Google Ordered to Pay $542 Million to German Price Comparison Site

Google must pay the German price comparison platform Idealo approximately 465 million euros ($542 million) in damages for market abuse, a Berlin court has ruled. The court found that Google had abused its dominant market position in two case decisions and ordered the U.S. technology giant to pay damages, both rulings can be appealed, a court spokesperson told Reuters.

Trump Administration Drafting Executive Order to Limit State AI Laws

The Trump administration is drafting an executive order that would direct the Justice Department to sue states that pass laws regulating artificial intelligence, according to a copy reviewed by The Washington Post and confirmed by a person familiar with the White House effort, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe internal discussions. But the proposal could conflict with legal limits to presidential power.

Meta Did Not Create Monopoly Through Acquisitions, Judge Rules

Meta did not break the law when it bought nascent rivals Instagram and WhatsApp, a federal judge said, handing a major win to the $1.51 trillion company and dealing a blow to the government’s efforts to rein in the power of tech giants. Judge James E. Boasberg of the U.S. District Court of the District of Columbia said in an 89-page ruling that the company did not create a monopoly in social networking through the acquisitions.

Virginia's Social Media Law Violates First Amendment, Tech Suit Says

The tech industry trade group NetChoice is suing Virginia over a new law that will restrict minors from using social media for more than one hour per day. The lawsuit asks the court to block the law over claims it violates the First Amendment by putting “unlawful barriers on how and when all Virginians can access free speech online.”

Supreme Court Won't Hear Case on Challenge to Expired Patents

The U.S. Supreme Court declined to take up a case involving the right to challenge expired patents, leaving in place a win for Apple, Google and LG Electronics. The justices declined to hear an appeal by Gesture Technology Partners, which was challenging a decision to invalidate a patent that it had accused the technology companies of infringing.

European Commission Probing Amazon, Microsoft Roles in Cloud

Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Corp.’s Azure are under investigation by the European Union to determine whether the world’s two biggest cloud platforms should be hit by rules designed to curtail Big Tech’s market power. The European Commission said the pair “occupy very strong positions” and that it will assess “whether they act as important gateways between businesses and consumers” under the Digital Markets Act.

Britain Plans New Security Standards to Thwart Cyberattacks

Britain plans to strengthen its public services' defenses against cyberattacks, requiring companies that provide services to private and public sector organizations such as the National Health Service to meet strict security standards. In 2024, hackers breached the Ministry of Defense's payroll system and other recent attacks included one that disrupted over 11,000 NHS medical appointments and procedures.

Google Sues Cybercriminal Group Behind SMS Phishing Operation

Google filed a lawsuit against a foreign cybercriminal group behind a massive SMS phishing, or “smishing,” operation. Dubbed by some cyber researchers as the “Smishing Triad,” the organization, which Google said is largely based out of China, uses a phishing-as-a-service kit named “Lighthouse” to create and deploy attacks using fraudulent texts.

  • Read the article: CNBC

German Court Says ChatGPT's Use of Lyrics Violates Copyright Law

OpenAI's chatbot ChatGPT violated German copyright laws by reproducing lyrics from songs by best-selling musician Herbert Groenemeyer and others, a court ruled, in a closely watched case against the U.S. firm over its use of lyrics to train its language models. The regional court in Munich found that the company trained its AI on protected content from nine German songs, including Groenemeyer's hits "Maenner" and "Bochum."

Apple Removes Gay Dating Apps in China from App Store

Apple has removed two of the most popular gay dating apps in China from the App Store after receiving an order from China’s main internet regulator and censorship authority, Wired has learned. The move comes as reports of Blued and Finka disappearing from the iOS App Store and several Android app stores circulated on Chinese social media over the weekend.

Roblox Accused of 'Deceiving Parents' About Dangers in Texas Lawsuit

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton says he has sued Roblox over "flagrantly ignoring" safety laws and "deceiving parents" about the dangers the online video gaming platform poses to young people. In a social media post he said Roblox is a "breeding ground for predators", accusing Roblox of putting "pixel pedophiles and corporate profit" over the safety of Texas children.

  • Read the article: BBC

Seven Lawsuits Accuse OpenAI of Driving People Into Delusional States

Families in the U.S. and Canada are suing OpenAI, alleging that loved ones have been harmed by interactions they had with the artificial-intelligence company’s popular chatbot, ChatGPT. Four of them died by suicide following the interactions. The seven lawsuits, filed in state courts in California on Thursday, claim people have been driven into delusional states, at times resulting in suicide, after engaging in lengthy chat sessions with the bot.

FBI Subpoena Seeks Information on Registrant of 'Archive' Domains

The FBI is attempting to track down the identity of the owner of Archive.today and its numerous mirrors, like Archive.is and Archive.ph. As reported by 404 Media, the FBI subpoena, which was posted on the official Archive.today X account, was sent to web domain registrar Tucows on October 30th demanding the “customer or subscriber name, address of service, and billing address” associated with Archive.today.

Congressional Budget Office Hacked by Suspected Foreign Actor

The Congressional Budget Office, lawmakers’ nonpartisan bookkeeper, was hacked by a suspected foreign actor, according to four people familiar with the situation, potentially exposing the key financial research data Congress uses to craft legislation. Officials discovered the incursion in recent days and now worry that communications between lawmakers’ offices and nonpartisan researchers could have been accessed by an adversary or one of its digital proxies, as well as internal email and office chat logs, said the people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly.

Motion Picture Association Wants Meta to Stop Using 'PG-13' Label

An attorney representing the Motion Picture Association, which has administered the parental-guidance ratings for films since 1968, sent Meta Platforms a cease-and-desist letter, taking aim at its use of the term “PG-13” in its descriptions of a new system to limit what young people can see. The letter said Meta’s assertions that content on Instagram’s teen accounts would be guided by PG-13 ratings are “literally false and highly misleading.”

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The GigaLaw Firm helps companies of all sizes protect their brands online, using domain name dispute policies – such as the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP) – and other legal tools available to copyright and trademark owners on the Internet.