#WorkforceWednesday: NLRB Wants Shuttered Starbucks Stores Reopened, Big Tech Retreats from DEI Programs, and Employers Scrap College Requirements - Employment Law This Week®
Nota Bene Podcast Episode 134: U.S. Q3 Check In: Infrastructure Bill Updates and Big Tech Antitrust with Elizabeth Frazee and Chani Wiggins
Nota Bene Episode 116: Challenging the U.S. Big Tech Antitrust Debate Assumptions: A Deep Dive with Thomas Dillickrath and Bill Margeson
What to Expect from the Biden Administration
Nota Bene Episode 104: European Q4 Check In: Brexit, Digital Platform Regulation, and National Security Regulation with Oliver Heinisch
Nota Bene Episode 68: The Current Antitrust Enforcement Climate in the United States with Capitol Forum Senior Editor Nate Soderstrom
Nota Bene Episode 46: America’s Existential Antitrust Crisis with Thomas Dillickrath
Does anybody remember Napster? Launched in June 1999, the revolutionary peer-to-peer music sharing platform peaked at 80 million music lovers worldwide. It famously fell from greatness into bankruptcy three years later after...more
State attorneys general across the U.S. took bold steps in 2024 to address unlawful activities by corporations in several areas, including privacy and data security, financial transparency, children’s internet safety, and...more
Digital regulation continues to be at the forefront of regulator concerns, as authorities focus on technology companies through traditional antitrust tools and new digital markets regimes. Further legislation and guidance is...more
Major technology companies and industry groups just responded to the White House’s request for feedback on its AI plan and called for a national framework to prevent fragmented state laws on workplace use and more. The...more
2024 saw a significant increase in overall global fines for antitrust enforcement, with total penalties for the jurisdictions surveyed in our report at USD6.7 billion, over double that of 2023 (USD2.9bn) and substantially...more
As we look back on 2024, one thing is clear: Antitrust enforcement in the technology sector continued at a steady pace, with global agencies showing no signs of relenting in their scrutiny of Big Tech companies....more
In recent developments, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has amended its approach in the antitrust case against Alphabet’s Google, refocusing its legal strategy in tackling the perceived monopolistic control exerted by...more
Good Sunday morning from Seattle . . . Our Online Travel Update for the week ending Friday, February 28, 2025, is below. This week’s Update features a variety of stories from a variety of sources, including some new sources....more
On February 25, the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation held a confirmation hearing for Michael Kratsios, tapped by President Donald Trump to serve as the Director of the White House Office of...more
As we covered previously, President Trump has made clear that the U.S. is focused on increasing investments into building, scaling and speeding the development of AI infrastructure and data centers in the U.S., and Big Tech...more
The Trump Administration’s antitrust enforcement priorities are beginning to take shape. On January 20, 2025, President Trump designated former Federal Trade Commission (FTC) commissioner Andrew Ferguson as the agency’s next...more
With the nomination of Commissioner Andrew Ferguson as chair of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC or Commission) and Gail Slater to helm the U.S. Department of Justice’s (DOJ) Antitrust Division, the second Trump...more
Global M&A in 2024 faced geopolitical issues, elevated interest rates, and inflationary pressures, with expanding antitrust, foreign investment, national security, and export regimes adding complexity. But inflation receded...more
The election of Donald Trump as president, combined with forthcoming Republican control of Congress, likely means significant change in how the Federal Trade Commission (FTC or Commission) is structured and approaches...more
Several industry organizations have recently published AI guidelines, including the Digital Medicine Society (DMS), in partnership with Google and the Mayo Clinic. The DMS playbook includes both a strategy guide and an ROI...more
On September 30, the National Association of Attorneys General (NAAG) held its annual Fall Consumer Protection Conference in Washington, DC. The public portion of the conference was attended by participants from 47 state...more
On August 26, Sage Geosystems announced an agreement to supply Meta with 150 MW of geothermal power. Sage will use its proprietary Geopressured Geothermal System (GGS) to provide carbon-free power for Meta’s data centers....more
Following a nine-week bench trial starting in September 2023 and closing arguments in May 2024, District of Columbia district court judge Amit Mehta ruled on August 5, 2024, that Google illegally maintained its monopoly in...more
The AI sector continues to experience regulatory growing pains. Tech companies are struggling to comply with the EU’s new AI laws, which require more transparency in their model training. Meta, in particular, had to halt its...more
The Cozen Lens - •If either party sweeps control of the federal government in November, pressure will be high to reform the filibuster. •The embrace of populism among Democrats and Republicans has made antitrust...more
Using AI to Build Cyber Resilience for Critical Infrastructure - "Cyber resilience serves as a literal survival strategy, offering a framework to detect threats, understand attacks, recover swiftly, and adapt to...more
AI Protocols Merge, VC Crypto Funding Increases, Tether Completes SOC 2 Audit - According to a recent press release, “SingularityNET (SNET), the world’s first decentralized Artificial Intelligence (AI) network, Fetch.ai, a...more
As we reported in 2023, Utah was the first state in the nation to enact laws limiting minors’ use of social media. In early March 2024, Republican Governor Spencer Cox effectively repealed and replaced the previously enacted...more
M&A activity in 2023 was subdued, as dealmakers grappled with geopolitical tensions, inflation, rising interest rates, and increasing regulatory scrutiny, against a backdrop of general economic uncertainty. Challenges in the...more
Typical legal newsletters might introduce a post-Thanksgiving edition with a line or two about gratitude for readers and clients. We at Explainer Things are certainly thankful for clients and readers alike, but we are far...more