A US federal court ruled on Friday that social media company Twitter, now branded X, violated contracts by failing to pay annual performance bonuses it orally promised its workers.
09.12.2023 - 11:59 / tech.hindustantimes.com / European Commission
Alphabet's Google on Friday criticised a potential order from EU antitrust regulators to sell part of its lucrative adtech business, saying it was disproportionate and not right for its advertising partners.
The comments from Google's director Oliver Bethell and its vice president for global ads Dan Taylor came after the U.S. tech giant responded to EU charges issued to the company in June.
"We are opposed to divestment. We don't think that's the right outcome for this case. We think this is a tremendously efficient part of our business," Bethell told reporters.
"And that kind of remedy would be disproportionate in the circumstances and we have explained that to the Commission in our response to their statement of objections," he said.
The European Commission said Google has since 2014 abused its dominance in the online advertising technology industry via its market power on both sides of the supply chain.
It has done that, the Commission says, by ensuring that both its intermediation tools on the buy-side and on the sell-side would favour its own ad exchange AdX in the matching auctions.
Taylor said it was common practice in the industry to serve both advertisers and publishers, with a number of rivals doing the same.
"There are many firms that have competing adtech businesses with us, Amazon, Microsoft, Criteo, Comcast and others," he told reporters.
"They offer ad platforms and tools like ours that cater to both advertisers and publishers. Now it is common to do this in the industry because it benefits both advertisers and publishers," Taylor said.
"Integrated technology stacks will make it easier to provide high quality connections that match the right advertiser to the right ad slot on a publisher page."
The stakes are higher for Google in this latest clash with regulators as it concerns a portion of the company's advertising business which accounted for 79% of total revenue last year and making it its biggest money maker.
Its 2022 advertising revenue, including from search services, Gmail, Google Play, Google Maps, YouTube adverts, Google Ad Manager, AdMob and AdSense, amounted to $224.5 billion.
Google can ask for a closed hearing to plead its case before senior EU and national antitrust officials before a ruling is issued, which could come next year.
A US federal court ruled on Friday that social media company Twitter, now branded X, violated contracts by failing to pay annual performance bonuses it orally promised its workers.
Alphabet Inc.'s Google considered changing its app store pricing model to circumvent a regulatory crackdown, but abandoned a proposal to charge a set fee per app after it became clear that could cost the company billions of dollars, according to documents released late Thursday.
A new update has been released for Microsoft Flight Simulator. Dubbed City Update 5: European Cities, the update has a trailer that you can check out below. As its name might imply, the update brings a host of European cities to the game.
I love how Microsoft Flight Simulator exists in the background now, like the distant roar of an overhead flight path. Not only is it just nice to have a shiny, new version of one of the gaming OGs there to pick up and play at any time, every now and then it drops an absolutely gorgeous new trailer showing off some wild technical wizardry or hyper-detailed new cityscape. That's exactly what's happened now, with Flight Sim's latest update inviting you to pay a flying visit to an eclectic collection of European cities.
EVE Vanguard's fist test, First Strike, has come and gone, and CCP Games has revealed some interesting tidbits from the test, including the fact that over 100 thousand Vanguard clones were killed by other Vanguards.
The European Union took the first formal steps against Elon Musk's X over allegedly breaking rules on how it handled illegal content and disinformation, in the first such probe of a major online platform since the bloc's Digital Services Act came into force this year.
Activision Blizzard has agreed to pay more than $54 million (and an additional $47 million for affected employees) to settle a lawsuit filed by California’s Civil Rights Department in 2021. The lawsuit was filed over accusations of sexual and gender harassment, along with discrimination, including pay disparities.
Artificial intelligence (AI) has been the buzzword of 2023, with developments taking place at the speed of light, seemingly. From AI chatbots to AI tools that can be used for various purposes including image generation, code interpretation, multi-modal search, and more, the incorporation of AI has been quite expeditious. However, it has not been all smooth sailing so far. Various debates have taken place about the ills of AI, with deepfakes rising at an alarming rate. As such, the need for its regulation is necessary. Thus, the passing of the EU AI Act could not have come at a better time. But it is not just deepfakes where AI is posing a danger. A new report has shed light on its implications in the news sector, with publishers saying that Google's new AI Search tool, Search Generative Experience, could potentially be at the forefront of the top traffic-destroying elements.
Facebook owner Meta's text-based app Threads arrived in the European Union on Thursday, months after its global launch in July, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said. Threads is a spin-off of the Instagram photo app and is intended to be a rival to X, formerly known as Twitter, after that platform alienated many users and advertisers following Elon Musk's purchase last year.
Epic Games has won its antitrust case against Google, after the jury gave its verdict yesterday.
Epic Games has won its trial against Google over antitrust claims, with the jury deeming Google Play and its billing system to be an illegal monopoly.
Epic Games has prevailed in their lawsuit over Google.