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California's Assembly Bill 5 (AB5) will reclassify many contract workers in California into full employees with benefits. It doesn't cover all types of contract workers, and is anticipated to affect companies like Uber and Lyft the most. The New York Times reported that AB5 passed the California State Senate in a 29 to 11 vote. California's Governor, Gavin Newsom, endorsed
The United States Department of Justice announced that the Department's Antitrust Division is reviewing whether and how market-leading platforms have achieved market power and are engaging in practices that have reduced competition, stifled innovation, or otherwise harmed consumers. The Department's review will consider the widespread concerns that consumers, businesses, and entrepreneurs have expressed about search, social media, and some retail
California has passed a law that went into effect on July 1, 2019. It amends part of the state's existing Business and Professions Code. The purpose of the amendment is to require bots to make it clear that they are not a human. The “Bots: disclosure” amendment includes the following: It shall be unlawful for any person to use a
Two U.S. Senators, Mark Warner (Democrat – Virginia) and Deb Fischer (Republican – Nevada), have introduced a bill that, if passed into law, would prohibit large online platforms from using deceptive user interfaces, known as “dark patterns” to trick consumers into handing over their personal data. The Deceptive Experiences To Online Users Reduction (DETOUR) Act would ban online social media
The BBC reported that the Department for Culture, Media and Sport has proposed an independent watchdog and a code of practice that tech companies would have to follow. Senior managers of social media platforms and other websites would be held liable for breaches, with a possible fine. The Online Harms White Paper covers a range of issues. The Guardian reported
Senator Elizabeth Warren said that if she is elected president in 2020, her administration will break up the giants of the tech industry. This was announced at SXSW in Austin, and in a detailed post on Medium. In that post, Senator Warren mentioned Amazon, Google, and Facebook. Senator Warren's plan would classify any company that runs a marketplace and makes
The Federal Trade Commission's Bureau of Competition announced the creation of a Technology Task Force. It is dedicated to monitoring competition in the U.S. technology markets, investigating any potential anticompetitive conduct in those markets, and taking enforcement actions when warranted. The creation of this task force is modeled on the FTC's Merger Litigation Task Force which reinvigorated the Bureau of Competition's