Competition & State Aid

Gaming Industry Consolidation

At the start of 2022, the gaming market was shaken up by a series of acquisitions, including Microsoft/Activison Blizard, Sony/Bungee and – last but not least – New York Times/Wordle. In this episode, we examine…

The CMA’s FB/GIPHY Decision

In May 2020, Facebook (now Meta) acquired the gif library GIPHY. The UK’s competition authority (the CMA) started investigating the merger and finally, in November 2021, ordered Facebook to sell GIPHY again. In this episode,…

The European clash over regulating killer acquisitions; the White House takes on corruption

Killer acquisitions are back on the agenda — and it’s disrupting the European Union’s review of an acquisition by Meta, the parent company of Facebook. Germany’s competition regulator has decided to do its own review…

A new consensus for economic resilience

"Is there a need for systemic reform of global economic governance? The Washington Consensus, first devised in 1989, is an economic paradigm that was reflected in the prevailing economic thinking as well as policy recommendations.…

Episode 91: Climate geopolitics, and legal justice for global warming

As the first week of the UN climate change summit, COP26, takes place in Glasgow, Ben and Mariana return with two contrasting interviews on the climate crisis. Ben speaks to Kevin Rudd, former Prime Minister…

The Google Android Appeal Hearing

In this episode, we walk through the General Court hearing in the Google Android case, which took place in Luxembourg from 27 September until 1 October. Google appealed to the General Court the European Commission’s…

The Vertical Block Exemption (VBER) Review

In this episode, we look at the Commission's draft Vertical Block Exemption Regulation (VBER) and associated Guidelines, which are set to replace the existing 11 year old legislation in advance of its expiration. The Commission…

Google’s Commitments and Designer Antitrust

In this episode, we dive into Google’s latest antitrust commitments in Europe. In June, we saw commitment decisions on Google’s ad-tech stack and its planned ‘Privacy Sandbox’ (under French and UK competition authorities' oversight) as…

Facebook and Google’s adtech practices are back on the regulatory agenda in Europe and Asia

Digital advertising is back on the agenda in Europe, with the announcement of a fresh EU antitrust probe targeting Google’s practice of hoovering up data to better target advertising. However, the new investigation will also…

GDPR’s one-stop-shop principle is put to the test; and the EU-UK clash over trade settings

A central part of the EU’s ambitious privacy legislation, the General Data Protection Regulation, or GDPR, was put to the test recently, with a European court asked to rule on whether Belgium’s data-privacy regulator had…

Europe’s proposed Digital Markets Act (Part 2)

In this second episode on the EU’s proposed Digital Markets Act (DMA), we take a closer look at the obligations and prohibitions to be imposed on designated ‘gatekeepers’. Particular attention is given to how the…

Europe’s proposed Digital Markets Act (Part 1)

In the first of a three-part series, we dive into the EU’s proposed Digital Markets Act (DMA). This episode explores the DMA's background, why the EU finds this new regulation necessary, which platforms could be…