The FCC was required to hold a hearing before revoking authorizations (see 2111080056), China Telecom Americas told the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit in a Tuesday brief (docket 21-1233). The company asked the court to vacate the order. The FCC “arbitrarily and capriciously violated the [Administrative Procedure Act], Communications Act, and its own rules and precedents by refusing to hold a live or written-record hearing before revoking China Telecom Americas’ domestic and international common-carrier authorizations,” the company said: The FCC violated its due-process rights and never proved “revocation is warranted due to a carrier’s ‘egregious’ adjudicated misconduct.”
Retail competition is benefiting consumers with more choices, competitive pricing and innovation, a Deloitte survey commissioned by the Computer & Communications Industry Association found. Nearly three-fourths of consumers said they shopped more than one retailer on a recent shopping trip, 42% shopped two and 30% shopped three or more, said the survey. Two-thirds of shoppers used a digital device in a store to compare prices and products online; 55% started a shopping journey online before buying in store, it said. More than four in 10 shoppers said they prefer multiple fulfillment options when buying online rather than defaulting to home delivery; 46% will pay more to pick up an item in store five minutes from home rather than wait for two-day delivery, said the study. About 27% of online sales were fulfilled at a physical store last year, up from 21.7% the prior year, said the report. Small-to-medium businesses (SMB) are using omnichannel fulfillment: 61% offer buy online, pick up in store, and 50% offer same-day curbside pickup for e-commerce customers, it said. Some 99% of SMB retailers use at least one digital tool or marketplace, including retailers selling only via physical stores. “Consumers should not be viewed as purely online or offline shoppers but rather a mix of both, as they are often using both channels throughout their shopping journey,” said CCIA Director-Research and Economics Trevor Wagener.
The FTC extended by a month the deadline for comments in its November inquiry into how supply-chain disruptions are affecting competition in consumer goods markets, said the agency Friday. Comments are now due Feb. 28 in docket FTC-2021-0068.
WhatsApp must clarify 2021 changes to its privacy policy and terms of service to ensure they comply with EU consumer protection law, the European Commission said Thursday. After an alert by the European Consumer Organisation (BEUC), the EC and EU Consumer Protection Cooperation Network of regulatory authorities notified the company it must explain how it complies with the law. Officials questioned whether consumers are given sufficiently clear information on their decision to accept or reject the new terms of service; whether WhatApp's in-app notifications prompting consumers to accept the terms and policy are fair; and whether consumers have an adequate chance to learn about the new terms before accepting them. They're concerned about exchange of users' personal data between WhatsApp and third parties or other Facebook/Meta companies. The platform has until Feb. 28 to explain how it will address the issues. WhatsApp "bombarded users for months with persistent pop-up messages" and was "deliberately vague" about what they were being pushed to accept, said BEUC Deputy Director General Ursula Pachl. WhatsApp looks forward to explaining to the EC how it protects users' privacy in compliance with EU law, said a spokesperson. He noted that, at the direction of the Irish Data Protection Commission, the company reorganized and added more detail to its European region privacy policy in November, several months after BEUC's July action.
Social media entered 2022 with 4.62 billion users globally, equaling more than 58% of the world’s population, with 424 million new users added since Jan. 1, 2021, said a Digital 2022 report released Wednesday by social media management platform Hootsuite and creative agency We Are Social. Facebook remains the world’s most used social platform, followed by YouTube and WhatsApp. Other findings: (1) Instagram’s ad reach jumped by 21% in the past year to nearly 1.5 billion monthly users; (2) People who own cryptocurrency jumped nearly 38%; (3) The COVID-19 pandemic-induced surge in e-commerce adoption rates shows no signs of abating, with nearly six in 10 “working-age internet users” now buying something online weekly.
Pakistani users shouldn't pay SpaceX a deposit for Starlink service because the satellite broadband service isn't licensed to operate in that country, the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority said last week. It said it "has already taken up the matter with Starlink to stop taking pre-order bookings from intended consumers with immediate effect." SpaceX didn't comment Tuesday.
Juniper Research picked Shanghai as the world’s top smart city for 2022 for its “citizen cloud” data platform “as a one-stop point for over 1,000 different services for city residents,” said the firm Monday. Rounding out the top five were Seoul, Barcelona, Beijing and New York, based on their “transportation and infrastructure, energy and lighting, city management and technology, and urban connectivity,” it said.
Open radio access network revenue is projected to be some 15% of the overall 2G-5G RAN market by 2026, “reflecting healthy traction in multiple regions with both basic and advanced radios,” Dell’Oro Group said Friday. Asia-Pacific is dominating in the early phase, with more than 40% of 2021-26 revenue, the researcher said: The move to virtualized RAN is “progressing at a slightly slower pace” and should be 5%-10% of the RAN market in 2026. “Open RAN is here to stay and the architecture will play an important role before 6G,” Dell’Oro said.
The European Parliament wants tougher controls on online profiling and targeting, it said Thursday, approving its negotiating position on the Digital Services Act. The DSA proposal contains measures to tackle illegal content and requirements for very large platforms to prevent abuse of their systems (see 2012150022). Lawmakers changed the original European Commission proposal, including bans on targeting the data of minors to show them advertisements, and on profiling people on the basis of special categories of data that allow vulnerable groups to be targeted. Lawmakers wanted more transparent and informed choice on targeted ads, saying refusing consent to such marketing shouldn't be harder or more time-consuming than giving it. They said online platforms shouldn't be able to use deceiving or nudging techniques to influence user behavior through "dark patterns." The vote paves the way for "trilogue" talks with EU governments, which approved their negotiating stance in November (see 2111260016), and the EC. The parliamentary version got guarded support from some groups. "Parliament has done a mixed job," said the European Consumer Organisation: It failed to create a "clear liability regime" for online marketplaces to ensure consumers are protected and compensated if they're harmed by illegal practices on platforms; and it should have supported a full ban on surveillance ads. The Computer & Communications Industry Association urged negotiators to "consider the impact of proposed new obligations such as restrictions to personalized ads, broad 'know-your-business-consumer' obligations, user redress, and data disclosure to law enforcement and researchers." European Digital Rights said banning surveillance ads altogether "would have been a more effective strategy," but nixing the use of sensitive data and outlawing dark patterns "is certainly the next-best thing." EDRi criticized lawmakers for refusing to give users the right to choose the ranking and recommendation algorithms they prefer. The Information Technology Industry Council welcomed the decision to maintain the EU e-commerce directive's limited liability rules for online intermediaries, saying policymakers should stay focused on the measure's original intent of creating a level playing field for businesses with proportionate rules on removing illegal online content: Issue-specific provisions such as the ban on dark patterns and regulating targeted ads "are missing nuances regarding the technicality and feasibility of these issues." Asked which provisions are likely to be controversial, a spokesperson from the lead Internal Market and Consumer Protection Committee said that's for the rapporteur to announce in coming days, since determining the sticking points is strategic for the negotiation.
The State Department wants private sector participants to advise U.S. delegations at various 2022 events promoting space commerce as well as implementation of best practices for the peaceful uses of outer space for civil and commercial activities in a safe and responsible manner, said Wednesday's Federal Register. The events include the U.N. Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space Scientific and Technical Subcommittee meeting in February, the COPUOS Legal Subcommittee meeting in April and the COPUOS plenary in June, all in Vienna, and World Space Forums organized by the U.N. Office of Outer Space Affairs, it said.