Report from Bloomberg In Brief – Apple’s legal challenge to the German Federal Cartel Office (FCO) designation that they are a digital company “of paramount significance on competition across markets” appears to face skeptical judges on the Federal Court of Justice in...
Mobile Device Location Data Broker Kochava Settles Privacy Class Action
Report from MediaPost In Brief – Kochava has reached a settlement in a private class action lawsuit that will require the data broker to make several major privacy changes. The agreement filed with US District Court Judge B. Lynn Winmill requires the company to...
DoJ Sues to Block HPE – Juniper Networks Deal
Report from Bloomberg In Brief – In its first major merger action since the beginning of the second Donald Trump Administration, the US Department of Justice (DoJ) has sued to block the $14 billion acquisition of Juniper Networks by Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE)....
First EU AI Act Rules Come into Force Banning Unacceptable AI Uses
Report from TechCrunch In Brief – The first regulatory compliance deadline of the EU AI Act went into effect on February 2, 2025, with companies required to comply with the rules related to AI applications that are prohibited under the law except with very limited...
Google Faces Skeptical Judges in Appeal of Antitrust Loss to Epic Games
Report from Bloomberg In Brief – Lawyers for Google and Epic Games faced off in front of a panel of US Ninth District Court of Appeals in Google’s challenge of its antitrust loss to Epic Games and the subsequent remedies crafted by Federal Judge James Donato. A jury...
Apple Criticizes New EU DMA Regime that Allows iPhone Porn Apps
Report from The Verge In Brief – Apple reacted to the public introduction of Hot Tub, an iOS pornography app that will be available to iPhone users in the EU through the alternative app store AltStore PAL, by criticizing the European Commission’s regulatory decisions....
DeepSeek Blocked in Italy by Data Protection Authorities
Report from EuroNews In Brief – Italy’s data protection authority, the Garante, has ordered China-based chatbot phenom DeepSeek to block its chatbot in the country after the company failed to address the regulator’s concerns over its privacy policy and data practices....
China’s Response to New Trump Tariffs Includes Threat to Google
Report from the New York Times In Brief – China has included an antitrust investigation of Google in its trade retaliation package responding to the United States’ new 10% across-the-board tariff on Chinese exports to the country. The announcement simply said that the...
UK Kicks Encryption Hornets’ Nest by Demanding Apple iCloud Backdoor
Report from the Washington Post In Brief – The UK Government has reportedly issued secret orders to Apple demanding that the company provide a backdoor for security authorities to access users’ encrypted iCloud data. The unprecedented demand, made in January, was...
Judge Tersely Rejects Apple Efforts to Join the Google Search Antitrust Case
Report from The Verge In Brief – US District Court Judge Amit Mehta has summarily denied Apple’s emergency request to stay his recent decision rejecting their effort to halt the Google Search monopoly trial and join the litigation directly to protect their interests,...
UK Ofcom Fines US 4chan Raising Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Concerns
Report from ArsTechnica In Brief – UK telecoms regulator Ofcom has imposed a £20,000 fine on 4chan, an online platform where users post texts and images anonymously and face minimal content moderation, for failing to respond to “legally binding information requests”...
Federal Judge Strikes Prohibition on Bill Line-Items for Maryland Digital Tax
Report from Maryland Matters In Brief – A federal district judge in Maryland has permanently blocked a provision in the state’s landmark 2021 digital advertising services tax that barred companies from using a line-item on customer bills to inform them of the tax and...
Federal Judge Allows Video Privacy Lawsuit Targeting LinkedIn to Proceed
Report from MediaPost In Brief – District Court Judge Casey Pitts has rejected LinkedIn’s motion to dismiss a class-action complaint that the company violated the federal Video Privacy Protection Act (VPPA) by allegedly sharing a user’s video-viewing history with Meta...
Apple in European Court Because the DMA Outlaws Apple’s Business Model
Report from Bloomberg In Brief – In a hearing before the EU General Court in Luxembourg, Apple launched a sweeping legal attack against the EU’s Digital Markets Act (DMA), arguing that the bloc’s landmark Big Tech regulation imposes “hugely onerous and intrusive”...
California Enacts Law Regulating AI Chatbot Companion Services
Report from The Verge In Brief – California has enacted legislation requiring companion chatbot developers to implement safeguards so that users are not misled into believing that they are interacting with a human. The measure requires a clear and conspicuous...
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