How do their legal systems address issues of safety in the digital age, privacy rights, and the interests of Indigenous communities? And in what ways do they align with, or diverge from, international standards set by Europe and the United States?

In this episode, host Mauricio Figueroa is joined by three experts to discuss the policy and normative landscape of Australia and New Zealand. Tune in for an interesting conversation and through-provoking conversation about privacy and tech in these two countries. Listen to the episode here: https://bit.ly/3Yquyz8

The Panel:

Mauricio Figueroa is a legal scholar and educator. His area of expertise is Law and Digital Technologies, and has international experience in legal research, teaching, and public policy. He is the host of the SCL podcast “Privacy and Technology Laws Around the World”.

Andelka Philipps is an academic and writer and her research interests are broadly in the areas of Technology Law, Privacy and Data Protection, as well as Medical Law, Intellectual Property, Cyber Security, and Consumer Protection. She has taught in law schools in four countries: the United Kingdom; the Republic of Ireland; New Zealand; and Australia. She is currently an Affiliate with the Bioethics Institute Ghent, Ghent University, Belgium and an Academic Affiliate with the University of Oxford’s Centre for Health, Law and Emerging Technologies (HeLEX). She is also an Associate Editor for the Journal of the Royal Society of New Zealand (JRSNZ), the first to be appointed from the discipline of Law. www.andelkamphillips.com

John Swinson is a former partner of a major international law firm and has 30 years of law firm experience in NY and Australia, with principle focus on technology law and intellectual property law. He is a Professor of Law at The University of Queensland, where he teaches privacy law, cybersecurity law, and Internet & IT law.

Raffaele Ciriello is Senior Lecturer in Business Information Systems at the University of Sydney, whose research focuses on compassionate digital innovation and the ethical and societal impacts of emerging technologies. His work critically examines issues of digital responsibility, decentralised governance, and public interest technology, with recent projects spanning AI companions, blockchain infrastructures, and national digital sovereignty.

About the podcast

Join host Mauricio Figueroa and guests on a tour of tech law from across the globe. Previous episodes have focused on the use of ‘robot judges’ in several jurisdictions and developments in India, the USA and Japan. Future episodes will look at South America, Africa and Europe.

Where to listen

• podcasts.scl.org
• Spotify
• Apple
• Amazon

The post SCL Podcast “Technology & Privacy Laws Around The World” – Episode 5: Australia and New Zealand appeared first on Society for Computers & Law.

Over seven episodes, recorded in November 2024, Ben Evans, Shruti Hiremath and guests will look beyond the current position to identify some of the pressures the changing landscape will bring to bear.

Episode 4: The EU Data Act and Cloud Analogies

Are analogies between cloud and open banking and telecoms appropriate? A deep dive into the EU Data Act and the potential unintended consequences

Building on the discussion in episode 3, this episode 4 analyses the cloud provisions of the EU Data Act with reference to an influential and widely cited paper co-authored by Ben Evans and Sean Ennis. The panel explore the concept of ‘equivalence’ between cloud services and question the merits of the controversial ‘functional equivalence’ requirement, which is designed to boost switching between cloud providers. This leads to a discussion over whether the analogy between cloud computing services, which exhibit high degrees of feature complexity and innovation, and banking services, which exhibit both a limited number of key features and a relatively low level of innovation, is appropriate. As articulated by the authors in an earlier SCL article, it is suggested that these two differences are critical for considering the nature and focus of future cloud regulation and may limit the value of analogies to prior experiences with portability and interoperability. Moreover, the panel considers the authors’ observation that a significant number of cloud customers already have the possibility and incentive to account ex ante at contract stage for the trade-off between complexity and customisation in service functionality and ease of portability and interoperability. The discussion turns attention to profound concerns that the Data Act may have the unintended consequences of disincentivising innovation, strengthening the position of incumbents, and harming smaller cloud service providers by inter alia effectively commoditising cloud services to the extent that competition is reduced to price competition.

Panel

Ben Evans (Chair) is a Postgraduate Researcher at the School of Law and Centre for Competition Policy, University of East Anglia. He is a member of the LIDC Scientific Committee.

Shruti Hiremath is Counsel in the Clifford Chance Antitrust Team in London.

Lauren Murphy is Founder and CEO of Friday Initiatives.

Sean Ennis is Director of the Centre for Competition Policy and a Professor of Competition Policy at Norwich Business School, University of East Anglia.

The LIDC NEX GEN Podcast Series on ‘Competition in Cloud and AI’ explores some the most topical and hotly debated questions  with a panel of leading international experts from academia, legal practice and industry.

The series was recorded  on 7 November 2024, and the views and opinions expressed therein reflect the legal context and state of affairs up to that date.

You can also watch or listen via the LIDC website, YouTube and Spotify.

The post Exploring Competition in Cloud and AI Podcast: Episode 4: The EU Data Act and Cloud Analogies appeared first on Society for Computers & Law.

Over seven episodes, recorded in November 2024, Ben Evans, Shruti Hiremath and guests will look beyond the current position to identify some of the pressures the changing landscape will bring to bear.

Episode 3: Dissecting Cloud Competition

The investigations of the UK CMA and an introduction to the EU Data Act.

In episode three, the panel begin exploring the five-fold concerns raised by the UK CMA in its issues statement in relation to its cloud market investigation. First, the authority has expressed concern that potential market concentration may be limiting choice. Although a number of large firms hold substantial market share in public cloud, the existence of on-premises and hybrid cloud solutions may temper concerns. Second, the CMA is worried that data transfer fees may prohibit switching, an issue that has been addressed in the EU under the cloud provisions of the recently enacted Data Act. Third, there is a concern that impediments to portability and interoperability may create dependencies or impair customers’ ability to move assets and to integrate across providers. Although such concerns may be valid, the panel considers the reality that market-based solutions are already developing, with industry consortia and voluntary standards bodies emerging without the need for regulatory interference. Fourth, the CMA has considered whether committed spend agreements limit customer flexibility and cause lock-in. Any intervention should be mindful of the benefits of such agreements to consumers in terms of cost savings and price stability. Finally, unfair licensing practices have come under scrutiny and there is a legitimate question as to whether some large providers may restrict competition by, for example, requiring additional fees or adherence to restrictive terms when customers use software from rival providers.[1]

While there has been substantial regulatory interest in Japan, the Netherlands, South Korea and France, all of which have completed cloud market studies, and in Spain and the USA, which have started investigations, the UK authority has advanced arguably the most detailed research and analysis of competition in the sector. The panel observes that despite this, the initial conclusions reached by the CMA and the referring authority Ofcom do not necessarily follow from the empirical market research that underpins their respective studies. Indeed, this is an issue that has been raised by Ben Evans and Sean Ennis in their co-authored consultation responses to the CMA and Ofcom. The evidence suggests that generally customers are on the ‘way in’ on their cloud journey and that, as opposed to provider restrictions, one of the key factors leading to lock-in may be that those firms do not yet have the in-house technical capability to initiate cost and time efficient switch.

[1]  Since the recording of the podcast, the CMA has published its Provisional Decision Report on 28 January 2025. Further details are available at: https://www.gov.uk/cma-cases/cloud-services-market-investigation#provisional-findings.

Panel

Ben Evans (Chair) is a Postgraduate Researcher at the School of Law and Centre for Competition Policy, University of East Anglia. He is a member of the LIDC Scientific Committee.

Shruti Hiremath is Counsel in the Clifford Chance Antitrust Team in London.

Lauren Murphy is Founder and CEO of Friday Initiatives.

Sean Ennis is Director of the Centre for Competition Policy and a Professor of Competition Policy at Norwich Business School, University of East Anglia.

The LIDC NEX GEN Podcast Series on ‘Competition in Cloud and AI’ explores some the most topical and hotly debated questions  with a panel of leading international experts from academia, legal practice and industry.

The series was recorded  on 7 November 2024, and the views and opinions expressed therein reflect the legal context and state of affairs up to that date.

You can also watch or listen via the LIDC website, YouTube and Spotify.

The post Exploring Competition in Cloud and AI Podcast: Episode 3 – Dissecting Cloud Competition appeared first on Society for Computers & Law.

Over seven episodes, recorded in November 2024, Ben Evans, Shruti Hiremath and guests will look beyond the current position to identify some of the pressures the changing landscape will bring to bear.

Episode 2: Alternative Visions

A look at the emerging alternative visions of the AI stack around the world.

Episode 2 considers alternative visions for the AI stack. The discussion begins by thinking about the emergent ‘EuroStack’, which is a strategic initiative to develop independent digital infrastructure across all layers of the stack and reduce reliance on non-EU technologies that was launched in the European Parliament in 2024. At a high-level, this approach represents a significant transition away from the prevailing regulatory approach focussed on competition in  certain components of the stack towards an infrastructural approach driven by ambitious industrial policy. The panel proceeds to reflect on the approaches of different international jurisdictions, focussing in particular on the development of digital public infrastructure in emerging markets, and the issue of sovereignty. Crucially, the Indian examples of the Unified Payments Interface and the Open Network for Digital Commerce provide evidence that digital public infrastructure can promote significant competition. This prompts the panel to question whether regulatory intervention is necessary if there exists a sufficiently developed digital public infrastructure. Of course, it is essential that government initiatives are not mandated to the detriment of market-based solutions and are instead offered as alternatives. Ultimately, the co-existence of digital public infrastructure and private firm offerings may lead to a healthy competitive market.

Panel

Ben Evans (Chair) is a Postgraduate Researcher at the School of Law and Centre for Competition Policy, University of East Anglia. He is a member of the LIDC Scientific Committee.

Shruti Hiremath is Counsel in the Clifford Chance Antitrust Team in London.

Lauren Murphy is Founder and CEO of Friday Initiatives.

Sean Ennis is Director of the Centre for Competition Policy and a Professor of Competition Policy at Norwich Business School, University of East Anglia.

The LIDC NEX GEN Podcast Series on ‘Competition in Cloud and AI’ explores some the most topical and hotly debated questions  with a panel of leading international experts from academia, legal practice and industry.

The series was recorded  on 7 November 2024, and the views and opinions expressed therein reflect the legal context and state of affairs up to that date.

You can also watch or listen via the LIDC website, YouTube and Spotify.

The post Exploring Competition in Cloud and AI Podcast: Episode 2 – Alternative Visions appeared first on Society for Computers & Law.

We have teamed up with the LIDC (International League of Competition Law) to share a series of podcasts examining some of the increasingly pressing questions around cloud computing, AI and competition law.

Over seven episodes, recorded in November 2024, Ben Evans, Shruti Hiremath and guests will look beyond the current position to identify some of the pressures the changing landscape will bring to bear.

Episode 1: The Status Quo

The current state of competition law for cloud computing and what the regulators are up to now.

Episode 1 sets the listener up for a deep dive into cloud computing and AI later in the series with a high-level discussion of the key competition concerns that have been raised across the AI stack.

The AI stack broadly comprises of four components: data, compute (encompassing chips and cloud computing), foundation models, and AI applications. The panel reflect on the recent media and policy focus on the compute component and the widely reported chip shortages that have led competition authorities in the EU and USA to investigate how supply is being allocated. While there may have been shortages, these shortages – and any related competition concerns – should be considered against the backdrop of a sudden surge in AI product development, which may not represent a forward-looking picture of chip supply. Indeed, the recent proliferation of new chip development from firms including AMD, Intel, Google, OpenAI and Amazon suggests that competition for the supply of chips is fierce.[1] Authorities around the world are also showing considerable interest in cloud competition, focussing in particular on potential barriers to switching and interoperability. Episodes 3 and 4 are dedicated to exploring these issues in depth.

Turning attention to foundation models, the panel introduces concerns raised in particular by the UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) and the French Competition Authority (FCA)that firms perceived as controlling key inputs – principally data, cloud and skills – may restrict access in order to shield themselves from competition. Further concerns raised by authorities include the risk that cloud providers could exploit their market positions to distort foundation model choice, potentially engaging in self-preferencing à la Google Shopping (Case C-48/22 P Google and Alphabet v Commission). This discussion whets the appetite for a dissection of AI competition in a later episode.

Bringing the introductory session to a close, the panel also touches on concerns being raised by competition authorities that firms may be using strategic partnerships to reinforce, expand or extend existing market power through the value chain. This thorny issue is explored in greater detail later in the podcast series in an episode focussed on mergers and acquisitions, but at the outset thought is given to the importance of protections for investors in nascent technologies, with a parallel drawn to the pharmaceutical industry.

Panel

Ben Evans (chair) is a Postgraduate Researcher at the School of Law and Centre for Competition Policy, University of East Anglia. He is a member of the LIDC Scientific Committee.

Shruti Hiremath is Counsel in the Clifford Chance Antitrust Team in London.

Lauren Murphy is Founder and CEO of Friday Initiatives.

Sean Ennis is Director of the Centre for Competition Policy and a Professor of Competition Policy at Norwich Business School, University of East Anglia.

[1]  Further recent developments such as the development of more efficient models like DeepSeek’s R1 have also raised questions on the continued need for a large number of chips.

The LIDC NEX GEN Podcast Series on ‘Competition in Cloud and AI’ explores some of the most topical and hotly debated questions with a panel of leading international experts from academia, legal practice and industry.

The series was recorded  on 7 November 2024, and the views and opinions expressed therein reflect the legal context and state of affairs up to that date.

You can also watch or listen via the LIDC website, YouTube or Spotify.

The post Exploring Competition in Cloud and AI Podcast: Episode 1 – The Status Quo appeared first on Society for Computers & Law.