Privacy and data protection rules should not be an obstacle in the fight against the Covid-19 pandemic. Nevertheless, users’ safeguards should be upheld: this is the basic assumption that should guide national authorities currently facing the Covid-19 emergency, who are looking for technological instruments to make their actions more effective (such as access and treatment of citizens’ personal data, and the use of tracing applications).
Released on Mar 26, 2020
As the global community struggled to contain the Covid-19 pandemic throughout 2020, various international governments incorporated new data-driven technologies within their suite of regulatory tools to reduce the spread of the coronavirus.
By Lianne Craig, Simon Bishop, Samantha Hewitt and Edward Nyman. Champions of collective redress: is Europe catching up with the US? - Consumer Litigation Law Committee, February 2021.
The Italian Communications Authority (AGCOM) has initiated proceedings for online copyright infringement on the application of publishing industry rights holders. The applicants claimed that public channels on the instant messaging platform illegally made thousands of journalistic and literary works from their catalogues available for downloading. AGCOM’s moral persuasion proved pertinent, as Telegram spontaneously removed them. Most recently, emergency legislation has introduced new provisions expanding A
There is no doubt that the digital economy – also known as the new economy, the web economy, or the internet economy – is now part of our concrete reality and has become essential to the global economy. Its exponential growth over the past few months has been greatly boosted by the Covid-19 pandemic, which has compelled people to depend more than ever on electronic communications. This boost has however, required tenacious efforts from public and private entities to eliminate and/or reduce barriers posed b
By a decision dated 15 September 2020, the Court of Justice of the European Union has confirmed that zero-rating practices are banned under Regulation 2015/2120, the Regulation that introduced net neutrality provisions into the EU framework.
The Australian Government has recently consulted on draft legislation, the Treasury Laws Amendment (News Media and Digital Platforms Mandatory Bargaining Code) Bill 2020 (draft Code). The draft Code requires designated digital platforms, initially only Google and Facebook, to negotiate with Australian media companies on a range of issues, including the question of payment for using a media company’s news content. If the negotiating is unsuccessful, this question of payment may be sent to compulsory arbitra
The continue evolution of the telecoms sector, together with the development of digital platforms and services is growing at an unprecedented pace. This has resulted in some jurisdictional conflicts between antitrust regulators in Mexico, when defining whether or not a transaction is related to the telecoms sector. Within this context, it is relevant to analyse the most recent resolutions regarding jurisdiction conflicts between the Federal Antitrust Commission (COFECE) and the Federal Telecoms Institute (
In Telenor Hungary adopted on 15 September 2020, the European Court of Justice (Grand Chamber) has, for the first time, interpreted Regulation 2015/2120 on the ‘open internet’ (the Net Neutrality Regulation). Through this preliminary ruling, the Court gives some guidance on the validity and limits of so-called ‘zero-rating’ offers
This article introduces and analyses the new study launched by the Department of Economic Studies (DEE) of the Administrative Council for Economic Defence (CADE), the Brazilian Competition Authority, in August 2020, on contemporary aspects involving the competition dynamics in digital markets. The 130-page study aims at reviewing and compiling several reports and papers produced by other antitrust authorities and international research centres. CADE’s study, inter alia, gathers fresh discussions on the mai
Measures to increase the use of online platforms for negotiations and ‘non-typical’ mediation initiatives, such as dispute resolution alternatives in consumer relations, have been increasing in popularity in Brazil.
On 26 February 2020, the Paris Criminal Court convicted BNP Paribas Personal Finance for misleading commercial practices and concealment of the offence for having concealed the risks induced by its Swiss franc loans known as ‘Helvet Immo’. The penalty is particularly heavy: a fine of €187,500 and almost €150m in damages to the civil parties. This is an unprecedented decision for the French courts, particularly in terms of the extent of compensation awarded.
The purpose of this article is to analyse a long-dated controversy that involves consumers’ collective judicial protection in Brazil: the territorial extension of the effects of rulings in public civil action. The article examines the origins of the controversy and points to a light on the horizon for the standardisation of the matter: the upcoming and definitive trial by the Supreme Court, to be carried in the next few months.
China has witnessed continuing progress in personal data protection laws as well as the tightening of law enforcement in this field. Recently the authorities’ spotlight has been on mobile applications or apps, which are the most popular way that businesses collect personal information. Chinese authorities have adopted the carrot and stick approach by cajoling app operators into following the best practice, while aggressively going after violators to curb illegal apps
In the small hours of the morning of Thursday 13 June 2019, China’s Cyberspace Administration released its Measures on Security Assessment for Cross-border Transfer of Personal Information (Exposure Draft). The Measures, outlined in this article, were open for public comment until 13 July 2019.
In the middle of the heated debate about the ruling in favour of the scraping of public data in HiQ Labs, Inc v LinkedIn Corp by the Ninth Circuit of the US, the watchdog of China’s cybersecurity enforcement authority has recently shifted its focus to data scrapping activities, and those in the Fintech sector in particular
By Angela Flannery. Australia’s Digital Platforms Inquiry: the spotlight remains on digital platforms markets
Almost two years after the full applicability of the GDPR, the Italian Data Protection Authority has sanctioned two operators, Eni Gas e Luce and TIM. The fines were raised in connection to absence or inadequacy of business operating procedures concerning the processing of clients’ data for marketing purposes
By Alfonso Silva and Matías Osses. Spectrum management issues towards the deployment of 5G in Chile.