Report from Bloomberg In Brief – Google has reportedly made a proposal to European Commission digital regulators to change their search engine's anti-spam policy to downrank news publisher websites that engage in a practice dubbed “parasite SEO”. The move comes in...
Colorado Scales Back Its Big AI Safety Law
Report from Colorado Newsline In Brief – Colorado, which was the first state to enact comprehensive “AI Safety” legislation when it did so in 2024, was set to see it finally go into in go into effect in June, but instead the law has been frozen by a court...
Australia Opens Online Safety Push Against Top Gaming Platforms
Report from DW In Brief – Online gaming platforms Roblox, Minecraft, Fortnite, and Steam have been directed by Australia’s eSafety Commissioner to explain how they address risks to young users such as child grooming and the spread of extremist content. The regulator,...
Italian Regulator Challenges Booking on Unlabeled Sponsored Links
Report from the Wall Street Journal In Brief – The Italian Competition Authority, which is both an antitrust and consumer protection regulator, has opened an investigation into Booking over concerns that the company’s “preferred partner” and “preferred plus” programs...
Another Publisher AI Copyright Suit – This Time Targeting Meta’s Zuckerberg
Report from MediaPost In Brief – Another coalition of major publishers and authors has filed a class-action lawsuit against Meta and CEO Mark Zuckerberg, alleging the company illegally downloaded millions of copyrighted books and journal articles from pirate websites...
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...
View By Monthly
Latest Blog
Booking Faces European Commission DSA Investigation of Fraud Policies
Report from the Wall Street Journal In Brief – The European Commission has begun a formal investigation into whether Booking breached the Digital Services Act (DSA) by failing to adequately address online fraud and provide users with proper transparency into...
FTC Demands Nine Companies Give Data on Pricing and Gig Pay Practices
Report from Reuters In Brief – The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is demanding information from Delta, United, JetBlue, Lyft, Uber, DoorDash, Instacart, Target and Walmart about how they use personal data, including location, browsing history and income, to set...
Germany’s Top Civil Court Asks for More EU Views on Host Provider Liability
Report from Der Spiegel In Brief – Germany’s Federal Court of Justice has again suspended Green Party politician Renate Künast’s lawsuit against Meta and referred what it believes are unresolved legal questions to the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) for...
EU Commission Has Plan to Tax Tech Giants by Taxing Giant Companies
Report from the Financial Times In Brief – The European Commission is examining a plan to impose a big annual lump-sum levy on the largest, most profitable companies operating in Europe as a way to tax the US-based tech giants without imposing a direct tax on just...
Clearview AI’s Privacy Law Battle with the UK ICO Continues
Report from PPC Land In Brief – Clearview AI, the small US company that built a facial recognition database using images collected online, argued to the Court of Appeal in London that the UK Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) lacks authority to enforce data...
Platform Economy Insights produces a short email four times a week that reviews two top stories with concise analysis. It is the best way to keep on top of the news you should know. Sign up for this free email here.