Competition

‘No excuse’ for regulators falling behind the market

Enforcement of competition rules must take place at much greater pace according to competition law expert, Lord Bellamy KC. Speaking at an event at the UK’s House of Lords marking the re-launch of the Digital Policy Alliance, Lord Bellamy said that while it was difficult to keep pace with developments in the market, regulators had no excuse for not making every effort to do so. Implementation of policy was essential to enabling the growth of smaller and mid-sized companies and the ‘slow pace of government’ could not be allowed to prevent UK competition regulator, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), from taking action ‘fast’. He also raised a concern that, in its efforts to promote growth, the DSIT (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology) was in danger of getting too close to the big tech companies.

EU fines Apple and Meta 700 Mn euros in total for antitrust violations

The European Commission has imposed fines of 500Mn and 200Mn euros on Apple and Meta respectively. Apple will have to revise its App Store rules to allow developers to send offers outside its platform while Meta must change the rule that requires users either to consent to tracking or to pay a subscription fee. The penalty is modest by recent standards as the EU tries to avoid escalating tensions with the US administration. The new commission, which took office in December, says it is more focused on compliance than on imposing large fines. It has also announced the closure of two other investigations into Apple and Meta without any further sanctions.

Content

US sees lower digital ad spending as tariffs bite

Analysts are reporting signs of a deceleration in the US digital advertising industry, beginning in April. Slowdowns are being seen in the auto, travel, fashion and online-spending industries as companies conserve cash in expectation of tariff payments. Meta and Google are both vulnerable to a slowdown from Chinese discount shopping advertisers, such as Shein and Temu, as the US closes the de minimis exemption that allowed companies to avoid import charges. Meta alone is thought to earn c $10 billion from Chinese companies advertising to consumers in the United States.

Facebook introduces ‘friends’ tab as personal interactions decline

Facebook has announced that it will introduce a new tab designed to ‘bring back the magic of friends’. The change is aimed at making it ‘easier for people to find their friends’ content’ on the social media site and was announced in March, ahead of a trial by the Federal Trade Commission alleging that Meta is a social media monopoly. In his testimony, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg argued that social media engagement is now less about friends and family connections and more of a vehicle for content discovery. This was supported by a company report shown in court which indicated that the percentage of time spent viewing content posted by friends had, in the last two years, declined from 22 to 17 per cent on Facebook and 11 to 7 per cent on Instagram.

Data

Google moves to reassure EU cloud users

Google is upgrading its ‘sovereign cloud’ services in the EU in order to reassure users in Europe that their data will be safeguarded at a time of rising trade tensions with the US. New options will include a ‘data shield’ that provides additional cybersecurity protections to European clients. The company will also work closely with local partners in sensitive industries, such as defence, to ensure better compliance with tougher data protection requirements. A source said, ‘sovereignty used to be a very niche thing…and suddenly in the current environment everyone is thinking about it.

Spectrum

Wi-Fi and mobile players compete for release of spectrum band

Internet providers and industry associations are urging the EU to make the upper 6 GHz band available for unlimited Wi-Fi operations. In a letter to digital technology commissioner Henna Virkkunen, the advocacy group Dynamic Spectrum Alliance (DSA) said that the spectrum was necessary to allow for the expansion of future Wi-Fi services in which, the group claimed, Europe was already behind the rest of the world. Earlier this month 12 major telecoms companies urged EU regulators to allocate the same spectrum for 5G and 6G networks. But a spokesperson for the DSA said that they were seeking a shared approach, noting that ‘most of the traffic in Europe is indoors, and most of it starts or ends by a Wi-Fi connection’. The EU is expected to unveil a more coordinated approach to spectrum policy in its forthcoming Digital Networks Act.

Artificial intelligence

European Commission warned not to soften AI rules

Members of the European Parliament have written to the European Commission’s digital head, Henna Virkkunen, to urge that rules contained in the EU’s new AI Act are not compromised. The commission is thought to be considering making some of the requirements in the act voluntary rather than compulsory following intense lobbying from the US administration and big tech companies, which argue that the code of practice currently being drafted would impose ‘unworkable and technically unfeasible requirements’. The signatories to the letter, who include many of the architects of the AI Act, argue that accommodating these demands is ‘dangerous, undemocratic and creates legal uncertainty’.

AI system resorts to blackmail

Artificial intelligence firm Anthropic has revealed that its new model is willing to attempt blackmail in order to preserve itself. The company’s safety team explained that in one test, its new model, Claude Opus 4, was given access to fictional emails implying that it was about to be taken offline. It was then shown an email in which it was claimed the engineer responsible was having an extramarital affair. The researchers said that the system showed a strong preference for ‘ethical solutions’, such as sending emails pleading not to be replaced, but in some scenarios threatened to blackmail the engineer by revealing the affair. The team went on to say that extreme responses were ‘rare and difficult to elicit’ but nonetheless ‘more common than in earlier models’.

In brief

Microsoft has announced the closure of Skype with users encouraged to transfer to the company’s Teams app. The video-calling service was once one of the world’s most popular websites and is credited with popularising the computer-to-computer calling concept.

UK-based retailer Marks and Spencer confirmed that, in a major cyber attack, criminals had accessed its systems via a third party supplier. The breach was acknowledged on 22 April and has blighted the company for weeks, with customers unable to order through its website.

The datacentre currently under construction for OpenAI will now be the company’s largest, sources say. It will comprise of eight buildings, each running up to 50,000 Nvidia Blackwell chips, used for training large language models. The move comes as OpenAI actively seeks to reduce its reliance on Microsoft datacentres.

The first 27 Kuiper satellites have been successfully deployed in low earth orbit as Amazon begins building the 3,200 strong constellation it needs to compete with Starlink. The company plans to have the broadband internet service available by the end of the year. Starlink currently serves more than 4.5 million customers and controls more than 60 per cent of all satellites in orbit.

The government of Vietnam has announced that will allow SpaceX to launch its Starlink service in the country. In a trial lasting until 2030, the service will be limited to 600,000 subscribers. The decision is seen by some observers as a move designed to avoid the imposition of US tariffs. Starlink operates in over 120 markets worldwide.

Human rights groups have launched a legal challenge after the UK government issued a ‘technical capability notice’ requiring access to iPhone back-ups for law enforcement agencies. Apple had already launched its own appeal, which Privacy International and Liberty argue should be heard in public. In addition, they say that ordering the company to compromise the security of its products breaches free expression and privacy rights.

Three digital healthcare providers have been fined by the Swedish Competition Authority  for anti-competitive cooperation when advertising their services. The companies, Doktor.se, Min Doktor and Doktor24, created a bilateral agreement with a fourth company, Kry, in which the three providers would not appear in a Google search for Kry and, similarly, Kry would not appear in searches for any of the other three companies.

Sources: The Financial Times, Reuters, APNews, Euronews, Euractiv, US News, CNN,  TechCrunch, The Guardian, The Daily Telegraph, Bloomberg, Economic Times, BBC, Politico, Telecoms.com