Sony Music Entertainment completed its $430 million buy of Kobalt Music Group’s distribution and neighboring rights businesses for independent artists under a definitive agreement announced Feb. 1. Sony continues cooperating with the U.K. antitrust review initiated before the transaction was closed, said the company Wednesday.
An Irish Data Protection Commission probe of Facebook data flow can proceed, the country's High Court ruled Friday. The case is "about what happened after" the July European Court of Justice ruling in Data Protection Commissioner v. Facebook Ireland Ltd. and Maximilian Schrems (Shrems II), Justice David Barniville wrote. The DPC of its own volition issued a "preliminary draft decision" in August on whether Facebook data transfers involving Europeans are lawful and whether corrective action is needed. The company challenged the decision and procedures on grounds including that they breached the general data protection regulation by failing to carry out an investigation before the draft decision was issued, and that they were an abuse of process. The 197-page decision rejected all of Facebook's challenges. The ruling "was about the process" the DPC followed, a Facebook spokesperson said. She said the company follows EU rules and relies on standard contract clauses and appropriate data safeguards to move data, and the preliminary decision "could be damaging not only to Facebook but also to users and other businesses."
Google is “disappointed that Sonos has made false claims about our partnership and technology,” said a Google spokesperson Thursday. Sonos Chief Legal Officer Eddie Lazarus told a quarterly call Wednesday that a German court granted Sonos a preliminary patent injunction. The patent enables and controls transfer of media from a smartphone or tablet to playback devices, said Lazarus, a former FCC official. Google appealed, said the spokesperson. “We will continue to work to ensure that our German customers continue to have the best experience.” The order prohibits selling Google's Cast technology in Germany, “some aspects of which implicate the Sonos patent at issue, and encompasses such products as the Pixel 4a smartphone, Nest Audio speakers and the YouTube Music app," Lazarus said. Thursday, he told us it's a “promising milestone in our ongoing effort to defend our innovations and stand up to the unfair practices of Big Tech." Sonos closed up 7.4% at $33.83.
Lynk Global seeks FCC approval for its planned 10-satellite mobile service constellation. An International Bureau application Tuesday said its cellular-based satcom network would provide global GSM and LTE cellular services using cellular frequencies in 617-960 MHz. It said testing it did with mobile network operators (MNO) in connecting cellular devices to its experimental satellites showed the use of terrestrial mobile frequencies doesn't cause harmful interference. It said its service will allow access to communications services in areas lacking basic connectivity, on the edge of terrestrial networks or in areas where terrestrial infrastructure has degraded or been rendered inoperable. It's not seeking approval to operate in U.S. UHF bands. Some such "cell-tower-in-space" services raise interference concerns (see 2103180024).
Any new EU-US data transfer scheme must avoid a "Schrems III" rejection by the European Court of Justice, European Commission Values and Transparency Vice President Vera Jourova told a Tuesday webinar on Privacy Shield. Given her discussions with Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, "I remain pretty much confident" a new data-sharing regime is possible because of new momentum between like-minded partners. Asked what the EU's strategy is, Jourova said it's to achieve a common understanding of pillars on which a new pact might be built. The essential vision is to remake PS for legal certainty, and to work through problematic issues, mostly on the U.S. side. A federal privacy law "would help," said Jourova. Surveillance issues must be addressed by resolving the conflict between national security and privacy principles, and imposing tougher safeguards against mass surveillance, she said. Europeans need more certainty they will get redress for abuse of their personal data. Asked when a new PS might emerge, Jourova said talks have resumed but will take time: Quality is more important than speed. Negotiations are taking place in a different context from when the ECJ annulled safe harbor, said Commerce Department Privacy Shield Director Alex Greenstein: The stakes are higher now because the world has become more digital. He said Schrems II addressed standard contractual clauses (SCCs) and other data transfer mechanisms, so the situation is about all transfers "writ large," resulting in a "significant impact on trans-Atlantic commerce." Asked whether it will be possible to find a new outcome without fundamental changes on the U.S. side, Greenstein said the U.S. issued a white paper about surveillance practices to help companies make the required risk assessment for SCCs, but that's an imperfect solution. U.S. domestic privacy legislation would probably not affect the negotiations because it probably wouldn't address ECJ requirements, which is why talks are focused on surveillance. No one believes a federal privacy bill can address mass surveillance because it's focused on the commercial side, said Bruno Gencarelli, deputy director-head of unit, international data flows and protection, EC Directorate-General for Justice and Consumers. Such a law would strengthen the basis on which any new PS would be grounded, he added.
Q1 smartphone imports to the U.S. declined 22% sequentially to 44.72 million handsets, up 24% from a year earlier, per Census data accessed Saturday through the International Trade Commission. Chinese smartphone shipments of 36.59 million handsets were down 24% from Q4 but 53% higher than Q1 2020, when China generated 66.4% amid COVID-19's lower factory utilization. China’s Q1 smartphone share was a more customary 82%, down slightly from 84.3% in Q4. Vietnam shipped 6.55 million smartphones to the U.S. in Q1, 8.4% fewer than in Q4, and 26% fewer than in Q1 2020. Vietnam as a haven for low-end smartphones is likely to continue ceding share to China, which owns the market in premium handset production, including 5G-enabled devices.
Median U.S. download speeds of SpaceX's Starlink constellation vary widely, from 40.36 Mbps in Columbia County, Oregon, to 93.09 Mbps in Shasta County, California, Ookla said Wednesday, citing its Q1 speed tests. This was sometimes an improvement over local fixed ISPs, while other times it's slower. The speed testing firm reported the downlink range in Canada -- 53.61-80.57 Mbps -- was narrower. Starlink latency was higher in all but one U.S. county. And 86.7% of Starlink U.S. users met the threshold of 25/3 Mbps, compared with 83.2% with fixed providers. SpaceX didn't comment.
Hughes and OneWeb received an Air Force Research Lab contract to demonstrate managed low earth orbit satellite communications services to connect the Arctic region to other sites globally, Hughes said Wednesday. It said Hughes will test and implement the end-to-end services on OneWeb's constellation using U.S. Northern Command locations. It said part of the demo effort will be Intellian, which is developing user terminals for the OneWeb network.
IRobot raised 2021 guidance Tuesday even as CEO Colin Angle cautioned on a quarterly call that it's "early in the year." The pandemic “continues to weigh heavily on the macroeconomic landscape and limit our visibility," he said. IRobot is challenged by the semiconductor shortage, and some component suppliers recently notified it of “potential volume limitations,” Angle said. The company is “grappling with rising costs for raw materials,” including resins that are up 50% in some situations, said Angle in Q&A; costs are higher in freight and transportation, too. Elevated costs are expected to extend through the next several months, reverting “over time” to “more normalized levels as market forces adjust.” Others also are grappling with chip issues (see 2104230052). On the “huge shift” to e-commerce during the coronavirus crisis, the executive said trends continued in Q1, with 56% of revenue coming from digital sales vs. 40% in 2019. He believes brick-and-mortar sales could “come back a bit” but not to 2019 levels when the split was 60/40. Q1 revenue grew 58% to $303.3 million. The stock closed 7.5% lower at $96.17. See Q1 materials here.
Trade groups whose members would pay foreign digital services taxes and those whose members would have to pay if tariffs are hiked up to 25% on products from the countries imposing DSTs agree the levies are wrong and government should use full persuasive power to convince countries like India, the U.K. and Spain not to impose these taxes. Tech groups split on whether tariffs are the right tool to convince countries to roll back or never pass DSTs. The Computer & Communications Industry Association gave the most direct support of levying tariffs on DST countries. In testimony at a virtual Office of the U.S. Trade Representative hearing Monday, CCIA Policy Counsel Rachael Stelly said USTR should work for a global international taxes solution and impose tariffs “to deter countries and send a strong message. CCIA "takes seriously the impact that tariffs can have," she said. "Tariffs should only be used in limited circumstances, in a targeted manner, and where there is a clear strategy in place designed to change the behavior of a trading partner. USTR’s proposed action appears to meet this standard.” Internet Association Director-Trade Policy Jordan Haas said IA has no position on the proposed retaliatory tariffs and hopes duties will never be levied because ideally, countries will roll back DST laws. He's concerned more countries are thinking of imposing such taxes. The App Association opposed tariffs, concerned targeted countries could retaliate and its small company members would be hurt. Representatives from the Retail Industry Leaders Association, National Retail Federation and others spoke against the tariffs.