The ACCC identified significant competition concerns and likely harms to publishers, advertisers, and consumers due to Google's dominance in this market.
The ACCC's report recommends that the authority be given the power to implement remedies such as data separation or data access requirements.
The ACCC's multi-year inquiry detailed the impacts of the rise of Google and Meta platforms in Australia on relevant media markets. Having found both big tech firms to hold substantial market power, the ACCC made a series of recommendations to address competitive harms:
Through the report series it published during the term of the inquiry, the ACCC detailed the competitive landscape of digital markets including search, web browsers, online marketplaces, social media and data products among others.
As a result of its findings, the ACCC recommended to the Australian Government that it legislate an ex-ante framework for digital competition. The Government, via the Treasury, adopted these recommendations in the framework for regulation it put forward in December 2024.
Cade issued a working paper detailing its findings on the functioning of the VoD market in Brazil in comparison to the rest of the world. The regulator found that while product substitution between platform-based VoD services, such as Netflix, and pay television has begun to occur in Brazil, that substitution is not yet as advanced in other countries including the EU, UK and US.
Specifically, Cade describes that further network development to advance higher capacity internet services across Brazil is needed to drive competition between VoD services and pay TV. Until greater connectivity is achieved, the regulator does not propose to redefine the market.
Amazon announced it terminated plans to acquire iRobot following the statement of objections sent by the EC in November 2023.
The AdC's final report details a number of anticompetitive risks, including those posed by cloud credits and egress fees, that are posed by hyperscalers in the space. The regulator noted that existing French competition law as well as new regulation such as the European Data Act provide the necessary regulatory tools to police these practices.
The AdC also suggested that further evaluation will be needed as the cloud market influences markets for emerging technologies like edge computing and cloud gaming.
The Bundeskartellamt has formally determined that Amazon, which acts as a seller, marketplace, streaming and cloud services provider, is an undertaking of paramount significance for competition across markets.
Amazon and its subsidiaries are thereby subject to extended abuse control pursuant to Section 19a of the German Competition Act (GWB). The Bundeskartellamt states that this will enable it to intervene and prohibit potential anti-competitive practices by Amazon more effectively.
The Bundeskartellamt has decided that Apple is an undertaking of paramount significance (i.e. it has an economic position of power which allows for a scope of action that is not sufficiently controlled by competition).
Based on its mobile devices (e.g. the iPhone), Apple operates a wide-ranging digital ecosystem, which is of great importance to competition not only in Germany but also throughout Europe and the world. With its proprietary products iOS and the App Store, Apple holds a key position for competition as well as for gaining access to the ecosystem and Apple customers.
On 18 March 2025, the German Federal Court of Justice upheld this designation on appeal, refusing to consult further with the European Court of Justice on its ruling as requested by Apple in its filing.
The Bundeskartellamt determined that Facebook (now Meta) has paramount significance. The designation will enable the authority to intervene in potential competition infringements with a wider toolkit than previously available. The investigation into specific abuse controls necessary to remedy Meta's actions is ongoing.
Additionally, in response to concerns raised by the Bundeskartellamt regarding its relationship to Oculus, Meta has committed to allowing users to use VR devices without a Facebook account.
The Bundeskartellamt cleared the acquisition following a similar investigation by the EC and subject to relevant commitments.
Meta committed to providing public, non-discriminatory access to its publicly available APIs by Kustomer's competitors.
The Bundeskartellamt found Google to have "paramount significance" across markets. Holding more than 80% of the market shares, Google has a dominant position on the market for general search services in Germany and is the main search advertising provider.
The Bundeskartellamt could now prohibit Google from engaging in anti-competitive practices.
The Bundeskartellamt determined that Microsoft is an undertaking of paramount significance for competition, concluding that its products (e.g. the Windows operating system) are omnipresent in companies, authorities and households, and have become indispensable.
The Bundeskartellamt added that Microsoft's ecosystem is stronger and more closely interconnected than ever before, which is being driven by increasing adoption of AI and cloud, key technologies in which the tech giant is investing and establishing partnerships.
The Bundeskartellamt found problems in three areas. There is lack of information as to the data being accessed when consumers use apps, a lack of transparency about contractual partners, and a lack of options about controlling data processing.
The authority has not indicated which action it could take to address these problems.
The Bundeskartellamt closed its inquiry, outlining a "highly complex system of automated trading in online advertising space". It found that Alphabet, in particular, has a significant and strong position in this system, with the company present at almost all levels of the value chain of non-search online advertising.
The sector inquiry also found that programmatic advertising is not sufficiently transparent. Numerous market players have complained that it is not possible to observe and assess the extent to which their adverts are successful because they do not obtain any information on the effectiveness of their advertising measures.
The Bundeskartellamt’s inquiry found that some messenger services are likely to violate consumer law provisions and data protection rules, especially when transferring and storing data. Personal data of German and European consumers may only be transferred to and stored in countries where the level of data protection is similar to that ensured by the GDPR.
According to the German Act against Unfair Competition (UWG), consumers have to be given truthful information on how the security of their communications is ensured, e.g. through data encryption. In the Bundeskartellamt's view, the current practices of many services should be improved.
The Government released its Final Report on Competitive Evaluation of Mobile Ecosystems, which states that legislative measures are needed to tackle Apple and Google's dominance in Japan's app store market.
The report recommended preventing major app store operators from forcing software developers to use proprietary payment systems, and obliging suppliers of smartphone operating systems to offer users alternative ways to obtain apps other than their own app stores.
Following a delay caused by a challenge to the IFT's jurisdiction, the agency closed its investigation. The findings of the investigated remain redacted and inaccessible to the public.
The ACM found that users faced difficulties both in switching cloud providers and combining services from multiple providers. The regulator recommended changes to the EU's Data Act to include greater protection for switching and interoperability through addressing data portability and switching fees. These changes were ultimately incorporated into the law.
On 24 February 2025, the Competition Commission launched its provisional report on the state of the digital media and platform market. The provisional findings and recommendations described Google Search's monopoly position in general search services and detailed the distortion of competition within and extraction of value from the South African news media ecosystem related to that dominance. The regulator recommends that Google be required to pay news publishers between ZAR300m (£12.7m) and ZAR500m (£21.2m) each year for the next 3-5 years to remedy the value lost by the news industry.
The report also identified a number of dominant social media platforms, including TikTok, X and Meta-owned Facebook and Instagram, and recommended a series of behavioural remedies to correct the distortion of news content and misinformation. The Competition Commission suggested that platforms which are not cooperative in adopting these measures should be subject to a 5-10% tax on digital advertising to compensate for the harms of their conduct.
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The Commission outlined the anticompetitive behaviour it found in a number of markets, recommended remedial action for dominant platforms and also provided recommendations for legislative changes to improve the regulation of digital markets.
The Commission found that search services, in particular the dominance of Google Search, was a particularly important intermediation platform which altered the competitive dynamics of multi-sided markets.
In the travel and accommodation market and e-commerce markets, the Commission outlined the dominance of Booking.com and Takealot and discussed the competitive harms of their price parity and ratings policies. The study also found Booking's lack of diversification to harm Black communities in particular.
The Commission conducted two field surveys of cloud providers and users to study the market conditions in Korea. The investigation found that AWS dominates the market with over 60% of market share as of 2021. The report also detailed the difficulties consumers face in switching cloud providers due to limited interoperability.
The CMA published its final report in its study into mobile ecosystems (i.e. operating systems, app stores and web browsers), concluding that Apple and Google’s duopoly means they have a stranglehold over these key gateways. According to the CMA, there are many potential interventions that could help unlock competition and protect millions of businesses and people reliant on the tech firms' services.
On 12 March 2025, the CMA published its final decision report, confirming its recommendation that the mobile browser market be considered alongside other elements of Apple and Google's mobile ecosystems in a pending designation investigation through the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers (DMCC) Act.
On 22 November 2024, the CMA published its provisional decision, recommending interventions into the mobile browser market but finding that sufficient commitments had been made in relation to cloud gaming to recommend closing that portion of the study. The regulator provisionally decided to recommend the mobile browser market be taken up through its forthcoming powers under the DMCC Act.
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On 30 November 2021, the CMA concluded the acquisition of Giphy by Meta (formerly Facebook) raises competition concerns in the display advertising market, which can only be addressed by the sale of Giphy to an approved buyer.
Following appeal to the Competition Appeal Tribunal, the CMA issued its final decision. It concluded the deal would significantly reduce competition in the digital advertising and social media markets, and that Giphy should be sold off in its entirety to an approved buyer.
The CMA approved the sale of Giphy to Shutterstock on 23 June 2023.
The CMA cleared the acquisition after a Phase 1 investigation. While some competitors would struggle to respond to Meta offering Kustomer on a free or "freemium" basis, sufficient competitive constraints for Meta would remain in the market.
In its final report, the CMA detailed the broad benefits to consumers that digitalisation of music listening has brought. The report also discussed that while artists do face limited returns on streaming revenue but found that both the markets for recording labels and streaming services were competitive enough so as not to require intervention.
On 28 January 2025, the CMA issued its provisional decision, recommending that AWS and Microsoft be referred for a strategic market status (SMS) investigation under the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act. The regulator found that egress fees as well as Microsoft's software licensing terms were impediments to competition in a concentrated market. Under the DMCC Act, the CMA believes it would have greater flexibility to design iterative remedies and conduct ongoing monitoring of the market.
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The FTC issued a public report detailing the findings of its inquiry. The technology platform inquiry focused on 616 transactions (that exclude hiring events and patent acquisitions) valued at or above $1 million. Of those transactions, 94 exceeded the Size of Transaction threshold but may have been exempted from regulatory review under other criteria.