Round-up of the latest industry news – June 2023

Many companies building artificial intelligence models are not in compliance with draft EU rules. A study conducted by AI researchers at Stanford University indicates that OpenAI, Google and Meta all fall short, particularly on the topic of copyright. The EU AI Act, currently in draft, requires companies to disclose the data sources and copyrighted data on which their models are built. According to the research, of the ten providers tested, six scored below 50 per cent on the study’s 48 point scale.

In its latest antitrust action against Big Tech companies, the US Federal Trade Commission has sued Amazon over its Prime service. The FTC claims that the company employed user-interface designs known as ‘dark patterns’ to trick consumers into automatically renewing Prime subscriptions without their consent. It described the practice of ‘non-consensual enrolment’ as well-known inside the company.  Amazon has said it was ‘clear and simple’ to cancel Prime membership and claims the action was undertaken without notice ‘in the midst of our discussions with FTC staff members’.

Meta has announced that it will be ending news access on Facebook and Instagram in Canada. The move comes as the country passed its Online News Act, which requires tech companies to negotiate content deals with news publishers. The statement said: ‘Today, we are confirming that news availability will be ended on Facebook and Instagram for all users in Canada prior to the Online News Act taking effect’.

Vodafone and Three have agreed to merge their UK businesses, creating the country’s largest mobile telecoms operator. The deal is likely to face some scrutiny from competition regulators. However, in 2022 Ofcom changed its long-held stance, saying it was now more open to consolidation in the sector. Previously it had said that dropping to only three networks in the UK could harm consumers.  If approved by regulators, the merger will create a network with 27 million customers. To offset regulatory concerns the companies may imitate the offer made when Three attempted to acquire O2 in 2015 and agree to freeze consumer prices for 5 years. Rivals are also likely to call for the new combined entity to give up some of its 5G mobile spectrum.

The European Parliament has voted in favour of a ‘fair share’ resolution included in a new competition policy document. The document urges the European Commission to ‘address and mitigate persistent asymmetries in bargaining power’ and calls for a new policy framework in which large traffic generators ‘contribute fairly to the adequate funding of telecom networks’. Meanwhile, the European Commission itself has said that it needs more data from telecoms operators to consider their call for a ‘fair contribution’ from internet companies.

Belgium is proposing a ‘European Algorithms Agency’ to underpin governance of AI and other rules. Mathieu Michel, the country’s digital minister, says the bloc will have insufficient or fragmented expertise and needs EU-wide technical capacity, along the lines of the European Medicines Agency or ENISA, the EU’s cybersecurity agency. One possibility is that the recently opened European Centre for Algorithmic Transparency (ECAT) in Seville could have its status upgraded. Belgium is expected to include the idea on the agenda when it takes over the European Council presidency in 2024.

Sources:  The Financial Times, Wired, Euronews, Forbes, CNN,  TechCrunch, The Guardian, The Daily Telegraph, Bloomberg, Economic Times, Ars Technica, Reuters, BBC, Politico, telecom.com, telecommpaper.