Ashley Belanger

On Digital Markets Act Eve, Google whines, Apple sounds alarms, and TikTok wants out

For months, some of the biggest tech companies have been wrapped up in discussions with the European Commission (EC), seeking feedback and tweaking their plans to ensure their core platform services comply with the Digital Markets Act (DMA) ahead of that law taking force in the European Union on March 7. Under the DMA, companies designated as gatekeepers—Alphabet/Google, Amazon, Apple, ByteDance, Meta, and Microsoft—must follow strict rules to ensure that they don't engage in unfair business practices that could limit consumer choice in core platform services. Although the EC has 

Judge rules against users suing Google and Apple over “annoying” search results

While the world awaits closing arguments later this year in the US government's antitrust case over Google's search dominance, a California judge has dismissed a lawsuit from 26 Google users who claimed that Google's default search agreement with Apple violates antitrust law and has ruined everyone's search results. Users had argued that Google struck a deal making its search engine the default on Apple's Safari web browser specifically to keep Apple from competi

Google, Meta, TikTok defeat Austria’s plan to combat hate speech

The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) ruled that Austria cannot force Google, Meta, and TikTok to pay millions in fines if they fail to delete hate speech from their popular social media platforms. Austria had attempted to hold platforms accountable for hate speech and other illegal content after passing a law in 2021 requiring tech giants to publish reports as often as every six months detailing content takedowns.

After class action revoked, Google tentatively settles with 21 million Play Store users

Google has reached a tentative settlement with more than 30 US states and 21 million customers -- but not app developers -- who sued the company for allegedly violating antitrust laws by overcharging for apps in the Google Play Store. The settlement comes after a court revoked the lawsuit's class-action status. At one point, plaint

States’ attempts to age-gate the Internet blocked by constitutional hurdles

Courts have started blocking some US states' earliest attempts to age-gate the Internet. Courts ordered preliminary injunctions blocking a Texas law requiring ID to access websites featuring adult entertainment, as well as an Arkansas law requiring ID to access some social media platforms.