Report from Bloomberg In Brief – The Culture Minister of Friedrich Merz’s German Government has revealed that they are drafting legislation for a national digital services tax (DST) targeting the biggest internet companies operating in country, in particular US giants...
Senate Budget Bill Includes Modified “Revenge Tax” to Counter DSTs
Report from the New York Times In Brief – The Senate version of the massive budget reconciliation bill includes a modified version of a tax provision included by the House of Representatives that penalizes foreign countries that impose “unfair” taxes on US companies....
Senate Version of State AI Regulation Moratorium Header to the Floor
Report from Politico In Brief – The budget reconciliation bill that will be considered by the full Senate will likely include a modified version of the 10-year moratorium on state laws regulating AI following a key decision by the Senate Parliamentarian. The...
Federal Judge Delivers Ruling That AI Training is Copyright Fair Use
Report from The Verge In Brief – Federal Judge William Alsup has ruled on summary judgement that artificial intelligence company Anthropic did not break the law when it used copyrighted books to train its AI chatbot without the consent of the authors or publishers,...
Judge Sides with Meta on AI Training Saying Plaintiffs Made Wrong Argument
Report from Reuters In Brief – In an order granting Meta summary judgement in an AI-training copyright infringement case brought by 13 authors, Federal Judge Vince Chhabria delivered an impassioned dissent to fellow judge William Alsup’s order released only a few days...
Apple’s Latest DMA Compliance Bid with New App Store Rules and Fees
Report from TechCrunch In Brief – Apple has announced more changes to its European app developer policies to comply with the Digital Markets Act (DMA) and avoid more fines from the European Commission. They expand the ability of developers to communicate with...
FTC’s Ad Company Merger Agreement Prohibits Viewpoint Boycotts
Report from the New York Times In Brief – The Federal Trade Commission has announced a consent decree with advertising companies Omnicom Group and Interpublic Group to allow their $13.5 billion merger after the companies agreed that they would not boycott media...
US Supreme Court Goes Easy on Age Checks for Online Porn Sites
Report from the Washington Post In Brief – The US Supreme Court has ruled that requiring online porn websites to use age verification tools to confirm that users are adults does not violate the First Amendment. Advocates for the porn industry argued that Texas’s...
AI Regulation Moratorium Stripped from Senate Budget Bill in Late Night Vote
Report from Bloomberg In Brief – The moratorium on state laws regulating AI was stripped from the massive budget reconciliation bill carrying the budget and spending priorities of President Trump and the Republicans. A broad 10-year version, backed by AI industry...
Paris Court Pauses French Law Imposing Age Checks on EU Porn Sites
Report from Euractiv In Brief – A French administrative court has paused the implementation of a national law enacted in 2024 that requires all websites displaying adult content to use technical age verification methods to block minors in France from accessing their...
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Settlement Between the FTC and Kochava Defines Sensitive Location Data
Report from AdExchanger In Brief – The Federal Trade Commission announced a settlement with data broker Kochava over allegations that the firm engaged in unfair competition by improperly collecting and selling precise geolocation data from hundreds of millions of...
French Regulator Buys Suspicious Products and Reports Online Problems
Report from Reuters In Brief – France’s consumer protection agency, the DGCCRF, reported that it purchased over 600 “high risk” items from seven large foreign-based ecommerce platforms and deemed that 75% failed to comply with EU product safety or labeling standards,...
Utah Prohibits Adult Websites from Discussing or Offering VPN Services
Report from TechRadar In Brief – Utah is implementing a new law imposing a 2% excise tax on online adult content sites with a controversial provision aimed at reducing the likelihood that Utah residents will employ Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) or other digital...
Korean FTC Directs eCommerce Platforms to Revise Unfair User Terms
Report from The Korea Times In Brief – The Korean Fair Trade Commission (FTC), the country’s antitrust regulator, has directed seven major ecommerce platforms to make changes to their customer terms of service to better protect consumer rights and securely handle user...
European Commission Says Meta Failed to Keep Kids Off Its Platforms
Report from the New York Times In Brief – European Commission has announced its preliminary finding that Meta is failing to adequately prevent children under 13 from accessing Instagram and Facebook, potentially violating the Digital Services Act. The EU regulators...
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