In a letter to Apple CEO Tim Cook, FTC chair Andrew Ferguson cited reports from Media Research Center, a right-leaning think tank, which accused Apple of excluding right-leaning outlets from the top 20 articles in the Apple News feed. "These reports raise serious questions about whether Apple News is acting in accordance with its terms of service and its representations to consumers [...] I abhor and condemn any attempt to censor content for ideological reasons," Ferguson's letter reads.
Nvidia's $5 billion Intel stock purchase is already worth $7.58 billion, turning the recently approved bailout of its rival into a shrewd financial play. Nvidia had locked in a purchase price of $23.28 per share for Intel when Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang and Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan struck a deal in September. The deal had been under scrutiny by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission, which was examining whether Nvidia's potential 4 percent ownership stake could run afoul of antitrust laws.
The EC also said it preliminarily found that both Meta and TikTok violated their DSA obligation to grant researchers adequate access to public data. "The Commission's preliminary findings show that Facebook, Instagram and TikTok may have put in place burdensome procedures and tools for researchers to request access to public data. This often leaves them with partial or unreliable data, impacting their ability to conduct research, such as whether users, including minors, are exposed to illegal or harmful content," the announcement said.
"My understanding from recent reporting is that Gmail's spam filters routinely block messages from reaching consumers when those messages come from Republican senders but fail to block similar messages sent by Democrats," Ferguson wrote. He warned Alphabet that if Gmail's filters "keep Americans from receiving speech they expect, or donating as they see fit, the filters may harm American consumers and may violate the FTC Act's prohibition of unfair or deceptive trade practices," adding this could lead to "an FTC investigation and potential enforcement action."
Between November 1, 2022, and December 30, 2023, a group of three individuals allegedly used a network of websites to purchase over 379,776 tickets from Ticketmaster, spending $57 million. They resold those tickets for nearly $64 million.
"Some people 60+ have reported emptying their bank accounts and even clearing out their 401ks," the FTC's Division of Consumer Response and Operations wrote. "While younger people report losing money to these imposters too, reports of losses in the tens and hundreds of thousands of dollars are much more likely to be filed by older adults, and those numbers have soared."
The Federal Trade Commission, under Trump-appointed chair Andrew Ferguson, cleared a merger between Omnicom Group and Interpublic Group, creating the world's largest advertising company, controlling over half of the industry.
Omnicom cannot base its "advertising spend ... on the Media Publisher's political or ideological viewpoints, or the political or ideological viewpoints expressed in content that the Media Publisher sells advertising to run alongside."
