The “pay or OK” debate in the EU continues, and it is still unclear what its outcome will be, for Meta and everyone else. Today, the European Commission announced their preliminary finding that Meta’s approach is not compliant with the law. Importantly, the Commission investigates this issue not under data protection law (the GDPR), but under the EU Digital Markets Act (DMA). Meanwhile, data protection authorities continue to investigate from the GDPR perspective.

Read the full piece here.

After a lot of anticipation from Supreme Court watchers, the Murthy v. Missouri opinion has finally been released. As the oral argument suggested, standing was the issue for the Court, who in a 6-3 decision written by Justice Amy Coney Barrett ruled that none of the plaintiffs had standing, due to a lack of traceability and redressability of the alleged injuries. The result: challenging backdoor censorship just got a lot harder.

Read the full piece here.

A February report from the Committee on Digital Competition Law (CDCL) recommended special competition rules for digital markets in India. It was accompanied by a draft Digital Competition Act (DCA) that is virtually identical to the European Union’s Digital Markets Act (DMA). Since it entered into force early last month, the DMA has imposed strict preemptive rules on so-called digital “gatekeepers,” a cohort of mostly American tech giants like Google, Amazon, Apple, Meta, and Microsoft.

Read the full piece here.

Aaron, could you please tell us a bit about your background and how you became interested in competition law and digital-competition regulation?

I’m a lawyer by profession, but have taken a somewhat unconventional career path—I started as a litigator in a small general practice in my hometown outside Toronto, moved on to corporate law with one the world’s biggest law firms in London, Hong Kong, and Abu Dhabi, and then came back to Canada, where I moved through roles in polling and market research, lobbying, and tax advocacy. For the last three years, I’ve run the Domestic Policy Program at the Macdonald-Laurier Institute, an Ottawa-based think tank. Competition law—and especially the emergence of dominant digital players—has been one of my biggest files, primarily because it has become so politically salient in recent years.

Read the full piece here.

Abstract

This paper explores the evolving landscape of competition law enforcement, focusing on the dynamic interplay between ex-ante and ex-post approaches. Amidst the digital transformation and regulatory shifts, traditional enforcement mechanisms are being reevaluated. This study aims to dissect the economic rationale behind these shifts, proposing a hybrid framework that balances legal certainty with the flexibility needed to address contemporary market challenges.

The U.S. Supreme Court delivered a major victory for free speech and struck a blow against government censorship-by-proxy yesterday in NRA v. Vullo: “Government officials cannot attempt to coerce private parties in order to punish or suppress views that the government disfavors.”

This is a major decision, and will have implications for free speech online, as the Court must soon consider similar facts in the social-media context in Murthy v. Missouri. But the case also illustrates the dangers that can attend government officials using even valid regulatory authority to strongarm private entities into doing things in ways they couldn’t do directly.

The Court’s unanimous opinion gets it right: “[A] government official cannot do indirectly what she is barred from doing directly… [she] cannot coerce a private party to punish or suppress disfavored speech on her behalf.”

Read the full piece here.

ICLE Senior Scholar Mikolaj Barczentewicz took part in a virtual panel hosted by Arthur Cox LLP on the European Data Protection Board’s recent opinion concerning whether “pay or consent” platform models comply with the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Video of the full panel is embedded below.

ICLE Senior Scholar Lazar Radic joined a digital panel hosted by the Centre for Competition Law and Economics to discuss India’s draft Digital Competition Bill, which proposes ex-ante rules for “systematically significant digital enterprises” (SSDEs). The panel discussed the draft bill’s aim sand objectives and how the regulations would affect India’s digital ecosystem. Video of the full panel is embedded below.

Abstract