Regulation and Compliance

Recently signed into law, the Foundations for Evidence-Based Policymaking Act is going to have a big impact on the data business. It contains within it provisions to open up all non-sensitive databases, and make them easily available in machine-readable, non-proprietary formats. Russell Perkins explains.

On March 20, the European Commission announced it was fining technology giant Google €1.49 billion, or about $1.67 billion U.S., for breaching the European Union's antitrust rules for abusive practices in online advertising, Specifically, the European Commission said Google (NASDAQ: GOOGL) had abused its power by imposing restrictions on third-party websites like newspapers, blogs, travel services and other websites, effectively blocking ads from Google's rivals from coming up in search results.

Halloween is just around the corner and we have tricks and treats in this weeks Five on Friday: the FBI investigates ad fraud and questionable media buying practices in the U.S., Apple puts a stop to tricksters using deceitful practices to entice users into subscribing, Discord opens a beta games store and revamps its Nitro games subscription, DocuSign agrees to acquire SpringCM, and Shopify shares three support channels your subscription business needs now.

If you are looking for that special someone using a dating app, be wary of Match.com. Yesterday the Federal Trade Commission announced it is suing Match Group, Inc. for five deceptive or unfair business practices to get people to subscribe to their service and to stay subscribed. Match owns Match.com, Tinder, OKCupid, PlentyOfFish, Meetic and dozens of other dating sites. In a lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas yesterday, the FTC alleges that Match - who controls approximately 25% of the online dating market - tricked hundreds of thousands of consumers into subscribing to Match.com and making cancellation difficult. Match is based in Dallas.

With subscription news headlines covering everything from SaaS and subscription boxes to streaming video and solar gardens, 2016 was an interesting year for the subscription economy. This made winnowing down the list of top stories a difficult task. After all, big names like Netflix, Microsoft, the New York Times, Spotify and Amazon were in the subscription news headlines almost every week. While those big players were adding new offerings and contemplating success strategies, companies like Walmart, The Skimm, Etsy, Medium, and Bed Bath & Beyond tested the subscription waters. Weve gone through all of those news stories and more to bring you highlights from 2016.

Offering lifetime subscription terms carries true risks. What does “lifetime” mean? In a proposed settlement against SiriusXM, the satellite radio provider will find out.

On July 18, streaming music service Spotify got hit with two more copyright lawsuits, filed in Tennessee Middle District Court in Nashville, by two independent publishers, says The Tennessean. According to The Tennessean, the lawsuits allege that Spotify failed to obtain the necessary licenses for thousands of songs and has, therefore, been illegally streaming them to its listeners. The lawsuits are asking for the maximum allowed of $150,000 for each unlicensed work which would be in the $365 million range if Spotify is determined to have violated copyright law.

Happy St. Patricks Day and thanks for checking out Five on Friday, our curated list of subscription-related must reads. In this weeks edition of Five on Friday, youll find 7 SaaS KPIs to track in 2017, tips for creating effective Facebook Ads, cross-border taxes, emotional triggers and reducing churn.

After blocking news sharing in Australia, Facebook ended its standoff with the Australian government, after receiving minor concessions.

Google has been fined $593M by France's Competition Authority for failing to negotiate in good faith with publishers and news agencies.