Rules & courts
Laws, regulations, rulings and enforcement on technology, everywhere.
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News Rules & courts
Google seeks emergency stay of federal injunction opening Android app distribution
The motion asks the court to pause mandates requiring Google Play to distribute rival application stores before the 1 November compliance deadline.
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News Rules & courts
UK CMA issues interim order halting BT integration of TalkTalk
The competition regulator served a binding pre-emptive action order requiring BT to keep TalkTalk's broadband and wholesale backhaul operations completely separate.
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News Rules & courts
European Commission registers initiative to create sovereign .IA domain for AI governance
The proposal calls for EU high-trust spaces and ISO/ICANN negotiations to tie a top-level domain to the AI Act.
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News Rules & courts
UK opens public interest inquiry into BT acquisition of TalkTalk
The Competition and Markets Authority must report by 19 October following a government notice citing public health, emergency services, and vulnerable customers.
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News Rules & courts
UK regulator provisionally finds a fibre deal by Virgin Media O2's owners would weaken broadband competition
The CMA says the deal would cut the share of nexfibre's network where three wholesale providers compete from about 32% to 18%. It is not a final decision; comments are due by 23 October.
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News Rules & courts
Booking.com stops using hotels' prices elsewhere to decide a discount programme, after EU dialogue
The European Commission says Booking.com no longer checks outside prices for its Sponsored Benefit programme, and has dropped 'competitive' price labels for hotels in Europe.
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News Rules & courts
A US jury finds Apple infringed two vibration patents and awards Taction $5.72 billion
The jury in San Diego found the infringement was not willful and rejected Apple's claim that the patents are invalid. The verdict can still be challenged after trial and on appeal.
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News Rules & courts
A New Mexico jury finds Facebook broke the state's consumer law 43,899,725 times over privacy statements
The judge will set the penalty, up to $5,000 per willful violation. The case grew out of the Cambridge Analytica scandal, and also covered claims about misinformation and hate speech.
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News Rules & courts
US regulator asks whether platforms should have to stop scam ads that impersonate businesses and agencies
The FTC is weighing new duties for social media, search engines and online marketplaces whose ad tools may help impersonation scams. It is an early notice, not a rule.
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News Rules & courts
UK regulator wants Google to offer a yearly choice of search service, AI assistants included
A proposal for Android phones and Chrome in the UK, where the regulator found more than 90% of searches happen on Google. Views are due by 9 October.
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News Rules & courts
India's telecom regulator orders cheaper voice-and-SMS-only plans of 30 days or less
TRAI's new rule is for people who do not want mobile data. It does not say how much cheaper the plans must be.
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News Rules & courts
India makes telecom operators act on numbers their AI systems flag as spam, and regulates robocalls
Automated calls must now be declared in advance or be treated as spam. Action against a sender can start with 3 complaints instead of 5, if AI detection agrees.
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News Rules & courts
EU proposes no social media accounts of their own before 15, and none at all under 13
The Commission's KIDS Act would also ban infinite scroll and profiling feeds for under-18s, and make large platforms prove their services are safe by design. It is a proposal: Parliament and member states must agree it.
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News Rules & courts
Google must open its ad exchange to rival tools for six years under a monitor, unsealed opinion shows
The judge found a breakup 'neither realistic nor needed'. Google must connect AdX to the open-source Prebid and to rival ad servers, and let publishers export their data.
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News Rules & courts
China takes an AI app offline for not labelling AI-generated content, among 10 enforcement cases
The internet regulator also fined a hospital left with 700 unpatched vulnerabilities, and a property firm that collected over 5,000 customers' faces without consent.
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News Rules & courts
China spells out when firms can send personal data abroad under certification, and bans splitting transfers
Certification covers 100,000 to 1 million people's data a year; above that, a security assessment is required. Breaking transfers up to stay under the line is not allowed.
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News Rules & courts
US judge rejects breaking up Google's ad tech business, ordering conduct rules instead
The court refused to make Google sell its AdX ad exchange, which the Justice Department and states had sought after winning the case on liability. Most proposed behavioural remedies were accepted.
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News Rules & courts
China's internet regulator says its AI clean-up removed 5.61 million items and dealt with 49,000 accounts
The campaign targets AI-generated false information, impersonation, violent content and material harming children. It also acted against more than 2,400 websites and apps.
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News Rules & courts
EU designates ChatGPT a very large search engine under its Digital Services Act, with Reddit and Roblox
ChatGPT is treated as a search engine because it searches the web. All three reported at least 45 million monthly EU users and have until January 2027 to meet the extra rules.
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News Rules & courts
EU starts enforcing its AI Act on 2 August, and chatbots must now say they are AI
The AI Office can now act against providers of general-purpose AI models. Deepfakes must be labelled, and AI-generated content must carry machine-readable marks.
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News Rules & courts
EU fines Google €890 million for favouring its own services in Search and restricting app developers on Play
Two Digital Markets Act decisions: €460 million over Search self-preferencing and €430 million over Play's steering rules. Google has 60 days to comply.
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News Rules & courts
UK will ban social media for under-16s from spring 2027, on Australia's model
Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, Snapchat, Facebook and X would be covered, but not WhatsApp or Signal. Livestreaming and contact from strangers will be off by default for 16- and 17-year-olds.