Google has failed to convince Europe's General Court to overturn the Commission's ruling on its Android antitrust case and its decision to slap the company with a €4.3/US$4.3 billion fine. The General Court upheld the Commission's original ruling back in 2018 that Google used its dominant position in the market to impose restrictions on manufacturers that make Android phones and tablets. It did, however, reduce the fine a bit, deciding that €4.125 (US$4.121 billion) is the more appropriate amount based on its findings.
The Commission previously found that Google acted illegally by making it mandatory for Android manufacturers to pre-install its apps and its search engine. By doing so, the Commission said that the company was able to "cement its dominant position in general internet search." That is a huge deal according to FairSearch, the group of organizations lobbying against Google's search dominance and the original complainant in the case, because Google's search engine is monetized with paid advertising. The tech giant makes most of its money from online advertising — based on information from Statista, Google's ad revenue in 2021 amounted to $209.49 billion.
A New York federal judge has ruled that that multi-state antitrust lawsuit against Google spearheaded by the Attorney General of Texas can move forward. That said, Judge P. Kevin Castel has also dismissed the plaintiffs' claim that Google's online ad deal with Meta, codenamed Jedi Blue, was an unlawful restraint of trade. The judge said that "there is nothing inexplicable or suspicious" about the two companies entering the agreement.
If you'll recall, the states that filed the lawsuit accused Google of entering a deal with Meta that gave the latter certain advantages on the ad exchange the tech giant runs. As Bloomberg notes, Meta allegedly had to abandon its plans to adopt a new technology that would've hurt Google's monopoly and to back the tech giant's Open Bidding approach when it comes to selling ads in exchange.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton announced that he was filing a "multi-state lawsuit against Google for anti-competitive conduct, exclusionary practices and deceptive misrepresentations" back in 2020. The lawsuit focused on Google's advertising tech practices and how, Paxton said, the company uses its "monopolistic power to control pricing" of ads and "engage in market collusions."
Google sought to dismiss the lawsuit earlier this year. While it failed to convince Judge Castel to fully toss the lawsuit out, the company still posted a celebratory note about the decision. "Importantly, the Court dismissed the allegations about our Open Bidding agreement with Meta — the centerpiece of AG Paxton’s case," the company wrote in a blog post. The tech giant added that the agreement had never been a secret and that it was pro-competitive. It also called Paxton's case "deeply flawed."
Although the judge for this case dismissed the claim that Jedi Blue was unlawful, the deal and Google's ad tech practices as a whole are still under scrutiny by authorities. The European Commission and UK's Competition and Markets Authority launched an antitrust investigation into the companies' agreement back in March. And just last month, Bloomberg had reported that the US Department of Justice was preparing to sue Google over its dominance in the ad market sometime this September.
A majority of Twitter’s shareholders have voted to approve Elon Musk’s $44 billion takeover. During a special meeting of shareholders that lasted about seven minutes, stockholders approved of two proposals: one to adopt the merger agreement with Musk, and one related to how the company’s executives will be compensated as a result of the deal.
Both measures were approved, though Twitter will disclose the final breakdown of votes “at a later date” when it files paperwork with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Though shareholders formally approved the deal, which valued each share at $54.20, an October trial in Delaware’s Court of Chancery will determine whether Musk is able to terminate the agreement. Musk initially cited concerns about bots and spam as reasons for ending the merger agreement, though Twitter’s lawyers argued he was actually concerned about “World War 3.” The judge in the case ruled that Musk will be able to add claims raised by the company’s former security chief turned whistleblower, Peiter Zatko, to his legal bid.
Separately, Zatko testified at a Judiciary Committee hearing Tuesday, during which he shed new light on his allegations that Twitter’s security practices are a risk to the United States' national security.
A judge recently ruled that Elon Musk can use the allegations made by Twitter whistleblower Peiter Zatko as part of the arguments in his countersuit against the company. As it turns out, Musk intends to use not just Zatko's claims to win his case, but also the fact that the former Twitter executive received a settlement to get out of the $44 billion acquisition deal he made with the social network. As The Washington Post reports, Musk's lawyers sent a letter to Twitter, telling the company that the severance payment worth $7.75 million that it made to Zatko in June violated a provision in their sales agreement.
In the letter uploaded to the SEC website, Musk's lawyers cited Section 6.1(e) of the merger agreement, which says Twitter promised not to "grant or provide any severance or termination payments or benefits to any Company Service Provider other than the payment of severance amounts or benefits in the ordinary course of business consistent with past practice and subject to the execution and non-revocation of a release of claims in favor of the Company and its Subsidiaries." Former employees are considered Company Service Providers.
Musk and Twitter entered the purchase agreement in April, and it wasn't until June when Zatko received his severance pay. The company didn't seek Musk's consent before making the payment or notify him of the transaction, the lawyers said in the letter. Musk apparently only found out about the settlement when Twitter included the information in its court filing on September 3rd. As such, Musk's camp argues that the settlement serves as an additional basis to terminate the parties' purchase agreement. As The Post notes, it's now up to Twitter to prove that such a big payout to a former employee wasn't out of the ordinary. We've reached out to Twitter for a statement, and we'll update this post when we hear back.
Also known as "Mudge," Zatko accused the the social network of having "extreme, egregious deficiencies" in security. He said in a complaint filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission that Twitter violated the terms it had agreed to when it settled a privacy dispute with the FTC back in 2011. The whistleblower also claimed that he couldn't get a direct response from Twitter regarding the actual number of bots on the website. If you'll recall Musk previously accused Twitter of fraud for hiding the real number of bots on its platform and told the court in a legal filing that 10 percent — not just 5 percent as the social network maintains — of its daily active users who see ads are inauthentic accounts.
Twitter and Musk are set to face off in court in a five-day trial scheduled to start on October 17th.
AT&T is suing T-Mobile. On Tuesday, the carrier filed a complaint with a federal court in the Eastern District of Texas, accusing its rival of false advertising. T-Mobile’s recently launched “Verizon and AT&T Ban Senior Discounts” campaign is at the center of the lawsuit. The activation includes a website that claims “92 percent of seniors in the US can’t get a wireless discount from Verizon and AT&T because they don’t live in Florida.”
The campaign aims to draw attention to a promotion that dates back to John Legere’s tenure as CEO of T-Mobile. Since 2017, the carrier has offered Unlimited 55+ plans that give people 55 and older discounted access to its network. For instance, the current base level package starts at $40 per month with autopay and includes “unlimited” talk, text and smartphone data.
In early 2020, AT&T began piloting its own Unlimited 55+ plan. At the moment, however, it’s only available in Florida. “Until Verizon and AT&T offer senior discounts outside of Florida, we’re helping their customers get access to the wireless discounts they deserve as part of our Carrier Callout,” T-Mobile says.
T-Mobile
AT&T contends T-Mobile’s campaign is “intentionally designed to deceive senior citizens.” The carrier says T-Mobile’s website includes claims that are “literally false.” Moreover, it notes that “AT&T has not ‘banned’ seniors from getting discounted services outside the state of Florida.” The company points to a program it has had in place since March 2015. AT&T offers members of AARP, a nonprofit organization that represents more than 38 million seniors in the US, a $10 discount off its Unlimited Premium plan, among other perks. That promotion is available in all 50 US states.
“T-Mobile’s claims are outright dishonest and completely false. It is not the first time they have spread misleading information,” an AT&T spokesperson said. “AT&T offers wireless discounts to people of all ages, including seniors in all 50 states. The only way to stop the un-truthful carrier is apparently in a court of law, and that’s where we are.”
T-Mobile did not immediately respond to Engadget’s request for comment. AT&T is seeking damages and an injunction against the campaign. The Unlimited 55 promotion isn’t the first time T-Mobile has gotten in trouble for its advertising. In 2020, the carrier said it would stop claiming its 5G network was more reliable than that of its competitors after Verizon filed a complaint with National Advertising Review Board.
Apple may be facing a potential US Department of Justice antitrust lawsuit — but this time focused on AirTags and its other hardware. Sources toldPolitico that DOJ lawyers are in the nascent stages of drafting an antitrust complaint against the tech giant. While these sources indicated the DOJ has taken an interest in Apple's hardware, there's no guarantee the agency will follow through with a lawsuit at this time.
The DOJ began investigating the iPhone maker in 2019, as part of a larger government antitrust probe into Big Tech. So far, the agency has primarily focused on Apple’s tight hold of its App Store and payment system for developers. The new potential suit reportedly may go further and hone in on years of public complaints by tracking device maker Tile over Apple’s AirTags.
AirTags use ultra-wideband technology and Apple's Find My network to locate devices, often much more precisely than Tile's early-model Bluetooth-enabled trackers. In testimony before Congress, Tile has alleged that Apple purposely disadvantaged Tile on iOS devices by walling off its Find My network. The tech giant eventually opened its Find My network to third-party devices last year for location tracking, albeit with severe terms and restrictions which would likely result in companies like Tile having to give up their software ecosystems in favor of Apple's. Incidentally, this was a bargain Tile opted not to take. Engadget has reached out to Apple and the DOJ for comment and will update if we hear back.
Binance's chief communications officer says hackers used a deepfake of his image in Zoom calls to scam cryptocurrency executives. Patrick Hillmann claims the hackers successfully duped crypto project representatives into thinking he would help their tokens get listed on Binance's exchange.
In a blog post spotted by Bitcoin News, Hillmann wrote that the scammers built the deepfake based on his interviews and TV appearances. Hillmann learned about the deception after receiving messages thanking him for discussing listing opportunities. However, he said he didn't meet with any of those people and that he's not involved in Binance's listing process.
"This deepfake was refined enough to fool several highly intelligent crypto community members," Hillmann wrote. It's not clear how many crypto projects were affected by the scam or how much the folks behind them may have paid for the promise of a Binance listing. Binance doesn't have a set figure for listing fees. It asks projects to propose a number they're comfortable with and donates fees to charity.
Hillmann notes that Binance has stringent cybersecurity rules. Still, that won't stop hackers from trying to impersonate its workers. "There’s been a recent spike in hackers pretending to be Binance employees and executives on platforms such as Twitter, LinkedIn, Telegram, etc," Hillmann wrote. Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao recently warned that there are around 7,000 purported profiles of the company's employees on LinkedIn, but only around 50 are real.
It's not the first time criminals have impersonated executives with the help of technology. In 2019, a scammer pretended to be the CEO of an unnamed company by using artificial intelligence to mimic that person's voice. They asked the head of a subsidiary to transfer $243,000 to a supplier. Of course, that money never arrived at its intended destination.
Last year, someone used a deepfake of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny's chief of staff to dupe politicians in the Netherlands into having a video call with them. Facebook took down a deepfake of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in March, shortly after Russia invaded his country.
BYD is one of more than 450 registered EV firms in China, all of which are competing for a slice of the world’s largest automotive market with future designs for the US and Europe as well. American ingenuity may have initially ushered in the EV era, but it’s been China’s relentless commoditization of the technology that has put the nation’s automakers at the forefront of the global electric vehicle race.
“Developing new energy vehicles is essential for China’s transformation from a big automobile country to a powerful automobile country,” Chinese President Xi Jinping said in 2014. “We should increase research and development, seriously analyze the market, adjust existing policy and develop new products to meet the needs of different customers. This can make a strong contribution to economic growth.” In China, so-called New Energy Vehicles (NEVs) are basically any plug-in electric (either hybrid or battery) which qualifies for financial subsidies from the government — specifically battery electrics, plug-in hybrids, and fuel cell EVs.
These efforts can also help China meet its Paris Accord carbon neutrality targets of a 20 percent reduction by 2035 and a 100 percent reduction by 2060 – lofty goals given it’s currently the world’s biggest emitter of carbon dioxide. These policies aim to reduce pollution in Chinese cities, reduce the nation’s reliance on imported oil, and “position China for global leadership in a strategic industry,” per a 2019 study by Columbia University.
The country’s central government has invested heavily over the past decade to spur growth in the NEV industry, leveraging a mix of policy, tax incentives and consumer subsidies. As of 2020, EVs must account for 12 percent of production for any company that manufactures or imports more than 30,000 vehicles in China (up from a 10 percent requirement the previous year). The government has also deeply subsidized consumers’ EV purchases with more than $14.8 billion since 2009, providing up to $3,600 for battery electric vehicles (BEVs) with more than 400 km range, though those rebates were first halved, then eliminated by 2021.
The government has also provided funding and standardization mandates for building out China’s charging infrastructure with a goal of 120,000 EV charging stations and 4.8 million EV charging stalls available by 2020. Local and municipal governments further incentivized EVs with discounts on licensing fees and preferential parking spots for NEVs.
“Emerging China EV companies are making a concerted effort to target the premium end of the local market and eventually abroad,” Deutsche Bank equity analyst Edison Yu told Forbes in July. “We are already witnessing intense domestic competition in the mass market from Leap Motor, Hozon Neta, WM Motor, BYD and numerous sub-brands from incumbent OEMs (GAC/Aion, BAIC/Arcfox, SAIC/R-brand). Newer entrants have shown willingness to absorb deep losses to quickly gain volume share.”
The Chinese EV market is currently dominated by five firms: Tesla comes in third surrounded by domestic automotive manufacturers BYD (27.9 percent market share), SGMW (10.1 percent), Chery (4.9 percent), and GAC (4.2 percent). Geely, which owns stakes in Volvo, Polestar and Lotus, didn’t crack the top five but its various brands did manage a record 2.2 million worldwide vehicle sales in 2021. XPeng and NIO are additional noteworthy brands, totaling 98,155 and 91,429 sales in 2021, respectively.
At the Boao Forum in 2018, President Jinping announced a raft of sweeping economic reforms designed to further open the nation’s markets, including an announcement to phase out existing limits on foreign ownership of automakers. The Policy for the Automotive Industry of 1994 contained a key provision that banned foreign business entities from owning more than 50 percent of a joint venture with a Chinese firm as well as from participating on more than two such ventures for any single vehicle type sold in the country — the so-called 50%+2 rule. Jinping’s reforms will see the 2-venture limit lifted in 2022 and the restriction on ownership share eliminated at the end of 2023.
Xinhua News Agency via Getty Images
This regulatory relaxation could have immense impact on the Chinese EV market, potentially increasing competition for domestic OEMs from an influx of international automakers hawking additional NEV brands and models. The rule change could also see foreign firms renegotiate their ownership stakes, potentially even fully buying out their Chinese partners, though as Sino Auto points out, that isn’t likely to happen in the immediate future as the existing joint ventures have an average remaining contract length of 19 years. Overall, the policy shift should give international firms a more even footing with local Chinese automakers.
That’s not to say that local firms won’t still enjoy a number of advantages. For one, switching costs associated with transitioning from internal combustion to electric drivetrains are largely non-existent because for many Chinese consumers, an EV will be their first vehicle. The local automakers also have a better handle on what their customers want, offering tech-laden, customizable EVs at a variety of trim levels (starting at literally $4,300) to tech-savvy, price sensitive, middle-class consumers.
SOPA Images via Getty Images
International auto companies will need to tread carefully around any number of hot button topics, freedom and privacy concerns, should they choose to do business in China. GM and BMW, for example, recently became embroiled in a dispute over accusations of forced labor usage in lithium mining in the Xinjiang region. Beijing denied the allegations, characterizing the report as “nothing but ill-intentioned smears against China,” per Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian in April. The US has since sanctioned individuals and companies involved in the Xinjiang operation. Lithium mined from the region is used in Tesla battery systems, among others.
Looking ahead, you’ll need to tilt your head back a bit as the Chinese EV market is expected to grow more than 30 percent by 2027. The government’s stringent emissions regulations and growing population are both expected to contribute to the expected demand growth. What’s more, “over the forecast period (2022-2027), the country may also witness growth in the adoption of electric buses,” a recent study from Mordor Intelligence notes. “More than 30 Chinese cities have made plans to achieve 100 percent electrified public transit in the near future.” That’s not even including the nation’s battery production capacity, which currently stands at roughly 59 percent of the global market. It too is expected to balloon 7.5 percent by 2027.
Aly Song / reuters
Given the robust domestic Chinese market, it may not be long before we see BYD or XPeng brands on American roads, much as they are on the streets of Europe. “I’d imagine it’s only a matter of time before we see more Chinese vehicles being sold in North America,” Morningstar analyst Seth Goldstein told Capital in February.
“Given that EVs are a new powertrain, this is an opportunity for Chinese automakers to establish brands in new geographies where, for years, with the internal-combustion engine, Chinese automakers tended to only sell vehicles in China,” he continued.
The question now is whether China can maintain its pole positioning. Just as Tesla was eventually overtaken by BYD despite enjoying a sizeable and lengthy initial lead, Chinese automakers find themselves in much the same position: on top of the heap, but for how long once the likes of GM and Ford come sniffing around with their deep pockets and expansive R&D budgets?
Back in 2018, former Apple employee Xiaolang Zhang was arrested at San Jose International Airport where he was going to board a last-minute flight to China. Zhang was accused of transferring a 25-page document that includes the engineering schematics of a circuit board for the company's self-driving vehicle, along with technical manuals describing Apple's prototype, to his wife's laptop. He was also accused of stealing circuit boards and a Linux server from the company's development labs. Now, Zhang has pleaded guilty to a felony charge of theft of trade secrets in San Jose federal court, according to CNBC.
The news organization has obtained a court document (PDF) summarizing the proceedings in which Zhang changed his plea — he originally pleaded not guilty when he was indicted in 2018. In it, the court has noted that his plea agreement is under seal and that his sentencing is scheduled on November 14th. Zhang faces up to ten years in prison and could pay up to $250,000 in fine.
Before his arrest, Zhang worked as a hardware engineer in Apple's autonomous vehicle division and was part of the team that designs and tests circuit boards for sensors. As CNBC notes, circuit designs are typically considered some of the most valuable trade secrets in electronics. Apple reportedly first suspected Zhang of stealing from the company when he turned in his resignation following a paternity leave and a trip to China. He told the company that he was resigning so he could move back to China and take care of his mother.
Zhang also told Apple that he was planning to work with XPeng Motors, an electric vehicle manufacturer that's also developing its own autonomous driving technology. His access to Apple's resources was cut off after he resigned, and an investigation followed soon after. It was through that investigation that Apple discovered that he transferred gigabytes' worth of top secret files via AirDrop and saw him physically taking hardware from the company's labs via CCTV footage.
Meanwhile, the tech giant remains as secretive about its autonomous vehicle development progress as ever. Last year, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman reported that Apple decided to focus on developing full self-driving capabilities and that the company is aiming to launch its autonomous electric vehicle in 2025.
Following more than two years of controversy, the chief executive officer of Pegasus spyware creator NSO Group is stepping down. On Sunday, co-founder and outgoing CEO Shalev Hulio said he was handing over operations of the company to chief operating officer Yaron Shohat as part of a restructuring that will see it refocus on NATO-member countries. According to Bloomberg, NSO is also cutting its headcount. The firm reportedly plans to lay off about 100 employees before it appoints a permanent replacement for Hulio.
The restructuring comes as NSO Group continues to face scrutiny from both governments and other tech companies. In November 2021, the US Commerce Department added NSO to its Entity List, effectively banning American companies from doing business with the firm unless they obtain explicit permission to do so. That same month, Apple sued NSO to “hold it accountable” for enabling governments to spy on activists and journalists.
"The company’s products remain in high demand with governments and law enforcement agencies because of its cutting-edge technology and proven ability to assist these customers in fighting crime and terror," Shohat said. "NSO will ensure that the company's groundbreaking technologies are used for rightful and worthy purposes."
