Regulatory Watch – April 2025

US sees lower digital ad spending as tariffs bite

Analysts are reporting signs of a deceleration in the US digital advertising industry beginning in April. Slowdowns are being seen in the auto, travel, fashion and online-spending industries as companies conserve cash in expectation of tariff payments. Meta and Google are both vulnerable to a slowdown from Chinese discount shopping advertisers such as Shein and Temu as the US closes the de minimis exemption that allowed companies to avoid import charges. Meta alone is thought to earn c.$10 billion from Chinese companies advertising to consumers in the United States.

‘Vague’ Chinese data protection rules halt research funding

European funding groups are withholding investments in collaborative investments involving China over concerns about the country’s data protection laws. China’s Data Security Law makes it illegal to share any ‘important data’ with oversea partners without approval. The bodies, including the Swiss National Science Foundation and the German Research Foundation, say that the definition of ‘important data’ is vague, but includes data that poses a ‘threat to national or economic interests’. The bodies  say that this makes them unable to assess whether or not a project could be vulnerable to sanctions or penalties.

EU fines Apple and Meta 700 Mn Euros in total for antitrust violations

The European Commission has imposed fines of 500Mn and 200Mn Euros on Apple and Meta respectively. Apple will have to revise its App Store rules to allow developers to send offers outside its platform while Meta must change the rule that requires users either to consent to tracking or pay a subscription fee. The penalty is modest by recent standards as the EU tries to avoid escalating tensions with the US administration. The new commission, which took office in December, says it is more focused on compliance than with imposing large fines. It has also announced the closure of two other investigations into Apple and Meta without any further sanctions.

Swedish regulator fines healthcare providers over digital advertising collusion

Three digital healthcare providers have been fined by the Swedish Competition Authority (SCA) for anti-competitive cooperation when advertising their services. The companies, Doktor.se, Min Doktor and Doktor24, created a bilateral agreement with a fourth company, Kry, in which the three providers would not appear in a Google search for Kry and, similarly, Kry would not appear in searches for any of the other three companies. The companies were reported by Kry on its own initiative. They were each found to have broken Swedish and EU rules by creating a customer-sharing programme. The three companies were fined a total of 26.6 million Swedish Krona ($2.75 million). Kry escaped sanction under the SCA leniency programme.

Skype retirement

Microsoft has announced that Skype will close at the end of May 2025, with users encouraged to transfer to the company’s Teams app. The video-calling service was once one of the world’s most popular websites and is credited with popularising the computer-to-computer calling concept. Released in 2003, Microsoft bought Skype in 2011 for $8.5 billion and subsequently integrated it with many of its products. The beginning of the end for Skype was in 2021, when Microsoft Teams was included by default in Windows 11 and Skype wasn’t.

Amazon launches first satellites for broadband internet constellation

The first 27 Kuiper satellites have been successfully deployed in low earth orbit as Amazon begins building the 3,200 strong constellation it needs to compete with Starlink. The company plans to have the broadband internet service available by the end of the year. Starlink currently serves more than 4.5 million customers and controls more than 60 per cent of all satellites in orbit.

Sources:  The Financial Times, The Wall Street Journal, Bird and Bird, APNews, Euronews, CNN, The Guardian, The Daily Telegraph, Bloomberg, Economic Times, Ars Technica, Reuters, BBC, Politico, Telecompaper