Cuando los procesos internos de una plataforma de comercio electrónico fallan, o cuando simplemente sus directivos o empleados toman decisiones equivocadas —digamos, enviando un pedido a una dirección incorrecta— un consumidor o un grupo de consumidores se ven perjudicados. Estos errores son fácilmente subsanables si la plataforma en cuestión tiene un buen proceso de atención al cliente.

Read the full piece here.

Antitrust scrutiny of “big tech” is hardly new, but the Justice Department’s recent monopolization case against Apple caps an unprecedented federal antitrust offensive against major tech firms. There are at least five open monopolization matters, beginning with the DOJ’s 2020 Google search complaint, and followed by cases against Facebook/Meta, Amazon, a second case against Google focused on its AdTech business, and now the Apple case. The resolution of these cases may shape the future of the digital economy. For the present discussion, we leave aside the FTC’s thus-far-failed attempts to block Meta’s acquisition of Within and Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision-Blizzard, both under Section 7 of the Clayton Act.

Read the full piece here.

When it was passed into law, the European Union’s Digital Markets Act (DMA) was heralded by supporters as a key step toward fairness and contestability in online markets. It has unfortunately become increasingly clear that reality might not live up to those expectations. Indeed, there is mounting evidence that European consumers’ online experiences have been degraded following the DMA’s entry into force.

The perception that the DMA has been a failure is beginning to motivate a not insignificant amount of finger pointing in Brussels. So-called “gatekeeper” firms have blamed heavy-handed regulation for their degraded services, while smaller rivals finger “malicious compliance.”

Read the full piece here.

Résumé

Le développement de l’Intelligence Artificielle (IA) générative fait l’objet d’une attention particulière de la part des autorités de concurrence. Ses impacts peuvent être déterminants en ce qu’elle peut aussi bien rebattre les cartes du jeu concurrentiel, c’est-à-dire affaiblir les positions de force des grandes firmes pivot des grands écosystèmes numériques actuels, que donner lieu à une nouvelle consolidation, en leur permettant d’étendre leur contrôle à cette technologie d’usage général qui est appelée à exercer un rôle déterminant dans la structuration de notre économie. Le ressort des initiatives des régulateurs de la concurrence tient à la crainte que le contrôle de certaines ressources essentielles conduise à étendre la puissance économique de ces acteurs vers ce nouveau marché. Les autorités de concurrence feraient dès lors face aux mêmes enjeux que ceux induits par les situations de dominance et de verrouillage des écosystèmes actuels : difficultés dans la définition et dans la mise en œuvre de remèdes concurrentiels effectifs ou encore nécessité d’instaurer des réglementations spécifiques pour prévenir les dommages concurrentiels.

Abstract

Competition authorities are paying particular attention to the development of generative Artificial Intelligence (AI). Its impact can be decisive in that it can both reshuffle the cards of the competitive game, i.e. weaken the positions of strength of the major firms at the heart of today’s major digital ecosystems, and give rise to new consolidation, by enabling them to extend their control over this general-purpose technology which is destined to play a decisive role in the structuring of our economy. The driving force behind the initiatives of competition regulators is the fear that control of certain essential resources will lead to the economic power of these players being extended to this new market. Competition authorities would face the same challenges as those arising from dominance and foreclosure in current ecosystems: difficulties in defining and implementing effective competitive remedies and the need to introduce specific to prevent competitive damages.

For all my carping about this or that program or enforcement matter, it seems to me a very good thing that Congress passed—and President Joe Biden signed into law—the spending package that will keep much of the federal government up and running for Fiscal Year 2024 (see here for the news, and here and here for a couple of the consolidated appropriations bills just signed into law).

Read the full piece here.

On March 4, 2024, the European Commission fined Apple €1.84 billion “over abusive App store rules for music streaming providers”.¹ In particular, the Commission was concerned about the anti-steering provisions that Apple imposed on these providers. Although the full decision has not yet been published (I am told it could be a matter of months), the public information underpinning this decision is already interesting on several levels. In the following, I explore the good (1.), the bad (2.), and the ugly (3.) of the “App Store Practices (music streaming)” decision based on the information available as of this writing.

Read the full piece here.

ICLE Director of Law & Economics Programs Gus Hurwitz was a guest on The Cyberlaw Podcast, where he discussed the U.S. Supreme Court’s Murthy v. Missouri free speech case and a unanimous decision by the court on when a public official may use a platform’s tools to suppress critics posting on his or her social-media page. Other topics included AI deepfakes, the congressional bill to force the divestment of TikTok, and the Federal Trade Commission’s lawsuit against Meta. Audio of the full episode is embedded below.