India’s Competition Commission Thursday imposed a provisional penalty of Rs. 1137.76 crores ($162 million) on Google for anti-competitive practices in the Android devices market. The regulator found that Google abused its dominant position in five markets: (1) licensable OS for smart mobile devices in India; (2) app store for Android smart mobile OS in India; [...]

The India Ministry of Communications Thursday initiated a public consultation process for its proposed Indian Telecommunications Bill. The bill would allow regulation of  internet-based communication services operating in India and seeks to repeal and consolidate the Indian Telegraph Act, the Indian Wireless Telegraphy Act and the Telegraph Wires (Unlawful Protection) Act. The bill broadly defines [...]

The Biden administration Friday published the “First-Ever Comprehensive Framework for Responsible Development of Digital Assets” in line with a March executive order obligating government agencies and sectoral regulators to conduct research on the effects of cryptocurrencies on consumer protection and the risks and benefits of deploying a Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC). The framework encourages [...]

The Competition Commission of India (CCI) Friday issued an advisory urging Indian cab aggregator (CA) platforms such as Uber and Ola to adopt self-regulatory measures “to address information asymmetry and transparency concerns” in key areas like calculation of fares, surge pricing, data collection and non-discrimination. First, the CCI urged CA platforms to publize fare calculation [...]

The Delhi High Court Tuesday directed instant messaging service Telegram to disclose information pertaining to channels, devices, servers, networks, phone numbers and IP and email addresses involved in the production and dissemination of copyright infringing content. Plaintiffs seek injunctive reliefs against Telegram and other defendants involved in the unauthorized dissemination of videos, lecture, books and [...]

The Delhi High Court Wednesday ruled that Flipkart Internet Private Limited has intermediary status under Section 79 of the Information Technology Act and is therefore entitled to safe harbour immunity from criminal prosecution. The proceedings arose out of a criminal complaint registered with the Delhi Police under Section 63 of the Copyright Act and Sections 103 and [...]

In a landmark decision, India’s Supreme Court Wednesday ruled that pre-litigation mediation is mandatory for all commercial suits initiated after India’s Commercial Courts Act of 2015. The court held that Section 12A of the 2015 Act, the enabling provision for pre-litigation mediation, is mandatory in nature. Thus, any commercial suit instituted before a commercial court [...]

Twitter, Inc. Tuesday sought judicial review from the High Court of the Indian State of Karnataka of the federal government’s online information blocking orders. In its petition filed before the Karnataka High Court, Twitter contended that the online information blocking orders issued by the federal Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology (MeitY) under § 69A [...]

The European Council (EC) and the European Union (EU) Parliament Saturday reached a provisional political agreement on the Digital Services Act (DSA), a landmark internet law proposed by the EC in 2020. The DSA intends to prevent the circulation of illegal digital content and to protect the fundamental rights of users by requiring online intermediaries such [...]

A federal class action antitrust complaint was filed Wednesday against Google for allegedly leveraging its dominance in the GPS navigation mapping market through improperly and unlawfully connecting Google Maps, Waze, and related services.  This allegedly locks app developers into the “Google ecosystem” and subjects them to “egregious and anticompetitive price hikes.” The lawsuit was jointly [...]