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,...
Ending De Minimis for China Paused While US Works on Compliance Plan
Report from the Washington Post In Brief – The Trump Administration has amended its executive order that imposed new tariffs on China, Canada, and Mexico, and ended the “de minimis” exemption for packages from those countries, by delaying the de minimis change until...
Microsoft Continues Trying to Settle EU Antitrust Concerns with Teams
Report from Reuters In Brief – Microsoft has reportedly offered to widen the price differential between its Office 365 product sold with its chat and video app Teams and its version of the software sold without the Teams as part of its ongoing negotiation to avoid an...
Paris Prosecutors are Investigating X for Politically Biased Algorithms
Report from CNBC In Brief – The Paris prosecutor’s office is investigating social media platform X for using allegedly biased algorithms. The probe by the public prosecutor follows a complaint filed by a lawmaker in Emmanuel Macron’s Ensemble pour la République...
Antitrust Activists Push Back on UK Naming Amazon Exec to Head CMA
Report from TechCrunch In Brief – A coalition of voices in the vanguard of antitrust activism against Big Tech have signed an open letter expressing concern with the UK Government’s recent decision to appoint a former Amazon executive as chair of the Competition and...
Macron Uses Paris AI Summit to Call for EU AI Regulatory Pullback
Report from Reuters In Brief – French President Emmanuel Macron’s address to a global AI Summit in Paris called for Europe to recalibrate AI regulation to support innovation and made the case that France, with its AI talent and nuclear-powered electricity generating...
European Commission Adds to their DSA Investigation of Shein
Report from TechCrunch In Brief – The European Commission has formally requested a wide range of information from fast-growing Chinese ecommerce platform Shein as part of its investigation of the business under the Digital Services Act (DSA). The law was enacted in...
Social Media Companies Sue to Block California Law Banning Personalized Feeds
Report from MediaPost In Brief – Google, Meta, and TikTok have filed federal lawsuits and urged a federal judge to temporarily block enforcement of California’s “Protecting Our Kids from Social Media Addiction Act” that restricts personalized or “addictive” content...
Apple Loses UK Class Action Arguing Its Fees Were Too High
Report from Financial Times In Brief – The UK’s Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT) has ruled that Apple violated competition law by imposing excessive App Store commissions on developers, leading to overcharges being passed on to consumers. The decision requires Apple...
Apple Says It May Disable App Tracking Transparency Rules in Europe
Report from DPA International In Brief – Apple is saying that it might turn off its App Tracking Transparency (ATT) feature in Europe due to regulatory pressure that the iPhone giant attributes to lobbying from the advertising industry. ATT is the Apple policy that...
Character.AI Setting an 18-Year-Old Age Limit for Its Companion Chatbots
Report from New York Times In Brief – AI “companion” company Character.AI has announced that they will bar users under 18 from its chatbots in a sweeping move to address concerns over teen safety. The move follows mounting scrutiny over how AI chatbot companions can...
Google and Epic Games Settle Federal Antitrust Battle Over the Play Store
Report from Bloomberg In Brief – Google and Epic Games have agreed to settle their long-running antitrust battle over the rules and fees of the Android Play Store, with Google agreeing to implement changes both sides say will lower fees and expand choices for...
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