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Law Archive

Archives for October 2024

Jess Weatherbed
Jess Weatherbed
LinkedIn has been fined over $300 million for violating European privacy rules.

The ruling was made by the Irish Data Protection Commission (DPC) following a complaint filed in 2018 that said LinkedIn’s tracking ads business violated GDPR.

DPC Deputy Commissioner Graham Doyle commented:

“The lawfulness of processing is a fundamental aspect of data protection law and the processing of personal data without an appropriate legal basis is a clear and serious violation of a data subjects’ fundamental right to data protection.”

DPC Ireland released this infographic to summarize the situation.
DPC Ireland released this infographic to summarize the situation.
Image: Data Protection Commission Ireland
Emma Roth
Emma Roth
“WordPress.org is not WordPress.”

The attorneys for WordPress co-founder Matt Mullenweg make that very clear in a legal response to WP Engine’s lawsuit. The response also blames WP Engine for relying on WordPress.org, “a website owned and run by Defendant Matt Mullenweg individually:”

WP Engine, a private equity-backed company, made the unilateral decision, at its own risk, to build a multi-billion dollar business around Mr. Mullenweg’s website. In doing so, WP Engine gambled for the sake of profit that Mr. Mullenweg would continue to maintain open access to his website for free. That was their choice.

Thomas Ricker
Thomas Ricker
Qualcomm x Arm beef escalates.

Arm has given 60-days notice that it’s canceling the architectural license that lets Qualcomm use Arm IP to design its chips. It’s an escalation of a feud dating back to 2022 after Qualcomm bought Nuvia and failed to negotiate a new license. Qualcomm contends it doesn’t have to.

Here’s Bloomberg:

Qualcomm sells hundreds of millions of processors annually — technology used in the majority of Android smartphones. If the cancellation takes effect, the company might have to stop selling products that account for much of its roughly $39 billion in revenue, or face claims for massive damages.

Oof! But this is a negotiation and the most likely outcome is Qualcomm and Arm reaching a deal — else both companies suffer.

Richard Lawler
Richard Lawler
The EU deems X not “important” enough for DMA regulations.

While platforms like YouTube, Facebook, and the App Store deal with Digital Markets Act regulations put on powerful digital gatekeepers, the service formerly known as Twitter won’t have that problem:

Following a thorough assessment of all arguments, including input by relevant stakeholders, and after consulting the Digital Markets Advisory Committee, the Commission concluded that X does indeed not qualify as a gatekeeper in relation to its online social networking service, given that the investigation revealed that X is not an important gateway for business users to reach end users.