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Following Monday’s announcement by the European Commission that it was handing down a €1.8 billion fine against Apple, Spotify—the Swedish music-streaming service that a decade ago lodged the initial private complaint that spawned the Commission’s investigation—published a short explainer on its website titled “Fast Five Facts: Facts that Show Apple Doesn’t Play Fair.” The gist of the company’s argument is that Apple engages in a series of unfair and anticompetitive practices. In this piece, we put some of these claims to the test.

Read the full piece here.

The EU’s Digital Markets Act (DMA) will come into effect March 7, forcing a handful of digital platforms to change their market conduct in some unprecedented ways. The law effectively judges them guilty (with a very limited, formalistic trial), and brands them “gatekeepers” based purely on size. It then sentences them to far-reaching, one-size-fits-all antitrust-style remedies in pursuit of the stated objectives of “fairness” and “contestability.” We’ll soon begin to see what that looks like in practice, and whether innocent conduct will be caught in the crossfire.

Read the full piece here.

Just days before the EU’s Digital Markets Act (DMA) was set to enter into force, the European Commission hit Apple—one of the six designated “gatekeepers” to which the new law will apply—with a hefty €1.8 billion fine for the kinds of anti-steering provisions that will be banned by the DMA, which enters into force on 6 March. 

The timing of the fine, and its seemingly arbitrary amount, are both curious. Announced as being the result of a four-year investigation, the decision amounts to an exclusionary-abuse turned exploitative-conduct case, and is underpinned by a flimsy theory of harm in a market that has seen exponential growth over the past decade. The fact that the Commission fined Apple for conduct that would be banned per se just two days later raises questions as to why the DMA was necessary and whether the Commission has faith in the new law’s effectiveness.

Read the full piece here.

La implementación de la Ley de Mercados Digitales (LMD) en Europa nos puede dar algunas lecciones regulatorias a los países que, desde este lado del Atlántico, queremos emular al viejo continente (ya hay una iniciativa en Brazil; y la Comunidad Andina y México han indicado su intención de estudiar el tema).

Read the full piece (in Spanish) here.

The European Union’s implementation of the Digital Markets Act (DMA), whose stated goal is to bring more “fairness” and “contestability” to digital markets, could offer some important regulatory lessons to those countries around the world that have been rushing to emulate the Old Continent.

Read the full piece here.

The European Commission told Amazon in November 2023 of its preliminary view that the company’s proposed acquisition of iRobot restricted competition in the market for robot vacuum cleaners (RVCs) and could hamper rival RVC suppliers’ ability to compete effectively. The deal, the Commission asserted, would give Amazon incentive to foreclose iRobot’s competitors by engaging in several anticompetitive strategies, including delisting rival RVCs from its marketplace, reducing their visibility, limiting access to certain widget or attractive product labels (“Amazon’s Choice,” “Works with Alexa”), and/or raising rivals’ sales and advertising costs. 

Recently, and in anticipation of a negative clearance decision from the Commission, Amazon and iRobot jointly announced they had terminated their acquisition agreement. 

Read the full piece here.

In a little less than a month, the European Union’s Digital Markets Act (DMA) will start to bite, but how will it taste?

By March 7, companies that were designated as “gatekeepers” in September 2023 will be required to meet the obligations of Articles 5, 6, and 7 of the DMA Regulation. With the exception of ByteDance Ltd., the Chinese owners of TikTok, all of the designated companies have, by now, presented compliance proposals. The DMA’s expected beneficiaries (and, arguably, the loudest in favor of its passage) have been disappointed by some of these proposals, and seek more. But should the European Commission grant them what they are asking for?

Read the full piece here.

The European Union is on the verge of enacting the landmark Artificial Intelligence Act (AI Act), which will—for better or worse—usher in a suite of new obligations, and hidden pitfalls, for individuals and firms trying to navigate the development, distribution, and deployment of software.

Over the coming months, we will be delving into the nuances of the proposed text, aiming to illuminate the potential challenges and interpretive dilemmas that lie ahead. This series will serve as a guide to understanding and preparing for the AI Act’s impact, ensuring that stakeholders are well-informed and equipped to adapt to the regulatory challenges on the horizon.

Read the full piece here.

As the European Parliament is on the verge of expressing its view on the Commission’s proposal for a regulation on standard essential patents (SEPs), it seems appropriate to draw the attention to potential disruptive effects of this legislative initiative. Although some commentators have portrayed the proposed regulation as a balanced, innocuous and ‘common-sense’ solution, the reality is very different, as the regulation will likely have adverse effects on European innovation, tech sovereignty and the competitiveness of the European Union in the global arena.

Read the full piece here.