It has been announced that a group of large German publishers and advertisers have filed a formal complaint with the European Commission against Google’s “Privacy Sandbox” proposals. The Privacy Sandbox is the name given by Google to a group of proposed browser changes to the Chrome browser and Blink/Chromium browser engine. The proposals include blocking…
UK leads European fintech space with investments growing over 217% to $11.6bn in 2021, according to figures from Innovate Finance, the UK fintech industry body. The UK brought almost half of the total investments across Europe, which overall saw $24.3bn of investments. London continued to lead with $9.2bn of total investment. Additionally, the UK had…
On 14 December 2021, the CMA published an interim report in its Mobile Ecosystems Market Study. The market study looks at how the mobile ecosystem market is functioning, in particular in relation to Apple and Google’s mobile operating systems. The report sets out the CMA’s interim findings. We set out below some commentary on the…
On 30 November 2021 the UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) ordered Facebook’s owner, Meta, to divest Giphy, a gif website. The purchase of Giphy was completed on 15 May 2020. The CMA issued an interim enforcement order on 9 June 2020, preventing the parties from further integrating their businesses pending investigation. A merger inquiry…
On 29 November 2021, following a joint investigation with the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (‘OAIC’) into Clearview AI Inc’s (‘Clearview’) data processing practices, the Information Commissioner’s Office (‘ICO’) announced its provisional notice of intent to impose a fine of just over £17 million on Clearview. Additionally, the ICO issued a preliminary enforcement notice…
The UK Competition and Markets Authority (“CMA”) has today published a Notice of intention to accept modified commitments from Google in its Privacy Sandbox investigation (the “Notice”). The Notice follows a consultation on proposed commitments published in June 2021. The modified commitments include substantial amendments to those original proposals, and the Notice provides the CMA’s…
Google appealed against the European Commission’s findings in its 2017 Google Search (Shopping) Decision in the General Court (GC); however, the GC has dismissed Google’s action and upheld the €2.42bn fine imposed by the Commission in a judgment published on 10 November 2021. The GC found that Google had engaged in anti-competitive activity, having favoured…
On the morning of 10 November 2021, the Supreme Court issued a judgment throwing out a class action accusing Google of breaching its duties as a data controller under the Data Protection Act 1998 from late 2011 to early 2012. On his own behalf, and on behalf of a class of 4 million iPhone users…
On 4 November 2021, an antitrust lawsuit was filed against Facebook’s parent, Meta, in the Southern District of New York. Facebook has been accused of having excluded rival photo app, Phhhoto, from access to its platform, and for replicating its product with a ‘Boomerang’ function. Facebook allegedly took interest in Phhhoto shortly after it launched…
On 25 October 2021 the UK Competition and Markets Authority (“CMA”) announced the opening of a Market Investigation into Motorola’s Airwave Network. This is a mobile radio network used by emergency services across the UK to communicate. The announcement follows a CMA consultation which was published in July 2021. The CMA listed a number of…
