The proposed Digital Markets, Competition and Consumer Bill recently is rumoured to be published very soon, following much delay. However, the delay appears to have had consequences for the CMA and its investigation of mobile browsers and cloud gaming services. The CMA had been carrying out a market investigation in respect of the supply of…
In recent weeks, generative AI platforms, such as Chat GPT-4, DALL.E 2, and Stable Diffusion, have made headlines for a number of reasons. Many have questioned the impact this technology will have on business, education, and the creative sectors, and the potential benefits it may bring. Others have considered the potential risks of the technology…
The ICO has issued a £12,700,000 fine to TikTok Information Technologies UK Limited and TikTok Inc for a number of breaches of data protection law, including failing to use children’s personal data lawfully. The ICO estimates that TikTok allowed up to 1.4 million UK children under 13 to use its platform in 2020, despite its…
Read More… from ICO fines TikTok £12.7 million for breaches of the UK GDPR
Market studies are examinations into the causes of why particular markets may not be working well in the interests of consumers. In October, Ofcom launched a study using its powers as a competition authority under the Enterprise Act 2002 into cloud infrastructure services in the UK, to assess how well this market is working. It…
Read More… from Ofcom proposes to refer UK cloud market to CMA for investigation
The Court of Justice of the EU has ruled in the case of Case C-34/21 Hauptpersonalrat der Lehrerinnen und Lehrer beim Hessischen Kultusministerium v Minister des Hessischen Kultusministeriums. The referral concerned whether teachers employed by a Land Hessen ministry had to consent to the streaming of their lessons by videoconference call, or, if they did…
Read More… from Live streaming of video classes falls within the scope of the GDPR
UK law CMA narrows scope of concerns in Microsoft-Activision review The CMA has issued updated provisional findings in its assessment of Microsoft’s proposed acquisition of Activision. It says that new evidence provisionally alleviates concerns in relation to supply of gaming consoles in the UK. It’s previously stated view that the deal raises concerns in cloud…
The European Commission has adopted a proposal for a Directive aimed at making it easier for companies to expand the use of digital tools and processes in EU company law. The proposal aims to facilitate cross-border companies’ operations and to increase business transparency and trust by making more information about companies publicly available at EU…
Read More… from European Commission proposes more digitalisation of EU company law
For the EU legislator, the proposal for a Data Act represents an important step towards the enactment of long-term rules aimed at establishing good governance of the data economy and appropriate incentives to innovate. While the proposed regulation contains many valuable provisions that are worthy of implementation, we find that insufficient thought appears to have…
The Committee on Advertising Practice says that research from Citizens Advice has found that three in four people in the UK (73%) have at least one subscription, while one in four (26%) have signed up to a subscription service by accident, in most instances, because they didn’t get round the cancelling a free trial. Subscription…
Read More… from CAP issues enforcement notice regarding free trials and subscriptions
The Competition and Markets Authority has published the results of a survey of 3,700 UK adults, which found that 1 in 4 (24%) said they had fallen victim to sneaky online sales tactics; 23% didn’t realise tactics such as “15 mins left of sale” or “buy now” can sometimes be false or misleading and 68%…
Read More… from CMA publishes letter to businesses about “online redlines”