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.
On Thursday, the Federal Trade Commission ordered several tech companies to cough up information about how they test, make, distribute and monetize their AI chatbots. ChatGPT's maker, San Francisco-headquartered OpenAI, is one target of the FTC's order. The inquiry also includes Google's parent company, Snapchat's parent company, Instagram and its owner Meta, Elon Musk's xAI, and the popular chatbot-maker Character.AI.
Late last week, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced that the agency was acceding to decisions by U.S. regional circuit courts vacating the agency's Biden Administration-era rule banning noncompete clauses from U.S. employment contracts and preventing their enforcement. While some lawmakers have decried the decision to end this rule, the FTC also issued a request for information (RFI) as the Trump Administration seeks to develop a case-by-case enforcement approach for cracking down on noncompete abuses.
A White House official said in July ahead of appealing the case that the Supreme Court has previously upheld Trump's "authority to fire and remove executive officers who exercise his authority." Context: A federal judge ruled in July that it's illegal to fire Slaughter. The Trump administration had asked the court to delay the ruling during its appeal in the case. However, the appeals court ruled that presidents can only remove FTC commissioners for "inefficiency, neglect of duty, or malfeasance in office."
"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."
"I am concerned that these actions by foreign powers to impose censorship and weaken end-to-end encryption will erode Americans' freedoms and subject them to myriad harms, such as surveillance by foreign governments and an increased risk of identity theft and fraud," Ferguson wrote in the letters, the statement added.
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 statutory language, 'shall issue,' mandates a separate preliminary analysis for public review and comment 'in any case' where the Commission issues a notice of proposed rulemaking and the $100 million threshold is surpassed.
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.
The CMA's proposed designation of Google with 'strategic market status' underlines a push for enhanced competition and consumer benefit in the digital economy.
