UK launches new competition watchdog for Big Tech crackdown April 7, 2021 Tech giants such as Facebook and Google are facing a tougher regulatory regime in the UK after a new watchdog aimed at curbing their power launched today. The Digital Markets Unit (DMU) will be charged with setting up new rules to give consumers more control over their data, promote online competition and crack down on [...]
LG exits smartphone market after steady losses April 6, 2021 Korean electronics company LG will leave the smartphone market in July after it failed to match growing competition from China. Once the third-largest mobile phone manufacturer in the world in 2013, LG struggled with the transition to touchscreen smartphones which made its exit inevitable. Despite arriving early to the smartphone party, introducing a touchscreen device [...]
Apple leads $50m funding round in record label disruptor United Masters March 31, 2021 Apple has led a $50m (£36m) investment in United Masters, an independent music platform aiming to challenge the dominance of major record labels. United Masters, which was founded in 2017 by former label executive Steve Stoute, provides a platform for artists to distribute their music while retaining ownership of their master recording rights. This is [...]
Fortnite maker complains of Apple’s ‘anti-competitive’ behaviour to UK watchdog March 30, 2021 Fortnite maker Epic Games has complained to the UK’s markets watchdog today over Apple’s ‘anti-competitive’ rules, after a spat that led to the game being banned from the App Store last year. Epic took its competition complaint to the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), claiming Apple exercised unfair control over app makers. Last August, Fortnite [...]
Apple spending from ‘green bonds’ hits $2.8bn March 17, 2021 Apple said this morning the tech giant allotted $2.8bn raised from ‘green bonds” funded 17 projects last year, which will generate 1.2 gigawatts of renewable energy. It said the projects will avoid an average of 921,000 metric tons of carbon emissions each year, which it said is equal to removing nearly 200,000 cars from the [...]
Apple hits back at App Store competition probe with UK jobs claim March 15, 2021 Apple today said its App Store supports 330,000 jobs in the UK as it hit back against a probe into claims it treats app developers unfairly. Earlier this month the Competition and Markets Authority opened an investigation into whether Apple imposes unfair or anti-competitive terms on developers after it received a number of complaints. The [...]
Apple’s new privacy features may finally trigger a more transparent tech ecosystem March 6, 2021 A new feature in Apple’s operating system has received relatively little attention in the wider media recently, yet it is set to kick start a new era of transparency in the tech industry and hopefully instil more respect for consumer and enterprise privacy. With the launch of iOS 14, Apple introduced a privacy information section [...]
Screenshot: Will nightclubs really reopen in June? March 5, 2021 This week: **Media Moment of the Week: Telly’s still got welly **Will nightclubs really reopen on 21 June? **The BBC turns back time Media Moment of the Week: Telly’s still got welly In the age of Silicon Valley streaming giants and relentless references to “content” and “eyeballs”, it’s easy to forget that TV can, sometimes, [...]
EU set to charge Apple over Spotify music streaming complaint March 4, 2021 The European Commission is said to be on the brink of filing formal antitrust charges against Apple over accusations it distorted competition in the music streaming market. Spotify filed a complaint against Apple in 2019, accusing the tech giant of unfairly restricting rivals to its own Apple Music service and complaining about the company’s 30 [...]
Apple facing UK competition probe over app store dominance March 4, 2021 Apple is facing a competition probe in the UK over claims the way it treats app developers is “unfair and uncompetitive”. The iPhone maker has been locked in a long-running dispute with app makers including Epic Games, the company behind hit video game Fortnite, over the cut it takes through the App Store and on [...]