Google will not be forced to sell Chrome – but it has work to do
A judge has ruled that Google will not have to sell its Chrome browser after the Department of Justice proposed this last year. But as part of the ruling, the court says that the company will have to change some things about the way it operates.
The short version is that Google will no longer be allowed to make exclusivity deals relating to search, Google Assistant, Gemini, or Chrome. In the ruling, Judge Amit Mehta said that the US government has “overreached” when pushing for Chrome to be sold off.
Opera files antitrust complaint against Microsoft in Brazil, alleging unfair browser restrictions on Windows
Opera has submitted a formal complaint to Brazil’s Administrative Council for Economic Defense (CADE) alleging that Microsoft’s practices unfairly restrict browser choice on Windows devices.
The Norwegian company argues that Microsoft’s dominance in the operating system market allows it to give an artificial edge to its Edge browser, at the expense of competitors, such as Opera (naturally), and Brazilian users.
Apple faces a £1.5bn anti-competition class action lawsuit in the UK
Apple finds itself starting a new legal battle today, this time in the UK. A class action lawsuit alleges that the iPhone maker has abused its position to overcharge App Store customers.
A second prong of the lawsuit alleges that the 30 percent commission fee Apple charges app developers runs counter to both UK and European competition laws. The UK’s Competition Appeal Tribunal will be looking into the claims and passing judgement.
Apple agrees to $95 million payouts to settle lawsuit alleging Siri recorded private conversations
Despite not admitting to having done anything wrong, Apple has agreed $95 million in settlement payouts for “unintentional” Siri activations that may have resulted in private conversations being recorded.
The payment agreement comes after years of legal back and forth following reports from users that Siri was “spying” on them after being activated unbidden. The proposed class action lawsuit has its roots in complaints dating back to 2014.
You could finally be about to get a payout from Apple for your dodgy MacBook butterfly keyboard
The saga of Apple's notoriously unreliable MacBook butterfly keyboards could be drawing to a close after almost a decade.
The company has finally started to issue compensatory payments to people who bought a MacBook between 2015 and 2019 only to be plagued by sticky and unresponsive keys. With payouts nudging towards $400, this is a significant sum that should not be sniffed at.
Nearly 1 in 5 ransomware attacks results in a lawsuit
A new study from Comparitech finds that around a fifth of ransomware attacks in the US led to a lawsuit in 2023.
It shows that 355 lawsuits were filed following 3,002 ransomware attacks. Of these 228 have been completed and 134 were successful -- that is they led to a data breach settlement, resulted in the company being fined for failing to safeguard systems and/or data, or were settled out of court.
Through a glass darkly: Nike sues Lululemon over mirror
In my bio below you'll see a picture of me sporting my new digital camouflage Lululemon Surge Warm Half-Zip that had arrived the night before writing this. Inside the box was a card trying to sell me something called Lululemon Mirror. The image on the card was very similar to what Lululemon has on their site (see image at the top).
My first reaction was "This looks like something Nike would make. I wonder if it'll claim to own the IP rights."
$12 million lawsuit -- when digital consent management goes wrong
A $12 million lawsuit against video game developer, Capcom was launched by US photographer, Judy Juracek earlier this year for allegedly using 80 of her images without her consent. Last year, another US photographer, Mathilde Gattoni’s $2.25 million lawsuit against Microsoft claimed that it used 15 of her images for an MSN article without a license or her permission. Lawsuits for copyright infringement against corporations are showing no signs of abating.
It's not only photographers asserting their intellectual property rights, it’s amateur photographers who have taken photographs that have been lifted such as the case of storm chaser Sean Heavey, who spotted his image used by Netflix to promote its series, Stranger Things. The photographer, who was initially dismissed by the streaming giant allegedly, saw his case later settled out of court.
Live TV streaming service Locast shuts down following copyright infringement suit
If you are a cord-cutter, a phrase some people like to debate, then you may be familiar with a great way to get your local over-the-air channels. The service is called Locast, and it rebroadcasts all the OTA without the rabbit-ears. That fills one of the great empty spots that folks had when it came to getting rid of cable or satellite.
Unfortunately, there are some rather powerful entities out there that don’t like this idea very much. Why? Because Locast doesn’t charge (although it does request a monthly "donation" to keep the stream flowing uninterrupted), so there’s no cut for them to take. On Tuesday, Locast was dealt a huge blow when Judge Louis Stanton said a copyright infringement lawsuit brought by ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox would be allowed to proceed to trial.
Tweaking Windows 10 to remove features and lock down your privacy? You're violating Microsoft's copyrights
Although Windows 10 doesn’t spy on its users in the way it did when first launched, and people now have much greater control over their privacy settings, the truth is many users would prefer to tighten their control over the operating system further than Microsoft allows.
There are a number of great free third-party tools which let you boost your privacy and make various changes to the software, including removing annoying bundled software. That’s fine right? Not according to a lawsuit in which Microsoft says this is a breach of its license.
You could be in line for a payout from Apple for slowing down your iPhone
Apple has agreed to settle legal action taken against it for deliberately slowing down older iPhones. Having already been fined €25 million by a French consumer watchdog the company has now agreed to settle in the US -- something which could cost it $500 million.
Apple previously admitted to the practice of slowing down phones, saying it was to increase the life of devices with aging batteries. The new agreement in the US could see Apple paying out $25 to those affected by updates to iOS that slowed down their iPhones.
Avast under investigation for the sale of personal data to third-parties
It’s fair to say that Avast has been engaging in some rather sketchy behavior over the past couple of years. These include a privacy controversy with CCleaner back in 2018, and then a couple of weeks ago it was revealed that Avast Free Antivirus was sending browser history to marketers.
After attempting to defend its data gathering and sharing practices, Avast finally apologized and shut down its marketing analytics subsidiary Jumpshot with immediate effect. But it seems that isn’t the end of the matter as far as the Czech authorities are concerned.
Apple and Qualcomm bring their global legal fight to an end
Apple and Qualcomm have been suing each other since January 2017. The iPhone maker first sued Qualcomm for over $1 billion, contending that the chip maker was overcharging for its patent licenses, and in response Qualcomm counter-sued and tried to get iPhones banned in a number of countries, siting patent infringement.
In total, there were over 80 ongoing lawsuits in effect globally between the two tech firms, and yesterday saw the start of what was expected to be a three-week trial in a federal court in San Diego.
Court orders Apple to withdraw misleading statement about iPhone availability
As part of its ongoing legal battles with Qualcomm, Apple was last month banned from selling the iPhone 7 and 8 in Germany. Despite this, the company issued a press release stating that the handsets would remain available through thousands of resellers.
Now a court has ordered Apple to stop making this claim, with the ruling describing this section of the press release as "misleading" and "potentially deceptive".
Weather Channel app accused of opaquely selling users' location data
The Weather Channel app holds the accolade of being the most popular mobile weather app, but it is also facing accusations of misleading users into agreeing to allow the company to sell their location data to third parties.
A lawsuit filed in Los Angeles this week alleges that the operator of the IBM-owned app -- TWC Product and Technology LLC -- sold user data to at least a dozen companies and failed to make details of this clear to users. The lawsuit says that the data was used to delivered targeted advertising and also to analyze consumer behaviour.
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