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The Competition & Markets Authority (‘CMA’) published its response to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport (‘DCMS’) policy paper on establishing a pro-innovation approach to regulating artificial intelligence (AI) on 29 September 2022. This is in parallel with the coming into force of the new National Security & Investment Act 2021, under which the UK government is scrutinising transactions that use AI to produce goods, services and technology with the potential to track individuals, objects and events.

In its response, the CMA commented on the need to (i) adopt a risk based approach to the regulation of AI, (ii) consider whether existing regulatory powers are appropriate, and (iii) encourage collaboration between regulators.Continue Reading The CMA’s shares its thoughts on a ‘pro-innovation’ approach to regulating artificial intelligence

On 25 May 2016 the European Commission published draft legislation aimed at restricting the use of geoblocking and similar practices by websites selling to into the European Union.

The European Commission has published a draft regulation aimed at restricting traders from blocking access to websites by customers from other European countries, preventing geographic discrimination through

The European Commission (the executive of the EU) recently published the initial findings of its e-commerce inquiry, an investigative process conducted to determine whether and to what extent competition is being restricted or distorted in the sector. The inquiry focused on geo-blocking, a commercial practice whereby online providers block user access to the purchasing of goods or digital content services based on that user’s geographical location. Last year we reported on the EU’s strategy for a European ‘digital single market’ (DSM) which included putting an end to what it considered ‘unjustified geo-blocking’. The recent findings are that the use of geo-blocking is widespread throughout the EU, but that there are sometimes valid commercial reasons justifying the practice.
Continue Reading European Commission Publishes E-commerce Geo-Blocking Inquiry Findings

In an interview on 9 April 2015, European Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager indicated that companies who control personal data could come under increased scrutiny from European antitrust authorities. She recognises that considerable sums of money can now be made by companies holding large data sets, commonly known as Big Data, by using the data to

Office of Fair Trading (OFT) research into how online businesses use consumers’ information to influence prices has raised concerns over how UK companies collect and use consumer data. The report on Personalised Pricing found that many consumers are concerned with the extent of personal information collected and used online. OFT points out that websites failed