Report from Reuters In Brief – France’s Minister of Small and Medium Businesses says Shein and other online retail platforms will face a “year of resistance" from traditional storefront retailers and their backers in the government. Serge Papin argued that retail...
Federal Jury Finds Uber Financially Liable for Driver Sexual Assault
Report from Bloomberg In Brief – A federal court jury in Arizona has ordered Uber to pay $8.5 million in damages to a young woman who was allegedly raped by her driver in 2023. The decision marks the first time Uber, which has been fighting such claims for a decade,...
France Considering VPN Regulation to Follow Social Media Age Threshold
Report from TechRadar In Brief – As France continues forward with legislation to impose an age threshold of 15 for social media use in the country, Anne Le Hénanff, the Minister Delegate for Artificial Intelligence and Digital Affairs, said that the government is...
EU Commission Directs Google to Play Nice with Chatbot Competitors
Report from Courthouse News In Brief – The European Commission has announced two “specification proceedings” to direct Google in setting policies related to third-party AI chatbot competitors that comply with its Digital Markets Act (DMA) obligations. One process...
Federal Court Rejects Appeal to Block Minnesota Political Deepfake Law
Report from MPR News In Brief – A three-judge panel of the US 8th Circuit Court of Appeals has declined to block a Minnesota law enacted in 2023 that bans the use of deepfake technology to influence elections, siding with the lower court that the two plaintiffs lacked...
Google and Apple Make App Store Competition Commitments in the UK
Report from The Guardian In Brief – Apple and Google have made commitments to the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) to implement practices to prevent discrimination against third-party apps that compete with their own services. Last year, the CMA found that...
Dutch Regulator Opens Digital Services Act Investigation of Roblox
Report from NL Times In Brief – The Netherlands Authority for Consumers and Markets (ACM) has launched a formal Digital Services Act (DSA) investigation of Roblox over concerns that the online gaming platform may not be doing enough to protect children. The DSA...
EU Commission Moves to Stop Meta from Banning Chatbots on WhatsApp
Report from Wall Street Journal In Brief – The European Commission has informed Meta that it plans to block the company’s ban on third-party AI chatbots from operating over WhatsApp. The antitrust regulator has reached a preliminary finding that Meta’s policy could...
Department of Justice and State AGs Appeal Google Search Remedies Order
Report from Bloomberg In Brief – The US Department of Justice has announced that it notified the Federal Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia that it will appeal US District Judge Amit Mehta’s remedies order in the federal antitrust lawsuit that found Google...
France Pushing Digital Sovereignty Directing Ministries Off Zoom and Teams
Report from ZDNET In Brief – French Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu has directed all French government officials and civil servants to stop using American-owned video conference software such as Teams and Zoom by 2027 in favor of a new French-made application called...
US Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals Restores Texas App Age Limit Law
Report from MediaPost In Brief – The US Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit has cleared the way for Texas to enforce its App Store Accountability Act (SB 2420) that broadly expands age verification for online apps and requires app stores such as Apple and Google to...
President Trump Issues Pared Back Executive Order on AI Security Reviews
Report from Bloomberg In Brief – President Donald Trump has signed an executive order establishing a voluntary framework to address potential new cybersecurity risks posed by advanced artificial intelligence systems. The directive reflects the administration’s...
UK CMA Orders Google to Change AI Search to Address Publisher Concerns
Report from Ars Technica In Brief – The UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), under its Digital Markets Competition and Consumers Act (DMCC) authority to regulate the most dominant online platforms, has ordered Google to make changes to its AI-powered search...
French Court Backs Tax on Online Book Shipping to Support Bookstores
Report from Reuters In Brief – France’s highest administrative court, the State Council, has rejected Amazon’s appeal against the country’s minimum shipping fee for books, upholding a €3 delivery charge on book orders under €35 imposed by the French Government in...
Malaysia’s Social Media Age Limit Regime Enters into Effect
Report from Channel News Asia In Brief – Malaysia’s aggressive online-safety framework goes into operation with new rules effective June 1. The regulations issued by the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) require online platforms to adopt...
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