2024 is coming to an end and what a year for Shaping Competition in the Digital Age! The DMA picked up steam with record pace, we have a new EU Commissioner for competition and a new law in the UK (DMCCA) – to name only a few developments of a packed year. 2024 has proven […]
Meta’s Less-personalised Ads: A Compliance Facade?
Meta has introduced a new free subscription option with less personalised ads for Facebook and Instagram. Is this the end of behavioural advertising or a showcase of illusive compliance? Sebastian Steinert analyses Meta’s tactics to protect its data-driven business model based on behavioural advertising. By Sebastian Steinert “We want to empower citizens to be […]
Booking’s compliance workshop: a road well travelled?
On 25 November 2024 the Commission hosted its seventh DMA compliance workshop which was a first for two reasons: 1. The first European gatekeeper had to explain and answer to market participants interested and in parts skeptical about the travel platform’s DMA compliance plans. 2. It was a little (too) calm. Does this have to […]
Defining fairness in digital: how to operationalise an ideal?
Behrang Kianzad, researcher at Lund University School of Economics and Management, ponders the idea of fairness in EU regulation. It will be difficult to find someone who would argue in favour of a world that is unfair, yet the idea of fairness is not as universal as it may seem, nor is it easy to […]
A human-centred digital transformation: can we recapture the promises of the internet?
Book Review – Digital Policy in the EU: Towards a Human-Centred Digital Transformation” by Werner Stengg Werner Stengg’s formal position sounds modest: He is a „Cabinet Expert“ in the European Commission. Yet, Stengg, a Commission official since 1996, is one of the masterminds behind European digital regulation. In his career he oversaw many important portfolios […]
Big Tech through the lenses of Brazil’s competition watchdog CADE and the path ahead
The so-called Brussels Effect has reached Brazil. The Draft Brazilian Digital Markets Bill, which foresees not only regulatory oversight of Big Tech platforms by the Brazilian National Telecommunications Agency but also its funding by Big Tech itself (!), is still pending since November 2022. A new government report recommends adding new rules under the existing […]
Navigating Digital Markets: A Challenge for Turkish Competition Law
This week’s contribution is by Gülce Korkmaz, PhD student and Fellow at the Joachim Herz Doctoral School of Law at the Leuphana University of Lüneburg. She will walk us through the proposed amendments to the Turkish Competition Act, and shed some light on the heavily amended E-commerce Law. Her analysis reveals the content, progressive nature, […]
The idealo-founder speaks: Google Shopping, the DMA, and the future of the Internet – Interview with Albrecht von Sonntag
The aftershocks of the European Court of Justice’s Google Shopping judgement were still noticeable over the last couple of weeks. Unsurprising given the decade-long run up and built-up suspense to the judgement. There could be no better time to interview Albrecht von Sonntag, internet pioneer and co-founder of the Berlin-based online price comparison platform idealo […]
Japan’s Enactment of the Smartphone Act
This July, Japan regulated the most impactful piece of consumer electronics since the invention of the computer (or for some, since the lightbulb): the smartphone. Japan‘s new laser focused regulation tackles competitive issues related to mobile OS, browsers, app stores and search engines. So, is this Act a new marvel of Japanese inventiveness, the Japanese […]
Winners & losers: Game, set and match in Google Shopping?
Last week was the official conclusion to the Google Shopping Saga. The Court of Justice ruled that self-preferencing is indeed a stand-alone abuse by validating the theory of harm put forward by the Commission. With the ruling against Ireland in their long-running Apple state aid tax case, the week was a shining conclusion of Margrethe […]