Online advertising is what funds free online content. Since its birth in the 1990’s, it has evolved into a multi-billion-dollar industry. At the core of this industry lies the ability to identify and track users through various technical means, such as web cookies. Online tracking for...

The Apple App Store is the only channel through which app developers may distribute their apps on iOS. First launched in 2008, the App Store has evolved into a highly profitable marketplace, with overall consumer spend exceeding $ 50 billion in 2019. However, concerns are being increasingly...

The European Commission just released its expert group Report on SEP licensing and valuation. As a member of that expert group, this short paper share some personal thoughts about the content of the Report, the way it was made, its achievements, but also its limits. The paper is divided in four...

Report of the Expert Group of the European Commission on licensing and valuation of standard essential patents (SEPs). The report provides an analysis of the current SEP licensing landscape and identifies a number of issues important to the future of SEP licensing. The report includes proposals...

The Supreme Court's 2006 eBay ruling marked a turning point in injunctive relief policy. Unfortunately, there seems to be considerable confusion about the implications of the decision. Some authors, concerned over patent holdup and excessive royalty rates, interpret the eBay decision as giving a...

RAND commitments i.e., promises to license on reasonable and non-discriminatory terms play a key role in standard setting processes. However, the usefulness of those commitments has recently been questioned. The problem allegedly lies in the absence of a generally agreed test to determine...

While the various initiatives in several jurisdictions to impose ex ante regulation on “digital gatekeepers” – i.e., large online platforms that are necessary intermediaries between business users and their customers, and which are typically protected by high barriers to entry – have...

Introduction -- Which horizontal agreements are illegal? -- What unilateral conduct is illegal? -- Vertical agreements that restrict dealing with rivals -- Distorting downstream distribution of a supplier's products -- Proving an agreement or concerted action -- Mergers and acquisitions --...