Showing archive for: “EU”
Don’t Freeze the AI Race at the Starting Line
Regulators keep warning that AI markets are about to be captured by Big Tech. The awkward fact is that AI markets keep refusing to cooperate. Several years into the generative-AI boom, the sector still looks less like a coronation than a street fight: OpenAI, Google, Meta, Amazon, Anthropic, Perplexity, Mistral, xAI, and others are battling ... Don’t Freeze the AI Race at the Starting Line
The European Commission’s ‘Six-Seven’ Theory of Interoperability
If you have been near anyone under the age of 15 in the past year, you may have heard the phrase “six seven” shouted with great conviction and no discernible content. It usually comes with a hand gesture. It means, as best anyone can tell, absolutely nothing. That is the joke: a number pair masquerading ... The European Commission’s ‘Six-Seven’ Theory of Interoperability
False Positives, Real Casualties: The High Price of Populist Antitrust
Spirit Airlines was supposed to be the “maverick” antitrust saved from JetBlue. Instead, the deal died, Spirit followed it into bankruptcy, and the maverick exited the market altogether. That is an awkward result for a merger challenge brought in the name of preserving competition—and a useful place to start a broader reconsideration of error costs. ... False Positives, Real Casualties: The High Price of Populist Antitrust
Reverse Patent Pools and Other TTBER Tall Tales
In standard-essential patent (SEP) licensing, every procedural tweak is also a skirmish over bargaining power. That is what makes licensing negotiation groups (LNGs) more than an obscure acronym in the European Commission’s 2026 Technology Transfer Block Exemption Regulation (TTBER) and accompanying Guidelines (TTGs). LNGs would allow technology implementers to bargain collectively with rights holders. Depending ... Reverse Patent Pools and Other TTBER Tall Tales
The DMA’s AI Dilemma: Too Soon, Too Late, or Both?
The European Commission’s first review of the Digital Markets Act (DMA) lands at an awkward moment. Just as Brussels begins to test whether its flagship digital regulation works, AI threatens to change the game the DMA was built to police. The question is not just whether the DMA can handle AI. It is whether lawmakers ... The DMA’s AI Dilemma: Too Soon, Too Late, or Both?
Brussels’ AI Squeeze: Regulating What It Leaves Standing
Brussels has boxed itself into a familiar corner: first limit how a platform can make money, then regulate what is left. The European Commission’s case against Meta over WhatsApp is a near-perfect illustration. On April 15, the European Commission sent Meta a Supplementary Statement of Objections. It signaled its intent to order the company to ... Brussels’ AI Squeeze: Regulating What It Leaves Standing
Schrödinger’s Quantum Market: Regulating What May or May Not Exist
Competition authorities are gearing up to regulate quantum computing. The problem: there is no market there yet. In March 2026, the Italian Competition Authority (AGCM) launched an “IC59 fact-finding inquiry” into quantum, citing concerns that ongoing developments could shape long-term competition. Drawing on lessons from artificial intelligence (AI) and cloud markets, the AGCM flagged familiar ... Schrödinger’s Quantum Market: Regulating What May or May Not Exist
Turning Down the Thinking: A Law & Economics Trilogue on AI Throttling
Three section leads at the International Center for Law & Economics (ICLE) read the same viral GitHub post and reached three different conclusions. Call it a trilogue—three views, one problem, and a technology that refuses to sit still. The GitHub issue filed last week against Anthropic’s Claude Code product carried a blunt title: “Claude Code ... Turning Down the Thinking: A Law & Economics Trilogue on AI Throttling
C’est Presumé: France’s AI Copyright Shortcut
Generative AI strains nearly every layer of copyright law. Policymakers have focused most on one pressure point: the use of copyrighted works to train AI models. Fitting that practice into a legal framework that supports both creative industries and the AI sector has proved difficult. Against that backdrop, a recent French Senate proposal would add ... C’est Presumé: France’s AI Copyright Shortcut
A Fistful of Discretion: The UK’s DMCC After Two Years
When Sergio Leone shot “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly” in 1966, he refused to hand the audience a clean moral. The “Good” wasn’t really good. The “Bad” looked almost restrained next to the Civil War’s industrial-scale carnage. And the “Ugly” drew your sympathy—even as you questioned why. Two years into the Competition and ... A Fistful of Discretion: The UK’s DMCC After Two Years
Opening Pandora’s Interface: AI Assistants and the DMA
If the Digital Markets Act (DMA) is going to force open the most sensitive parts of modern smartphones, it will have to answer a basic question it has so far sidestepped: how much security risk is too much in the name of interoperability? In January, the European Commission opened proceedings to define Google’s duties under ... Opening Pandora’s Interface: AI Assistants and the DMA
Crisis Opportunism: Germany’s Turn to Antitrust Without Limits
Geopolitical shocks rarely just move markets. They move policy—and not always in good ways. Fuel prices are climbing sharply across Europe following military escalation in the Middle East and disrupted shipping through the Strait of Hormuz. The political demand for “something to be done” can be nearly irresistible. In Germany, several major political groups have ... Crisis Opportunism: Germany’s Turn to Antitrust Without Limits
