France Fines Google 500 Million Euros
On July 13, France’s antitrust group announced a 500 million euro fine on Google for not complying with rules on conducting negotiations with news publishers. Several news publishers accused Google of failing to hold conversations in good faith to compensate ... Read More
State Attorneys General File Lawsuit Over Google’s Dominance of Android App Market
This week, Attorneys General from 36 states and the District of Columbia filed a new antitrust lawsuit against Google alleging that the tech giant abused its power with the company’s Play Store on Android devices. Plaintiffs allege that anticompetitive practices ... Read More
Federal Judge Asks New FTC Chair to Rewrite Blockbuster Tech Antitrust Lawsuit
In December of last year, the FTC unveiled massive antitrust lawsuits against Facebook seeking to have the social media company broken up. The suits accused Facebook of illegally crushing competition, namely the acquisitions of Instagram and WhatsApp, on its way ... Read More
Congress Considers Extending PPP Options to More News Publishers
Congressional leaders and the White House are continuing their discussions on the next stimulus bill, including an extension of the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP). Both the Health, Economic Assistance, Liability Protection and Schools (HEALS) Act released by the Senate Republicans ... Read More
Top Tech CEOs Testify Before Congress Regarding Antitrust Investigation
On Wednesday, the CEOs of Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google all testified before the House Judiciary Committee’s Antitrust Subcommittee on Antitrust as part of the Subcommittee’s investigation into the anticompetitive practices of online platforms. The hearing was the sixth hearing ... Read More
European Publishers Unite to Negotiate with the Dominant Online Platforms
On July 30, French and German news publishers announced that they were working together to form a new joint venture to license news content to online platforms under the EU’s recently adopted Copyright Directive. Article 15 of the Directive created ... Read More
PACT Act Introduced In Latest Effort to Reform Section 230
Following multiple efforts to reform Section 230, including the President’s Executive Order, DOJ study, and other legislation, Senators Brian Schatz (D-HI) and John Thune (R-SD) introduced the bipartisan Platform Accountability and Consumer Transparency (PACT) Act in late June. The PACT ... Read More
ACCC Claims Google Misled Consumers
On July 27, the Australia Competition & Consumer Commission (ACCC) began a proceeding against Google for allegedly misleading Australian users into giving consent for broad data collection. The ACCC alleges that Google did not obtain users’ “explicit informed consent” to combine ... Read More
