App stores have become the latest battleground in the the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission’s investigation into digital platforms, with the regulator promising to look at data sharing practices, pricing and competition between Google and Apple, the two biggest players in the market.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has signed an information sharing agreement with four competition regulators around the globe that will boost its current and future investigations into Google and Facebook.
Social media giant Facebook has come out swinging over the Morrison government’s proposed news media bargaining code, threatening to stop Australians from sharing local and international news on Facebook and Instagram if the code becomes law.
Search engine giant Google has fired off another round of criticism of the Government’s proposed media bargaining code, calling it “unworkable” and “extremely one-sided and unfair”.
Facebook and Google have been hit with a class action alleging their 2018 decisions to ban advertising of cryptocurrencies breached competition laws.
Google’s open letter to Australians, containing dire warnings about the effects of a proposed news media bargaining code, is misleading, the head of Australia’s consumer watchdog has said.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has delayed it decision on whether to block Google’s $3 billion tie-up with fitness device company Fitbit to allow time for the European Union to investigate the proposed merger.
Google and Facebook will face penalties of at least $10 million for breaches of a media bargaining code drafted by the ACCC that aims to create a “level playing field” between Australian media companies and the tech giants.
Google has reached agreements with publishers in three countries to pay for news, as the ACCC works out the details of a mandatory code under which the search giant and Facebook would be forced to pay publishers for news.
A group of IP lawyers has warned the Government will have to proceed carefully in establishing a mandatory code under which Google and Facebook would be forced to pay news publishers for content, saying such a move could be struck down under existing High Court precedent.