The explosion in the development of generative AI has been referred to as an “Oppenheimer” moment. Just last week, a group of more than 350 executives and scientists jointly stated that “[m]itigating the risk of extinction from AI should be a global priority alongside other societal-scale risks such as pandemics and nuclear war.” And more than 1,000 tech leaders have called for a moratorium on AI development until regulations governing its safe use are devised.
The UK Government has published its long-awaited Digital Markets, Competition and Consumer Bill, including a wide-ranging and far-reaching set of reforms to UK competition and consumer law, along with a new regulatory regime for digital markets.
Rapidly emerging artificial intelligence (AI) technology is poised to transform how businesses operate across almost all sectors, from social media to education to healthcare. Globally, governments and regulators are starting to react to the potential risks, but also opportunities, that AI and machine learning models can bring. Earlier this month, data protection authorities in Italy, Canada and South Korea have opened a series of investigations into data privacy issues related to OpenAI’s ChatGPT, with the Italian agency temporarily banning the use of ChatGPT in the country.
Last year we noted that U.S. antitrust enforcement was in a period of nearly unprecedented public attention and policy debate, and also that the Biden Administration seemed likely to launch significant new policy initiatives as the year progressed.
In September 2022, the General Court partially annulled the European Commission’s 2018 Google Android decision, which fined Google €4.3 billion for abuses of dominance relating to apps it offers for its Android mobile operating system (“OS”).[1] The Court also found that the Commission’s investigation suffered from procedural errors. It reduced the fine by €200 million.
On October 12, 2022, the Digital Markets Act (DMA) was published in the Official Journal of the European Union. This is the last step in the almost two-year long journey since the publication of the Commission’s initial proposal in December 2020.[1]
The UK Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT) on 8 August 2022 set aside a £17.9 million fine against price comparison website Compare The Market, criticising the Competition and Markets Authority’s (CMA) legal and evidential assessment of the case. The CAT found that the CMA’s “anecdotal evidence”[1] failed to prove that Compare The Market kept home insurance premiums artificially high by using most favoured nation clauses (MFNs) in its contracts with insurance providers. The CMA has said it is disappointed with the CAT’s ruling and is considering its options, including a potential appeal.
On 26 July the CMA published an Update Paper in its music and streaming market study (launched 27 January).[1] The Update Paper sets out the CMA’s preliminary findings halfway through its study into how well competition works in music streaming.
The UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) last week fined pharmaceutical companies Pfizer and Flynn £63 million and £6.7 million for engaging in excessive pricing. In the CMA’s view, the companies charged unfairly high prices for Phenytoin capsules, a genericised anti-epilepsy drug, in violation of competition law.