Report from Reuters In Brief – Microsoft is likely to escape a major antitrust fine as the European Commission’s antitrust regulators are expected to accept the software giant’s improved offer to address complaints about the bundling of chat and video app Teams into...
EU Commission Finds TikTok in Violation of DSA Over Ads Repository
Report from Politico In Brief – The European Commission has made a preliminary determination that TikTok has failed to comply with provisions of the Digital Services Act (DSA) requiring advertising transparency. Among the many requirements that the DSA imposes on...
Texas Legislature Passes Bill Putting Age Verification Duties on App Stores
Report from MediaPost In Brief – Texas became the second state to pass a bill that would require app store operators like Apple and Google to verify all users’ ages and then block minors from downloading apps without parental permission. SB 2420, the App Store...
Google Faces Follow-on Shopping “Vertical” Antitrust Lawsuits in Europe
Report from Bloomberg In Brief – Google is facing at least €12 billion in damages claims from dozens of price comparison websites across Europe who allege that the search giant harmed them through years of anticompetitive treatment. The so-called “follow-on” civil...
Anthropic Lawyers Admit Filing a Brief with a Hallucinated Case Citation
Report from Reuters In Brief – Lawyers for the AI company Anthropic submitted a court filing that included a citation “hallucination” created by the company’s AI chatbot Clause. The filing was part of expert testimony from one of the company’s data scientists in...
Japan’s Antitrust Authority Releases Draft App Store Regulations
Report from Kyodo News In Brief – The Japan Fair Trade Commission, the country’s antitrust authority, has unveiled draft guidelines for the new law that will regulate how Google and Apple operate their smartphone app stores and compete with third-party app developers....
Apple Finally Restores Epic Game’s Fortnite to the US App Store
Report from the New York Times In Brief – More than four-and-half years after blocking Epic Games’ highly popular Fortnite gaming app from its app stores in a massive antitrust dispute, Apple has allowed the app to again be in the US App Store. The move came after...
OpenAI Wins Dismissal of AI Hallucination Defamation Lawsuit
Report from Reuters In Brief – OpenAI has won the dismissal of a defamation lawsuit filed by a conservative radio host in Georgia who alleged that the ChatGPT chatbot made false claims that he embezzled money from a gun-rights organization. Judge Tracie Cason of the...
California and Google Cut Funds Pledged to In-State Media Companies
Report from The Hill In Brief – Following California Governor Gavin Newsome’s (D) decision to scale back the state money promised to a new fund to pay California media companies, Google, the one big online company that also promised to contribute millions of dollars,...
Big House Tax Bill Massively Raises Ante in International Digital Tax Standoff
Report from Bloomberg In Brief – The massive budget reconciliation tax and spending bill passed by the House of Representatives includes a tax provision that aggressively penalizes foreign countries that impose “unfair” taxes on US companies, bringing the House...
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Federal Judge Rejects Google Plan to Comply with Epic Antitrust Remedy
Report from ArsTechnica In Brief – Soon after Google began allowing the first third-party app store to be downloaded through its Play Store, US District Judge James Donato said the company had not done enough to comply with his antitrust injunction and ordered the...
Meta and State AGs Settle Lawsuit for $18 Billion and Design Changes
Report from the Wall Street Journal In Brief – Meta has agreed to an $18 billion settlement with 48 state attorneys general, ending a major federal trial over allegations that Facebook and Instagram harmed teenagers and signaling how the top social media platforms may...
Gig Delivery Driver Regulation Battle Revving Up in New York City
Report from the Wall Street Journal In Brief – New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani is backing legislation to require Amazon, FedEx and other warehouse operators in the city to directly employ delivery workers rather than use subcontractors and other non-employees. Backers...
Maryland Tax Court Strikes Down Digital Ads Tax for Violating Federal Law
Report from MediaPost In Brief – In a major ruling in a tax law battle stretching more than five years, the Maryland Tax Court has struck down the state’s 2021 law imposing taxes on the digital advertising revenue of large online platforms and ordered the state to...
UK Continues Legal Efforts to Break Apple Encryption
Report from The Guardian In Brief – Apple has again launched a legal challenge to a UK government order calling for access to customers’ encrypted iCloud data. The move comes a year after the Home Office withdrew a broader request that led to a dispute with...
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