian court action over cartel conduct, both in criminal and civil cases has seen the country’s competition regulator add two more cases to its hit list in the last fortnight: one against Norwegian shipping line, Wallenius Wilhelmsen ocean and a second against Australian company BlueScope steel. The first is a criminal case; the second a civil matter. Laurel Henning and James Panichi discuss the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission’s unpredictable cartel probes.
New business minister Leadsom inherits bulging competition reform in-tray Theresa May entered 10 Downing Street in July 2016 with grand hopes of fixing Britain’s “dysfunctional” markets in favor of hard-pressed consumers. But she was pushed from office three years later with reforms to consumer protection, competition in digital markets, foreign investment screening and the audit market half-done. They now lie in the hands of business secretary Andrea Leadsom – and a divided parliament. In this discussion from MLex’s London bureau, senior correspondent Matthew Holehouse and antitrust correspondents Simon Zekaria and Victoria Ibitoye consider the priorities and possibilities ahead.
The Australian government has published the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission’s landmark report into the influence of Facebook and Google on the country’s media and advertising industries. If the government adopts the ACCC’s 23 recommendations, the digital platforms could face some of the toughest M&A requirements in the world, and have to work on industry codes of conduct with regulators that would include giving consumers more control over their data.
China enacted its Cybersecurity Law just over two years ago, and the regulatory ecosystem that has emerged as regulations have developed around it is appreciably easier to navigate than it once was. But risks for companies both foreign and domestic remain as those rules are tweaked and as various government agencies clamor to play a role in enforcing them. MLex has compiled a special report highlighting the key issues in Chinese cybersecurity. MLex Deputy Managing Editor for Asia Padraic Convery sat down with Correspondent Xu Yuan, whose reporting on Chinese cybersecurity issues forms the basis of this report, to get her take on what businesses can expect from China’s increasingly developed cyber-regulatory environment, both now and in the future.
Date: July 12, 2019 Duration: 15:42
On July 11 MLex hosted a discussion between the EU’s outgoing chief economist for competition, Tommaso Valletti, and Cristina Caffarra, Charles Rivers Associates’ head of European competition. Valletti advocated for bolder competition enforcement, celebrated European Commissioner for Competition Margrethe Vestager, and recounted memorable moments from his three years in post. The discussion was moderated by MLex journalist Nicholas Hirst.
It has been a year and a half since the Australian government told its competition watchdog to investigate the impact of digital platforms including Facebook and Google on the country’s media and advertising issue, and now the regulatory is preparing to hand its final report to government. Among the expected recommendations are the creation of a digital-platforms regulator, or an expanded role for existing regulators to take on the technology giants, along with tighter privacy protections and clearer guidelines to oversee acquisitions of nascent rivals by established online platforms. What started off as a narrowly focused examination of the decline of the newspaper industry has ballooned into a comprehensive list of regulatory remedies to counter the platforms growing presence on different Australian markets.
Australian merger law is under renewed scrutiny as the country’s competition regulator fights to make its voice heard by Federal Court judges. The Australian Competition & Consumer Commission and Federal Court of Australia are at odds when it comes to trusting undertakings offered up by companies seeking approval for merger deals and the ACCC’s mistrust is leading it to consider recommending carving out new M&A measures for digital platforms this month.
One year after the General Data Protection Regulation took effect, the sweeping EU privacy law is still clouded in uncertainty. A 50 million-euro fine against Google, imposed by France, has opened up a dispute about jurisdiction as well as the vexed question of how, exactly, companies can legally get people’s consent to process their data. As national regulators look to step up their enforcement in the GDPR’s second year, MLex is releasing a Special Report to shine a light into the regulation’s murky corners. In this podcast, three of the contributors — Matthew Newman, Jack Schickler and Cynthia Kroet — discuss their findings with editor Sam Wilkin.
A merger that would have seen Australia’s broadband and mobile network markets changed forever suffered a costly A$1 billion ($700 million) loss this week after a premature announcement from Australia’s competition regulator blocked the deal. Now the companies are preparing to take their fight to a Federal Court.
As cars integrate ever more technology, a legal fight is brewing over whether the holders of connectivity-related patents should offer licenses to the makers of the relevant car parts, or of the cars as a whole. With parallels to the “smartphone wars” of the past decade, this new front will strain the complex relationships between carmakers and their suppliers and pit industrial giants such as Daimler and Nokia against each other. It will also test the limits of antitrust law, with patent holders being accused of withholding licenses. Listen to Sam Wilkin, Matthew Newman and Michael Acton from MLex’s Brussels bureau talk it over.
Apple and Qualcomm were set to do battle in a San Diego courtroom earlier this month to sort out a years-long dispute over the value of Qualcomm’s cellular communications technology. Then after a nine-person jury was sworn in, the two companies abruptly settled. How this impacts the mobile industry, and a series of related case, is yet unknown.
Data and information flows are ever more important in today's hyper-connected world, and a critical priority for states is to ensure smooth, legal cross-border links. Brexit is driving a cart and horses through that aim, both in the UK and around the world. Telecoms correspondent Vesela Gladicheva and Brexit Correspondent Matthew Holehouse examine this vexed issue with London news editor Ben O'Neill.
Australia was a footnote on the Asian balance sheet of the Amazons Facebooks and Googles of the world until a recent push over the last year and a half from Australian policymakers. The government has put in place groundbreaking laws on encryption and abhorrent violent material. James Panichi and Laurel Henning discuss.
China's growing industrial clout and state-backed efforts to move up the value chain have caused alarm in Brussels and EU capitals, leading to calls to loosen merger law or restrict access to public procurement markets. But policymakers don't have that many levers to pull, and those that they do could have adverse consequences for EU consumers. Poppy Carnell and Natalie McNelis talk to Sam Wilkin about the difficult choices to be made, both before and after a summit on April 9.
With Elliott rejected by Hyundai Motor shareholders and KCGI, Korea’s biggest activist fund, legally barred from seeking change at Hanjin KAL, it appears corporate governance will only advance at a pace dictated by Korea’s financial establishment. James Panichi and Jason Booth discuss.
A landmark criminal-cartel prosecution in Australia, involving a rural medical-aid company called Country Care, is attracting attention among competition professionals for how prosecutors’ tactics may inform other criminal-cartel prosecutions, including one involving Deutsche Bank and Citigroup. Meanwhile, the New Zealand parliament published a new draft of a privacy overhaul, which would align the policy with Australian, but will it be enough to make the new laws successful at an international level? James Panichi and Laurel Henning discuss.
UK lawmakers’ rejection of Theresa May’s Brexit deal this week for the second time has prompted an uptick in EU preparations for a no-deal exit on March 29, at both the EU and the national level. While this scenario will be disruptive on both sides of the English Channel, policymakers are trying to soften the blow in crucial areas such as air transport and the Irish border. Brexit reporter Zosia Wanat discusses the details with Brussels bureau chief Sam Wilkin.
They are the Titans of their markets. But the blow-back has now begun. Google, Amazon, Facebook and Apple, collectively known as GAFA, have had the heat turned up on them in the past year as regulators in Asia-Pacific have gone after them over problems ranging from data privacy to dominance abuse and other competition issues. MLex Australia Senior Correspondent Laurel Henning and MLex Japan Senior Correspondent Toko Sekiguchi look at how three key countries in the region are taking a tougher line on tech's Big Four and the regulatory challenges they have triggered.
A landmark gun-jumping case in Australia has focused attention on the risk faced by companies entering into agreements ahead of a merger or acquisition. The lawsuit has also reignited concerns about how light penalties could hinder the deterrence of antitrust laws. Meanwhile, in New Zealand the planned revamp of privacy laws has prompted soul-searching about the “right to be forgotten,” with European court cases having an impact on policy discussion in the Southern Hemisphere.
Two merger prohibitions by the European Commission this week have ushered in a political debate about whether competition rules need to change. The veto of the Siemens-Alstom rail merger in particular has drawn criticism from high-profile politicians who say there should be more latitude to create European champions. But not everyone agrees, and pushing through changes will be difficult. Brussels competition reporters Nicholas Hirst and Natalie McNelis talk to news editor Sam Wilkin about what changes could be on the horizon.
As soon as the new Republican majority on the Federal Communications Commission voted in 2018 to discard Obama-era rules that treated fixed and wireless consumer broadband services as a more closely regulated “common carrier” service, a court fight was inevitable. Opponents immediately sued to block the FCC’s move. More than six months later, the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit finally heard oral arguments this week in Washington DC.
Activist funds launched more campaigns and won more board seats last year than ever before. But in terms of financial returns, it was the worst performance since 2011. So in 2019 they are taking advantage of depressed share prices to seek quicker profits with less money on the table.
As nearly 200,000 entrepreneurs, software coders, sales people and journalists converged on Las Vegas this week for the world’s largest technology show – CES – there was broad acceptance that in the wake of the data protection scandals of the past year such as Cambridge Analytica, the tech industry is facing a “techlash,” with a growing sense of distrust and skepticism from the public and regulators. While US regulators were absent from this year’s CES because of the federal government shutdown, it was abundantly clear that there has been a sea change since CES 2018, with privacy issues taking center stage. The tech industry is “currently in a privacy perfect storm,” said Michael Petricone, the head of regulatory affairs for the Consumer Technology Association, which puts on the CES show.
The planned merger between European rail titans Siemens and Alstom is having a tough time at the hands of EU merger-control authorities, which could block the deal if they decide it will have a harmful effect on competition. The companies and political backers say they need to create a “European champion” to see off competition from China, but will this be enough to outweigh the domestic competition concerns? Brussels competition reporters Nicholas Hirst and Natalie McNelis talk to news editor Sam Wilkin.
The trial pitting the US Federal Trade Commission against cellular chip maker Qualcomm is underway in a federal courtroom in Silicon Valley. For three days the two sides have presented diametrically opposed viewpoints on Qualcomm's dominance in the modem chip market for high end wireless devices. The trial is less than halfway complete, and Qualcomm has yet to offer its own evidence, but there's still plenty to break down.
Tech in 2019: legal disputes and other impending regulatory and litigation issues by MLex Market Insight
Silicon Valley loses its fight against Australia’s encryption law by MLex Market Insight
Brexit’s not done yet. EU leaders endorsed the withdrawal agreement and a political declaration on future relations on Sunday, but even if this passes the UK parliament, we’re still potentially years away from an agreement on the permanent relationship. MLex reporters Zosia Wanat and Mike Acton, who were at the latest summit, talk to Brussels news editor Sam Wilkin about the issues that will come to the fore if and when we reach a transition period — from competition to kippers.
Apple boss Tim Cook was in Brussels last week for a meeting of global privacy regulators, the first time the CEO of a tech giant had attended. Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg and Google’s Sundar Pichai also delivered video messages. It’s clear that privacy has become a top-level issue for tech companies as regulators clamp down after a series of scandals, but how can they reconcile privacy with their data-hungry business models? MLex tech correspondents Cynthia Kroet and Amy Miller join Brussels news editor Sam Wilkin to discuss.
A plan to revamp laws in Australia to allow law-enforcement agencies to read decrypted messages has pitted Canberra against US tech companies including Apple and Cisco, amid fears the bill’s current wording could weaken the privacy protections of encrypted messages. At the same time, Australia’s top competition regulator, Rod Sims, has warned that regulators around the world are facing tougher decisions on the competitive impact of mergers involving data-rich companies.
The EU’s plan for a capital markets union has so far failed to live up to its grand title, four years after being conceived. Intended to create a borderless financial market, the project has become bogged down in details. With a changing of the guard at the European Commission next year, not to mention Brexit, will the CMU sink or swim? Global financial services reporter John Rega talks to Brussels news editor Sam Wilkin.
Russian hacker Yevgeny Nikulin is being held in a San Francisco-area jail for breaking into the websites of Linkedin and other companies in 2012 and 2013. A trial in the closely watched case was set for next January. But now there are questions about Nikulin’s mental health, and a federal judge has decided to postpone the trial.
The European Commission’s new probe into five big German carmakers — BMW, Daimler, Volkswagen, Audi and Porsche — breaks the mold of typical antitrust investigations. Rather than straightforward price-fixing or market-sharing, the EU regulator is asking whether the companies agreed to hold back on technological developments regarding car emissions. Brussels news editor Sam Wilkin talks to reporters Matthew Newman and Nicholas Hirst about what’s sure to be a controversial case.
Australian department store chain Myer Holdings faced renewed criticism from its largest shareholder and activist investor Solomon Lew, who said drops in sales and earnings showed the board is a disgrace and needs replacing. But a new chief executive at the company has attracted a second activist investor, Wilson Asset Management, to take a stake in the retailer and support the new management as well as the incumbent board – placing the two investors at odds with one another.
The decision to allow a bid by Australian infrastructure company Transurban to proceed with a bid for Sydney’s WestConnex project wasn’t an easy one for the country’s competition regulator. The Australian Competition & Consumer Commission found itself grappling with how best to define the planned project’s market and, more importantly, how to manage the competition risk for future projects by allowing a company to accumulate valuable data on Sydneysiders’ traffic habits.
Ever since British former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher rolled out the red carpet for Nissan to set up operations in the UK in the 1980s, the country has been corporate Japan's gateway to the European single market. But as Britain prepares to leave the European Union, could all that be about to change? MLex's UK/EU Correspondent Matthew Holehouse and Tokyo-based Senior Correspondent Sachiko Sakamaki look at what's at stake for Japanese companies' place in the British economy as Brexit enters its most sensitive and dangerous phase.
The US Justice Department is encouraging companies involved in mergers to come forward when they find bribery in businesses they’ve taken over. The DOJ’s emphasis on merger and acquisitions, an outgrowth of its Foreign Corrupt Practices Act Corporate Enforcement Policy, gives self-reporting companies a presumption of no prosecution if they cooperate and remediate. But there’s a lot at stake for companies that self-report. MLex correspondent Robert Thomason talks with Amy Miller about the likely impact.
Sweeping new data protection laws emerge in Brazil, California and India – What’s at stake? by MLex Market Insight
A proposed acquisition of Australian natural-gas infrastructure operator APA Group by Hong-Kong-based CK International is set to put Canberra’s raft of new regulatory measures covering investment in significant infrastructure to the test. The deal is also being watched by those interested in seeing whether CKI’s family-based corporate culture will mesh with Australian boardroom values.
Taxing tech giants such as Google and Facebook has become a political battleground in Europe. The European Commission has proposed a new digital levy that it says can generate 5 billion euros a year, but many national governments accuse the EU executive — whose formal taxation powers are limited — of overreach. With a discussion between finance ministers due next month, Brussels news editor Sam Wilkin discusses what’s next with Todd Buell, a reporter at MLex’s sister publication Law360.
There’s a strong business case behind the proposed merger between Nine Entertainment and Fairfax Media, with both companies needing to bulk up to take on the challenge posed by digital platforms such as Facebook and Google. But it’s the first deal of its kind under Australia’s revamped media laws and it remains unclear whether the country’s competition regulator will raise concerns about the merger’s impact on media plurality.
Details of a 16 million pound ten-year luxury shopping bill hogged the headlines surrounding a High Court challenge against the UK’s first so-called Unexplained Wealth Orders. But the case also threw up a number of important and interesting legal arguments that could dictate how these orders work in future. Ana Rita Rego, MLex’s London Managing Editor, and Corruption Correspondent Ben Lucas discuss these arguments and take a look at what the forthcoming judgement is likely to focus on.
An extradition case at the EU’s highest court shows growing legal uncertainty about the UK’s relationship with the EU, even before it leaves the bloc next March. The EU Court of Justice is considering whether to block the UK’s use of the European Arrest Warrant, on the grounds that suspects’ EU rights may not be guaranteed after Brexit. Brussels reporter Mike Acton and news editor Sam Wilkin discuss.
Germany’s plans to build a new gas pipeline from Russia drew criticism from Donald Trump last week, in the latest spat between the US president and his supposed allies. In this case, though, he may be in line with European opinion: Several governments, pressure groups and even the European Commission oppose the pipeline on environmental or energy-security grounds. But stopping it won’t be easy, as energy reporter Emily Waterfield explains to Brussels news editor Sam Wilkin.
EU competition enforcers have caused controversy by using state aid rules to challenge tax breaks given by certain EU governments to multinational companies. Subsequent court cases have seen heated arguments between lawyers for the European Commission and the companies involved — often supported by national governments. Competition reporters Matthew Newman and Nicholas Hirst explain what’s going on to Brussels news editor Sam Wilkin.
Mastercard and Visa suffered a blow after a UK appeals court ruled on claims brought by a host of retailers and said the payment-card operators’ interchange fees are unlawful. Key questions on the fees, which have been subject to litigation across the world for over a decade, now go to a specialist court. And a consumer class-action over the charges is also capturing headlines. Ana Rita Rego, London Managing Editor and Senior UK Correspondent, Simon Zekaria, discuss the implications of the latest court ruling.
It’s been four years since Brazilian prosecutors first started probing a systemic bribery scheme at state-controlled oil company Petrobras, and the Brazilian corporate landscape is slowly changing. Listen to MLex’s latest podcast on how the companies involved have started to change their corporate culture and take corruption compliance programs seriously.
Facebook’s privacy troubles keep piling up after the Cambridge Analytica scandal, and Congress isn’t happy. They’re now pressing for answers following reports that Facebook offered mobile device manufacturers special access to private user information. Meanwhile, Facebook is still answering questions about Cambridge Analytica. Last week, the company provided information to Congress about what happened. More than 400 pages of information, in fact. Mike Swift and Amy Miller in San Francisco discuss what it means for Facebook.
Regulators in the EU and beyond are trying to incentivize environmentally-friendly investments, which proponents say will help reach environmental goals while locking in sustainable returns in the long term. But how do you define a green investment, and is there a risk of a bubble from too many incentives? John Rega explains the ins and outs with Sam Wilkin.
Charges laid against one of Australia’s largest banks and two international lenders are set to be the biggest test yet of Australia’s 2009 criminal-cartel laws. The case has captured headlines and has caught the attention of boardrooms throughout the country.
Since 2011, Apple and Samsung have been fighting in the US court system about whether Samsung infringed Apple’s patents and violated US antitrust law by copying the first-generation iPhone. A jury of eight in San Jose, California found last week that Samsung must pay Apple $538.6 million for infringing three iPhone design patent. While less than the $1.067 billion Apple had sought, the verdict was a blow to Samsung, which had argued it should pay no more than $28 million for infringing the patents. Mike Swift and Amy Miller talk to James Panichi about the verdict in what is expected to be the final trial in the long-running case.
E-commerce giant Amazon is under a cloud in Japan, where the country's competition regulator is weighing whether it abused its relationships with its suppliers. Japanese-style rules on abuses of superior bargaining positions are a relative rarity around the world, and they are sparingly used even in Japan. But they may be gaining a new lease on life as the country's antitrust regulator eyes a probe of another household-name platform business in Germany – an investigation of Facebook that shares similar concerns over an asymmetry of market power. MLex Correspondent Toko Sekiguchi and Chief Global Antitrust Correspondent Leah Nylen join Asia Managing Editor David Plott to explore the issues.
Competition law came late to Hong Kong, entering into force only in 2015, but it has developed quickly and continues to do so. After just three years of enforcement, the territory's Competition Ordinance is set for a no-holds-barred government review. MLex Correspondent Xu Yuan explains the key focus areas that will be looked at, and what the competition regulator is seeking from the exercise, to our Chief Global Antitrust Correspondent, Leah Nylen.
For years, US wages have remained stagnant with experts pointing to everything from globalization to technological change to declining unions. US antitrust prosecutors think there might be one other factor to blame: no-poach or wage-fixing agreements between employers. MLex's Chief Global Antitrust Correspondent Leah Nylen talks about the latest developments in the US and around the world with our Australia Managing Editor James Panichi.
Apple and Samsung will meet in federal court today in San Jose, California for the final trial in their seven-year legal battle over the design and function of the iPhone. As much as $500 million is at stake, in a case that also could help rewrite a century of US patent law.
Acrimony on the board of photocopying company Xerox is set to continue, after moves by activist investors Carl Icahn and Darwin Deason to move the company in a different direction were rebuffed last week. Meanwhile, Australia’s media industry has had a chance to vent its frustrations with digital platforms Facebook and Google, with one prominent newspaper publisher calling the US companies anticompetitive purveyors of fake news.
China may be well known for monitoring its citizens' online activities, but that doesn't mean it's unconcerned about personal data protection. As the revelations continue to pile up in the Facebook/Cambridge Analytica scandal, Beijing's guidelines for handling personal information are more relevant than ever, and they're going into effect in just a few weeks. MLex Correspondent Xu Yuan explains the latest Chinese digital developments to our Asia managing editor, David Plott.
Activist shareholder Sandon Capital's vision for Specialty Fashion is being thwarted at every turn; Australia is being singled out as the competition-law outlier over its reluctance to impose tough penalties.
A looming May deadline for companies around the globe to adapt their systems to the EU's strict General Data Protection Regulation got plenty of airtime at the IAPP Global Privacy Summit in Washington last week, with data regulators from Austria, France and Ireland – as well as EU officials – urging businesses to quickly put the GDPR into practice, or face hefty fines. Unsurprisingly, the Facebook-Cambridge Analytica scandal and the social network's response to the ensuing outcry from regulators and privacy groups attracted blunt opinions and subtle asides throughout the discussions, with Facebook’s Rob Sherman on hand to offer a frank account of the events.
Does UK data-protection law mean Google should be forced to block historical search results when requested to so? That was the core question as the first cases to test the “right to be forgotten” principle were heard in the British courts recently as two unidentified businessmen laid out their case for the search company to be ordered to remove links to reports about their old convictions. The issue has become a hot topic since the right to be forgotten principle was cemented in a landmark EU court ruling in 2014; it has also been strengthened in new privacy rules entering force in May. With a ruling from the London court expected as early as the end of March, Vesela Gladicheva, Senior Technology Correspondent, talks over the case and its implications with Ana Rita Rego, Managing Editor in London.
A week after US President Donald Trump signed steep tariffs on steel and aluminum into law, producers and trade partners around the world are scrambling to respond. The EU has vowed to hit back with its own measures, but it's also seeking an exemption from Washington. MLex trade reporters Poppy Carnell and Joanna Sopinska talk to editor Sam Wilkin about the forms an exemption could take, and how likely Brussels is to succeed.
Ana Rita Rego, Managing Editor in London, and Vesela Gladicheva, Senior Technology Correspondent, discuss the EU's new sweeping data privacy rules. The General Data Protection Regulation will apply from May 25 and companies, governments and regulators are scrambling to get ready for the law. The GDPR will boost citizens' rights and impose strict new obligations on any organization handling Europeans' personal information. There is a lot at stake in getting compliance right, not least because of regulators' ability to impose hefty fines.
As the world awaits for Europe’s General Data Protection Regulation, the GDPR, to go into effect in May, this year’s IAPP Global Privacy Summit is expected to draw more than 3,300 delegates – a 30 percent increase over the past two years. Attendees will come from more than 30 countries, a list running from Afghanistan to Uruguay. The event is the world’s largest annual gathering of regulators and privacy and data security lawyers. Regulators from Europe and the rest of the world will be particularly prominent this year, as the Trump administration’s slow pace of nominations to the US Federal Trade Commission mean no new FTC commissioners been confirmed by the US Senate. That has left a dearth of US privacy and data security regulators for the summit, and may allow a bigger role for regulators from Europe, Canada and other jurisdictions.
Since China’s Anti-Monopoly Law came into force in 2008 until the present day, a ministry and two state agencies have overseen separate aspects of antitrust enforcement in the country. Now, a new super-regulator is about to make those subdivided roles all its own. MLex Asia Managing Editor David Plott hears from our China-based Market Analyst Eliot Gao why Beijing has shaken things up, and what’s in store.
As Bitcoin has grabbed headlines with its wild price swings, authorities around the world have been scrambling to regulate the new phenomenon of digital currencies. Tsering Namgyal, MLex’s Hong Kong-based financial correspondent, was in Brussels with chief correspondent John Rega and news editor Sam Wilkin. Here they discuss different global approaches and what’s at stake.
Foreign companies working in developing countries have long seen 'facilitation' payments as the price of doing business. But does offering officials small sums of money simply to do their job amount to corruption? That is the growing consensus among lawmakers around the world, must to the consternation of some.
James Panichi, managing editor for Australasia, and Matthew Newman, chief correspondent in Europe, discuss a ground-breaking antitrust case at the intersection of data-protection and competition law. Matthew describes how the German competition authority has charged Facebook with using its network effects to “lock in” its users and gather data from websites outside Facebook without the user’s knowledge or agreement. Facebook is accused of abusing its market power by merging this data with users’ profiles. This harms consumers because they don’t have control over how their personal data is used. The German authority plans to issue a final decision before the summer. Matthew describes why the case is unusual and not likely to be replicated by other competition authorities.
Canadian dairy giant Saputo is aiming to acquire ailing Australian milk producer Murray Goulburn Co-operative for AUD $1.3 billion ($1 billion), with Australia’s competition regulator set to decide on the acquisition on March 1. But the deal is not without its regulatory challenges, as MLex’s managing editor for Australasia, James Panichi, and Senior Correspondent Laurel Henning discuss.
MLex reporters Amy Miller and Mike Swift talked about the scheduled Feb. 5 start of the high stakes trial between Uber Technologies and Waymo over whether an Uber engineer stole 14,000 digital files containing proprietary self-driving car technology, as well as about the colorful Judge William Alsup, who will preside over the trial in San Francisco.
President Donald Trump’s election in January has deeply impacted the world of international trade. MLex reporters Leah Nylen and Adam Sigal talk NAFTA, China and the other biggest trade stories of the year and what may emerge in 2018.
MLex’s chief correspondents Leah Nylen and Mike Swift wrap-up 2017’s biggest stories in US antitrust, privacy and data security, with outlooks for what to expect in the new year.
A legal battle is taking place between Brussels, the policymaking capital of the EU, and environmental law firm ClientEarth. Brussels is facing legal challenges over its failure to uphold air-quality laws born in the city and enacted to protect the health of citizens. Listen in as Senior Correspondent Laurel Henning and Intern Isabella Alves discuss the trial and its links to international policy.
A federal judge has postponed for a second time a trial in the high-stakes Waymo-Uber trade secret case over self-driving car technology after federal prosecutors gave him a letter from a former Uber employee alleging that Uber had a team dedicated to stealing trade secrets. Listen in as Chief Global Digital Risk Correspondent Mike Swift and Senior Correspondent Amy Miller discuss the ins and outs of the trial.
A recent policy U-turn on standard-essential patents in the United States could set the tone for how intellectual property issues are handled by regulators and courts around the world. Listen in as MLex Chief North America Correspondent Leah Nylen, Brussels-based Senior Correspondent Matthew Newman and Senior Correspondent Toko Sekiguchi from Tokyo weigh in on this fundamental rethink of IP rights and its impact around the world.
MLex Chief Global Digital Risk Correspondent Mike Swift and Senior Antitrust Correspondent Joshua Sisco discuss the shift in policy at the Department of Justice on licensing practices for standard essential patents.
Corporate settlements are becoming the norm in resolving international corruption investigations, but the path isn’t always straightforward. Join Ana Rita Rego, Managing Editor in London, and MLex’s corruption and bribery reporters Ben Lucas and Rodrigo Russo to discuss SBM Offshore’s attempts to settle historic wrongdoing in the Netherlands, Brazil and the United States.
FIFA, Soccer’s global governing body, was fending off legal action earlier this month that its ban on third parties “owning” soccer players’ financial rights breaches EU competition rules. Laurel Henning, senior energy correspondent and Mari Eccles, antitrust correspondent, explore the issues surrounding the case heard in the Belgian Court of Appeal in Brussels and discuss the potential for European antitrust scrutiny.
MLex Chief Global Antitrust Correspondent Leah Nylen and Trade Correspondent Adam Sigal discuss the outcomes of a recent trade defense investigation by the US Department of Commerce into Chinese produced aluminum foil.
MLex’s London Managing Editor Ana Rita Rego is joined by Correspondent Ben Lucas in London to discuss the implications of the “Gupta leaks” in South Africa for multinational companies. Listen to MLex discuss the regulatory risks companies are facing across the globe and the lessons that can be learned from the case.
Listen to MLex Regional Correspondent, Hong Kong Tsering Namgyal and our Managing Editor in Asia, David Plott discuss the latest developments in blockchain, Bitcoin and the future of the financial services sector.
MLex Senior Correspondent Neil Roland and Financial Regulation Correspondent Neil Haggerty discuss the recent move by the the US Senate to block a rule by the US Consumer Financial Protection Bureau that would allow consumers to sue banks and credit card companies.
MLex Managing Editor, EU James Panichi and Senior Correspondent, Antitrust and Merger Regulation Matthew Newman discuss the recent court victory by luxury watchmakers to withhold spare parts from independent repairers.
MLex Chief Global Antitrust Correspondent Leah Nylen and Brussels Managing Editor James Panichi discuss wage fixing and no-poach agreements as well as the latest attempts by US regulators to stamp out the practice.
MLex Chief Correspondent Trade Poppy Carnell and Brussels Managing Editor James Panichi discuss an expected dumping probe into Chinese e-bike producers by European regulators.
Listen to MLex Chief Global Digital Risk Correspondent Mike Swift and our Managing Editor in Asia David Plott, discuss the latest developments in data privacy and security.
Listen in as MLex's Managing Editor in Brussels James Panichi is joined by Senior Political Correspondent Simon Taylor and UK-EU Correspondent Matthew Holehouse for a lively discussion covering the Brexit negotiations in the aftermath of Theresa May's Florence speech.
MLex Senior Correspondent Joshua Sisco and Chief Global Digital Risk Correspondent Mike Swift discuss the recent data breach of credit reporting agency Equifax and the potential regulatory implications.
MLex London Managing Editor Ana Rita Rego is joined by Martin Coyle and Ben Lucas in London, and Rodrigo Russo in São Paulo, to discuss the latest developments in the large-scale investigation into Petrobras, known as Operation Lava Jato. Listen to MLex’s bribery and corruption team discuss the implications for multinational companies that have been named in Brazilian prosecutors' documents.
MLex Chief Global Correspondent Lewis Crofts and Senior Mergers and Antitrust Correspondent Matthew Newman join Brussels Managing Editor James Panichi to discuss this week's decision by the EU Court of Justice to refer the complex Intel decision back to a lower court.
Many private colleges are having trouble with their finances and they say getting a carve-out of the antitrust laws might help them. MLex Chief Global Antitrust Correspondent Leah Nylen is joined by Claude Marx, a correspondent at MLex and our sister publication FTC:Watch, to find out more about the rising costs and tuition fees that have led to colleges requesting this exemption from Congress.
Need to know the ins and outs of this week's Brexit talks in Brussels? Listen in as MLex's Managing Editor in Brussels James Panichi is joined by Senior Political Correspondent Simon Taylor and UK-EU Correspondent Matthew Holehouse for a lively discussion covering the tactics, the strategies, the impact of the UK election, post-Brexit dispute resolution and more.
The pressure is mounting on banks, insurers and other financial services companies based in London to plan for Brexit.
MLex's London Managing Editor Ana Rita Rego and Financial Services Correspondent Hugo Coelho discuss how companies in London are preparing for the UK’s departure from the bloc and what steps they’ll have to take to access EU markets.
It's a busy time in the US for legal issues around privacy and data security, with major developments in both the Robins-Spokeo privacy and Yahoo data breach cases. Listen in as MLex Chief Digital Risk Correspondent Mike Swift and Privacy & Data Security Correspondent Amy Miller discuss these cases and their ramifications from our San Francisco bureau.
The UK's Serious Fraud Office has just announced two formal investigations into Rio Tinto and British American Tobacco. But why now?
Announcing probes into huge companies like these seems to show that the SFO is still trying to prove its worth (both to Theresa May and the wider public) after it was proposed that it should be subsumed into the UK’s police body, the National Crime Agency.
Listen in as MLex anti-bribery and corruption correspondents Martin Coyle and Ben Lucas talk with London News Editor Ben O'Neill about the agency.
Last week, Senate Democrats rolled out a new plan to revamp US trade laws. In this podcast, MLex Chief Global Antitrust Correspondent Leah Nylen is joined by our Trade Correspondent in Washington DC Adam Sigal to discuss the plan.
MLex Chief Digital Risk Correspondent Mike Swift is joined by Senior Correspondent Joshua Sisco to discuss the intensifying antitrust dispute between two Californian technology companies: Apple and Qualcomm.
MLex Chief Global Antitrust Correspondent Leah Nylen talks with Senior Tax Correspondent Brett Ferguson about inversion deals, where US companies move their headquarters overseas to take advantage of lower tax rates in places including Bermuda, Canada and Ireland.
Listen to MLex Senior Correspondent Toh Han Shih and our Managing Editor in Asia, David Plott, discuss allegedly corrupt payments made to senior government officials in Malaysia in connection with the purchase of submarines in 2002 from the Naval Group and Thales Group.
Listen in as MLex Senior Tokyo Correspondent Sachiko Sakamaki explains a move by the Japan Fair Trade Commission that is set to transform the competition landscape in Japan’s huge LNG market.
More than six months into Donald Trump’s presidency, MLex’s Neil Roland and Neil Haggerty discuss the prospects for the new administration’s efforts to roll back Wall Street reforms.
The campaign by German antitrust authorities against luxury goods manufacturers that ban the use of online marketplaces such as Amazon.com and eBay is under threat, with an opinion prepared for the EU’s highest court suggesting such restrictions should be allowed. This would mean allow the makers of top-shelf products to continue deciding which platforms can carry their goods.
Listen in as MLex Senior Correspondent Matthew Newman and Brussels Managing Editor James Panichi discuss the non-binding court opinion and examine the debate raging across Europe over whether luxury goods producers should be allowed to defend their brands’ reputation – even at the expense of competition concerns.
As the Dieselgate emissions-cheating affair unfolded over almost two years, EU regulators have largely been sidelined, with national authorities taking the lead in managing the fallout. But the recent injection of a competition element into the ongoing saga may offer the EU the chance to weigh in.
Listen in a MLex Senior Energy Correspondent Laurel Henning, Chief Global Correspondent Lewis Croft and Brussels Managing Editor James Panichi discuss recent developments in the scandal engulfing Germany’s car industry.
Formal Brexit negotiations have just begun, and already Brussels and London are expressing "fundamental divergence" over the role of the EU Court of Justice in policing citizens' rights in Britain after it leaves the bloc. MLex’s Brexit Correspondent Matthew Holehouse and London Managing Editor Ana Rita Rego discuss this early row, and examine several clues that suggest Britain may be looking to mimic elements of the EFTA Court to break the impasse.
In this episode, MLex Chief Trade Correspondent Poppy Carnell talks with Brussels Managing Editor James Panichi about the pricing of Chinese solar panels imported into the European Union, including the dumping and antisubsidy duties that have been in place since 2013, the minimum price set to take effect in September 2018 and the continued lobbying from industry groups from all sides of the debate.
Europe has a zombie banks problem - that is, a collection of struggling and failing banks that cannot lend as much as the economy requires. In this podcast MLex Chief Financial Services Correspondent John Rega joins Brussels Managing Editor James Panichi to discuss the EU’s institutional response to these zombies, including Spain’s Banco Popular and Italy’s Banca Popolare di Vicenza and Veneto Banca.
Listen in as MLex Chief Correspondent Telecoms Magnus Franklin and Brussels Managing Editor James Panichi discuss regulatory questions companies face as they gear up to invest millions in the technology for EU's "inflight WiFi".
Listen in as MLex Managing Editor for Asia David Plott and Seoul Senior Regulatory Correspondent Danbee Lee discuss new aims for antitrust enforcement by the KFTC in South Korea following appointment of its new chairman. We also discuss the KFTC’s fine against Qualcomm and the company’s upcoming challenge to the ruling.
Listen in as MLex Senior Energy Correspondent Laurel Henning and Brussels Managing Editor James Panichi discuss new proposals by EU energy ministers to create new energy efficiency laws.
Listen in as Chief Global Digital Risk Correspondent Mike Swift and Privacy & Data Security Reporter Amy Miller from the MLex San Francisco bureau discuss the Trump administration’s efforts to undo the FCC’s 2010 Net Neutrality regulation.
Listen in as MLex Senior Tokyo Correspondent Toko Sekiguchi talks with our Managing Editor in Asia David Plott about a recent Japan Fair Trade Commission report on the competition issues surrounding Big Data. For more on the JFTC Report, read this recent insight from MLex: http://bit.ly/2sOHjpo.
Roam if you want to? MLex’s Chief Telecom Correspondent Magnus Franklin and Brussels Managing Editor James Panichi discuss a watershed in EU telecom history: the day the EU brought about the end of roaming surcharges. To listen, just click on the image above. You can read Magnus' comment on our website at http://bit.ly/2sw9zg5 .
We’ll always have Paris – or will we? MLex Senior Energy Correspondent Laurel Henning and Brussels Managing Editor James Panichi talk about Donald Trump’s decision on Thursday June 1 to pull the world’s largest economy out of a UN climate accord designed to cut global carbon emissions, and reaction across Europe and the world.
Listen to MLex Correspondent Xu Yuan and our Managing Editor in Asia David Plott discuss China's new Cybersecurity Law (due to come into effect on Thursday June 1 2017) and what it means for companies doing business in China.
You can find out more about this new law in two recent insights published on MLex Market Insight: - China considers sweeping regulation of cross-border data transfers http://bit.ly/2ropPjw -China considers 19-month grace period before enforcing cross-border data transfer rules http://bit.ly/2s2vyYr
To listen to the podcast in Mandarin Chinese click here: http://bit.ly/2raCzJb.
Listen to MLex Chief Global Antitrust Correspondent Leah Nylen talk with MLex's Brussels Managing EditorJames Panichi about the recent developments in the antitrust administration in the United States, more precisely with the DOJ and the FTC. To listen, just click on the image above.
Listen to MLex Senior Correspondent Toh Han Shih talk with MLex's Editor in Chief Robert McLeod about 1MDB.
Listen to MLex Senior Correspondent Toh Han Shih talk with MLex Managing Editor, Asia, David Plott about this insight and related anti-bribery and corruption developments in China. To listen, just click on the image above. You can read the analysis on our website here: http://bit.ly/2pbB0d7
Listen to MLex Correspondent, Phoebe Seers talk with MLex Managing Editor in Asia David Plott about this analysis in a new edition of the MLex podcast. To listen, just click on the image above. You can read more about Standard Chartered & MAXPower here: bit.ly/2oQ5kXO
Listen to MLex Global Chief Correspondent, Lewis Crofts & Senior Correspondent for Antitrust and Merger Regulation, Matthew Newman talk with MLex Brussels Senior Managing Editor James Panichi about this analysis in a new edition of the MLex podcast. To listen, just click on the image above. You can read the comment on our website here: http://bit.ly/2fR7Mtz
Listen to MLex Chief Correspondent, Financial Services John Rega talk with MLex Brussels Senior Managing Editor James Panichi about this analysis in a new edition of the MLex podcast. To listen, just click on the image above. You can read John's comment on our website at http://bit.ly/2nVtqjj .
Listen to MLex's Chief Correspondent, Telecoms, Magnus Franklin talk with MLex Brussels Senior Managing Editor James Panichi about his October comment: "‘End’ of EU mobile roaming marks the start of implementation headaches". You can read Magnus' comment here: http://bit.ly/2el27du .
China lodges WTO complaint against EU, US over market-economy rules by MLex Market Insight
Listen to MLex Senior Energy Correspondent Laurel Henning talk with MLex Brussels Senior Managing Editor James Panichi about this analysis and related new developments in a new edition of the MLex podcast. To listen, just click on the image above. You can read Laurel's comment on our website at http://bit.ly/2kMH3Dm .
Listen to MLex Senior Energy Correspondent Laurel Henning talk with MLex Brussels Senior Managing Editor James Panichi about her November 2016 comment, "Trump’s plans to abandon UN climate deal puts EU projects in doubt". This podcast episode, recorded the week of Trump's inauguration, includes discussion of developments occurring since the story was published. You can read Laurel's comment on our website at http://bit.ly/2k4K6qB