The UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has launched strategic market status (SMS) investigations in a second area of digital activity: mobile ecosystems. Two investigations – one into Apple and another into Google – will assess in parallel these firms’ position in their respective ‘mobile ecosystems’ which include the operating systems, app stores and browsers […]
Unjustified geo-blocking which limits consumers’ freedom by restricting their access to online goods and services across the EU remains a problem, according to a new report by the European Court of Auditors (ECA). While the 2018 Geo-blocking Regulation aimed to address such discrimination based on nationality or residence, it still faces practical challenges in the […]
US President Donald Trump has signed an order that designates Commissioner Brendan Carr as Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission. In a Statement, Carr said: “I am deeply grateful to President Trump and honoured by his decision to designate me as Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission. I have had the privilege of working at […]
Let’s not be coy, the demise of the Conservative government in the UK was a relief to the BBC. The relationship between the two was tense, at best, wilfully frictional at worst. The next Charter review begins this year, and the BBC will feel more relaxed about preserving the universal licence fee intact with a […]
TikTok quickly resumed services in the US after incoming President Donald Trump said he would issue an executive order to give the social media app a reprieve when he takes office today [January 20th]. On January 18th, the Chinese-owned app stopped working for its estimated 170 million American users, after a law banning it on […]
UK commercial news organisations have attacked the BBC for promoting its services above their media apps on smartphones on Apple and Android platforms. Executives accused the BBC of an aggressive marketing strategy in app stores that has diverted audiences away from commercial news apps. The corporation’s “apparent willingness to compete very aggressively with commercial providers […]
CNMC, the Spanish regulatory body, has fined sports streaming platform DAZN €182,531 for showing an advert without a specific ad tag. The legal breach happened during a football match between Barcelona and Real Madrid in October 2023 on the DAZN La Liga channel which has nationwide coverage. The streaming platform aired an advert without including […]
A man from Birmingham in the UK West Midlands who ran a sophisticated illegal streaming operation has been jailed for two years and nine months for offences related to creating and operating an illegal streaming service. Between November 2017 and June 2020, Gary McNally, from Acocks Green, Birmingham ran an illegal IPTV service known as […]
Children will be prevented from encountering adult content and protected from other types of harmful content under Ofcom’s new industry guidance which sets out how it expects sites and apps to introduce effective age assurance. The decisions are the next step in Ofcom implementing the Online Safety Act and creating a safer life online for […]
UK consumers would only have to wait six instead of eight weeks before they can escalate their unresolved telecoms complaints to an alternative dispute resolution scheme, under plans put forward by media regulator Ofcom. Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) schemes are independent bodies that carry out impartial assessments of unresolved complaints between a customer and their […]