It has been a year and a half since the Australian government told its competition watchdog to investigate the impact of digital platforms including Facebook and Google on the country’s media and advertising issue, and now the regulatory is preparing to hand its final report to government. Among the expected recommendations are the creation of a digital-platforms regulator, or an expanded role for existing regulators to take on the technology giants, along with tighter privacy protections and clearer guidelines to oversee acquisitions of nascent rivals by established online platforms. What started off as a narrowly focused examination of the decline of the newspaper industry has ballooned into a comprehensive list of regulatory remedies to counter the platforms growing presence on different Australian markets.

Australian merger law is under renewed scrutiny as the country’s competition regulator fights to make its voice heard by Federal Court judges. The Australian Competition & Consumer Commission and Federal Court of Australia are at odds when it comes to trusting undertakings offered up by companies seeking approval for merger deals and the ACCC’s mistrust is leading it to consider recommending carving out new M&A measures for digital platforms this month.

One year after the General Data Protection Regulation took effect, the sweeping EU privacy law is still clouded in uncertainty. A 50 million-euro fine against Google, imposed by France, has opened up a dispute about jurisdiction as well as the vexed question of how, exactly, companies can legally get people’s consent to process their data. As national regulators look to step up their enforcement in the GDPR’s second year, MLex is releasing a Special Report to shine a light into the regulation’s murky corners. In this podcast, three of the contributors — Matthew Newman, Jack Schickler and Cynthia Kroet — discuss their findings with editor Sam Wilkin.

A merger that would have seen Australia’s broadband and mobile network markets changed forever suffered a costly A$1 billion ($700 million) loss this week after a premature announcement from Australia’s competition regulator blocked the deal. Now the companies are preparing to take their fight to a Federal Court.

As cars integrate ever more technology, a legal fight is brewing over whether the holders of connectivity-related patents should offer licenses to the makers of the relevant car parts, or of the cars as a whole. With parallels to the “smartphone wars” of the past decade, this new front will strain the complex relationships between carmakers and their suppliers and pit industrial giants such as Daimler and Nokia against each other. It will also test the limits of antitrust law, with patent holders being accused of withholding licenses. Listen to Sam Wilkin, Matthew Newman and Michael Acton from MLex’s Brussels bureau talk it over.

Apple and Qualcomm were set to do battle in a San Diego courtroom earlier this month to sort out a years-long dispute over the value of Qualcomm’s cellular communications technology. Then after a nine-person jury was sworn in, the two companies abruptly settled. How this impacts the mobile industry, and a series of related case, is yet unknown.

Data and information flows are ever more important in today's hyper-connected world, and a critical priority for states is to ensure smooth, legal cross-border links. Brexit is driving a cart and horses through that aim, both in the UK and around the world. Telecoms correspondent Vesela Gladicheva and Brexit Correspondent Matthew Holehouse examine this vexed issue with London news editor Ben O'Neill.

Australia was a footnote on the Asian balance sheet of the Amazons Facebooks and Googles of the world until a recent push over the last year and a half from Australian policymakers. The government has put in place groundbreaking laws on encryption and abhorrent violent material. James Panichi and Laurel Henning discuss.

China's growing industrial clout and state-backed efforts to move up the value chain have caused alarm in Brussels and EU capitals, leading to calls to loosen merger law or restrict access to public procurement markets. But policymakers don't have that many levers to pull, and those that they do could have adverse consequences for EU consumers. Poppy Carnell and Natalie McNelis talk to Sam Wilkin about the difficult choices to be made, both before and after a summit on April 9.

With Elliott rejected by Hyundai Motor shareholders and KCGI, Korea’s biggest activist fund, legally barred from seeking change at Hanjin KAL, it appears corporate governance will only advance at a pace dictated by Korea’s financial establishment. James Panichi and Jason Booth discuss.