Wild that the US, through antitrust enforcement, has been more effective at getting app store fees down than the EU, which relied on antitrust enforcement + a specific regulatory framework (the Digital Markets Act). A lesson in there somewhere!

Short & sweet contribution to a @capitolforum.bsky.social story on Microsoft's integration of AI services in its productivity suite.

Small but symbolic: in the Google judgment, Judge Mehta writes about the EU's "Digital Marketing Act" instead of the "Digital Markets Act" (quite a difference in meaning!). Might be representative of the US's substantive engagement with EU competition policy (with notable exceptions, of course).

A real change of tone from Nick Clegg, who until recently headed policy at Meta. The poison is in the "they *claim* to read the same books" line. Makes me mildly curious about his upcoming book.

Via @bloomberglp.bsky.social.

A final point on which US judges differ from the European Commission: they don't want to (or even can) play whack-a-mole on compliance. So the result of Apple minimally/formally complying (or not even that) is different from the EU: Apple must now allow linking out without *any* commission fee.

US judges can be refreshingly direct (certainly compared to EU ones), but Judge YGR's contempt order in Epic v Apple is really something else. Worth reading in full (as I'm doing now).

Mark Zuckerberg making the case for a spin-off of Instagram - a potential (and logical) remedy should the FTC win its ongoing case against the company (even if I think such a win is a distant prospect).

Via www.thebignewsletter.com

Been trying out different search engines & found Bing interesting. Microsoft set up a gamified system that rewards you for searching. Not overly generous (I collected a 10 EUR gift card after a year), but does suggest other search engines are underpaying (unless their quality is higher).

So, should we conclude that the consumer welfare gains from a subscription to Netflix are higher than those its competitors?

Via @bloomberg.com

I love the presence of 'competition' as a value in the US, from the old (American History Museum, first 3 📸) to the new (airport ad against Ticketmaster, last 📸). Special, even if the antitrust conversation doesn't always follow.

You can still get to the 'map with hotels' view by scrolling down or by clicking the 'Lodging' tab. I think these results are not sponsored but am not 100% sure.

This change, & wider DMA search compliance, def leads to more of a focus on ads. Everything 'above the fold' is ads, either in the form of a Google Shopping-like carousel or as a link to a travel platform (mostly Booking!). I had to zoom out to 67% to get to the first non-ads under 'Places sites'.

Interesting! Google is now experimenting with its DMA compliance, returning in Germany, Belgium & Estonia to something closer to the old '10 blue links' model for hotel searches.

🔗 blog.google/around-the-g...
🔗 support.google.com/webmasters/t...

Happy to see confirmed--in the opening of specification proceedings--that the Commission is following a dialogical approach in pursuing compliance with the Digital Markets Act!

🔗 ec.europa.eu/competition/...