Showing archive for: “Comparative & Global Administrative Law”
Every Click You Make: Article 6(5)’s Search for a Limiting Principle
When does a “directions” button become a competition-law violation? When it points to Google Maps, according to the European Commission. A law meant to police search rankings is becoming a license to police the whole page. On July 23, the Commission fined Alphabet €460 million for favoring nine of its own services on Google’s search ... Every Click You Make: Article 6(5)’s Search for a Limiting Principle
Beyond Tariffs: Free Trade and the Friends-and-Family Plan
A trade deal can lower tariffs and yet still leave the hardest barriers untouched. The shipment clears customs, but the supplier cannot get a license, bid for a government contract, or compete with a subsidized state firm. The border is nominally open, but the market has other arrangements. As I argue in a new Mercatus ... Beyond Tariffs: Free Trade and the Friends-and-Family Plan
Two Years, 57 Pages, No Merger: Amazon, Anthropic, and Brazil’s Filing Problem
The wave of artificial intelligence (AI) partnerships and “acqui-hires”—deals to acquire a company’s talent—has reached Brazil. The tribunal of Brazil’s Administrative Council for Economic Defense (CADE) decided its first batch of such cases involving large technology firms and AI startups in May. A second round followed in September with Amazon/Anthropic—the would-be merger that turned out ... Two Years, 57 Pages, No Merger: Amazon, Anthropic, and Brazil’s Filing Problem
Proof of Age, Leap of Faith: The EU KIDS Act’s Security Gamble
The European Commission’s proposed EU KIDS Act would bar children under 15 from creating or using accounts on certain social-networking and video-sharing services, with a guardian-controlled option for 13- and 14-year-olds. It would also require providers to build broader safety protections into their services. Both sets of obligations would rely on age assurance—methods for verifying ... Proof of Age, Leap of Faith: The EU KIDS Act’s Security Gamble
The DMA’s Magic Words and Missing Off Switch
The European Union’s Digital Markets Act (DMA) depends on two terms that lawmakers never defined. “Fairness” and “contestability” determine how the European Commission measures gatekeeper compliance, imposes new obligations, and grades its own performance every three years. The law uses both terms liberally but explains neither. Recital 79 even promises that the Commission will apply ... The DMA’s Magic Words and Missing Off Switch
One AI, Two Rulebooks: Brussels’ ChatGPT Conundrum
ChatGPT can draft a memo, plan a trip, and search the web. As of Aug. 31, it can add another line to its regulatory résumé: The European Commission has designated it a “very large online search engine” under the Digital Services Act (DSA). The label may sound technical, but it captures a central problem for ... One AI, Two Rulebooks: Brussels’ ChatGPT Conundrum
Copy, Paste, Compensate: Nigeria’s Misguided Bid to Make Big Tech Pay for News
Nigeria has looked south and seen a $40 million payday for the press. The trouble is that it misread both the price tag and the fine print—and its attempt to collect may leave Nigerian publishers with fewer readers and no comparable payday. On July 6, Nigeria’s Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC) announced investigations ... Copy, Paste, Compensate: Nigeria’s Misguided Bid to Make Big Tech Pay for News
Brussels Tries to Fix the GDPR Without Making It Worse
Brussels has spent years proving that the easiest way to “fix” the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is to give more power to the institutions that made it unworkable. The Digital Omnibus initially looked ready to continue that tradition. Now, somewhat improbably, several EU governments appear determined to try actual reform instead. Ireland assumed the ... Brussels Tries to Fix the GDPR Without Making It Worse
Competition Law’s Fairness Gap: Why Better Procedure Requires Better Incentives
Everyone agrees competition enforcement should be fair. Agreement gets shakier once fairness starts costing agencies time, discretion, or victories. Competition authorities often warn that procedure should not become an obstacle to enforcement. Fair enough. Antitrust investigations can be slow, document-heavy, and vulnerable to delay tactics. A firm with deep pockets may try to turn “process” ... Competition Law’s Fairness Gap: Why Better Procedure Requires Better Incentives
Brazil’s Gatekeeper Bill Gets a Tuneup, Not a Rethink
Brazil may soon become the first country in the Americas to regulate digital platforms before they do anything wrong. Bill 4,675/2025 would let the Administrative Council for Economic Defense (CADE) designate large technology companies as having “systemic relevance” and impose special obligations without first proving anticompetitive conduct or consumer harm. That is a substantial change ... Brazil’s Gatekeeper Bill Gets a Tuneup, Not a Rethink
EU Digital Omnibus Hands the Wheel to the Referee
The Digital Omnibus was supposed to make European Union data law simpler, clearer, and less allergic to reality. Instead, the Council of the European Union appears to be turning it into something more familiar: a reform that trims the statute, fattens the recitals, and hands more interpretive power to the same regulators whose maximalist readings ... EU Digital Omnibus Hands the Wheel to the Referee
The EU’s Bid to Nationalize Space
Europe’s latest space policy has a simple theory: To build a champion, you must first clear the field. The European Commission’s newly adopted proposal to reallocate the 2 GHz mobile-satellite-service (MSS) band—a slice of radio spectrum used for satellite communications—would reserve most of that spectrum for European operators. The same proposal would limit non-EU militaries ... The EU’s Bid to Nationalize Space
