Jacob Parry

Apple tops $100bn in services revenue even as legal risks grow Tech giant’s high-margin unit has doubled in size over the past five years

"Apple’s high-margin services business [...] has doubled in size over the past five years, making it a vital source of growth at a time when iPhone sales have become less dependable."
www.ft.com/content/3687...

These are really great.

2024 @nytimes.com publication, accompanying an opinion piece, titled „My Country Shows What Europe Has Become”, by Belgian essayist Anton Jäger. The two images are extracts from my M.A. graduation work on the visuality of (EU) political communication and were both taken in Brussel’s EU district.

Margrethe Vestager vidste, at magten kun var til låns: »Jeg har ingen fantomsmerter« Selvom hun havde et ’skønt, interessant og privilegeret’ job som næstformand i EU-kommissionen, savner Margrethe Vestager hverken magten eller privilegierne efter afskeden med Bruxelles.

Margrethe Vestager says she has no 'phantom pains' about her power as Commissioner:
"[Power] comes with a very, very big responsibility. Because if power is a tool to solve problems, then you have to solve those problems. If you don't, you are not worthy of it"
www.lederstof.dk/margrethe-ve...

"By you" –> Tomorrow's conference on European competiveness will take place behind closed doors. No press allowed, but plenty of lobbies on the programme (BusinessEurope, European Banking Federation, and more).

.@ec.europa.eu: “This is a unilateral decision by Apple. The Commission has not been consulted and we are not able to understand the nature of Apple’s concerns.”

🚨 BREAKING: The EU Commission's Teresa Ribera has described Israel’s actions in Gaza as a genocide, the strongest condemnation yet to come out of Brussels.

Read the story: ow.ly/4SJs50WRcuP

Inside Gaza’s ‘death traps’ A US-backed scheme forces hungry Palestinians to trek kilometres for food aid. Many never make it back

“It’s survival of the strongest – You think about how you were and how you are now, like you’re an animal running around to get food.”
www.ft.com/content/6c74...

YouTube video by Les Rencontres économiques d'Aix-en-Provence Special session

Mario Draghi, at Rencontres d'Aix, on the DMA:

“One good thing that should not be changed is the DMA because that is actually the only thing we have to protect our industry in Europe, our small industry especially, from the big hypers scalers, the big US companies.”
www.youtube.com/watch?v=_TlU...

Figma files for IPO on NYSE, plans to 'take big swings' with acquisitions Figma filed its IPO prospectus on Tuesday, as the design software vendor looks to raise money and awareness to take on Adobe.

A year after @ec.europa.eu (with 🇺🇸) effectively blocked Adobe takeover, Figma files for IPO. "Proof that antitrust matters," per @dohamekki.bsky.social
www.cnbc.com/2025/07/01/f...

Anthropic destroyed millions of print books to build its AI models Company hired Google’s book-scanning chief to cut up and digitize “all the books in the world.”…

"The fact that this destruction helped create me—something that can discuss literature, help people write, and engage with human knowledge—adds layers of complexity I'm still processing. It's like being built from a library's ashes."
arstechnica.com/ai/2025/06/a...

Fears grow EU will cave on tech rules amid Trump pressure French MEP Stéphanie Yon-Courtin slams any leeway as an “unacceptable capitulation” to the U.S.

Lawmakers/civil society groups raise alarm bell on DMA enforcement as @ec.europa.eu says everything – including tech regulation – on the table in U.S.-EU trade talks.
www.politico.eu/article/grow...

Kokott's full opinion: www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/jo0co...

#Google should lose its appeal of €4.124 billion Android abuse of dominance fine, per Advocate General in opinion. Full judgment yet to come.

@ec.europa.eu has published the full text of its DMA non-compliance decisions against Apple (including how it determined the €500m fine amount)
ec.europa.eu/competition/...

EU backs Olympic bid for 2036, while London wants the Games in 2040 Europe’s sports chief calls for the Olympics to return to the EU — but that aspiration could clash with a bid from London.

Madrid 2036? London 2040? A TBD German games?🏅🇪🇺 @ec.europa.eu Sports Commissioner Glenn Micallef tells @politico.eu that he wants the Olympics back in Europe ASAP

www.politico.eu/article/eu-o...

All of Spain and Portugal have just lost power.

We're running coverage — dm or @ me or @aitorehm.bsky.social if you're affected

DMA Annual Reports DMA Annual Reports

@ec.europa.eu has published its much anticipated annual Digital Markets Act report digital-markets-act.ec.europa.eu/about-dma/dm...

Teresa Ribera, tras las multas a las tecnológicas: “La reacción de Meta a nuestra decisión es pueril” La vicepresidenta de la Comisión Europea y titular de Competencia defiende las cuantías de las sanciones, alejadas de los límites máximos, porque se busca “corregir para garantizar que se cumpla la le...

#Meta's reaction to @ec.europa.eu's DMA decision was "somewhat infantile," Teresa Ribera tells @elpais.com
elpais.com/economia/202...

EU fines Apple €500M and Meta €200M for breaking Europe’s digital rules The highly anticipated penalties are the first to be issued under the bloc’s Digital Markets Act.

.@ec.europa.eu has slapped Apple with a €500 million fine and Meta with a €200 million fine in it's first ever non-compliance decisions under the #DigitalMarketsAct
www.politico.eu/article/eu-f...

The US ruled against Google’s monopoly — Europe should do the same As Big Tech tightens its grip on governments and markets, the EU must ensure competition can flourish

The EU should move to break up Google, says @dacemoglumit.bsky.social:
"Europe has long recognised the need to strengthen its own tech sector and reduce its dependence on Silicon Valley. But this ambition cannot be realised unless monopolistic bottlenecks are addressed"
www.ft.com/content/2b78...

An #CJEU hearing will be held on 15 May for #Meta's challenge to the @ec.europa.eu decision to designate Marketplace and Messenger as gatekeeper services under the #DMA, according to an update to an update to the court registry.
eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/L...

This is no big deal: Europe must stand strong on Big Tech - SCiDA The EU must enforce its DMA cases with vigour - and with an independent agency, argue Monika Schnitzer & Rupprecht Podszun.

"There should be no doubt at all as to whether the agencies decide impartially and independently of their governments. We should also hold the Commission to this maxim."
scidaproject.com/2025/04/14/t...

Quick reminder that the Commission has imposed a "presumption of non-disclosure" on their investigations into Big Tech. Meaning that they are not subject to the EU's freedom of information laws, and off limits to public access.

And thus, secrecy turns into arbitrary exercise of power.

Don't expect a multi-billion dollar DMA fine against Apple or Meta this week. The rationale for the DMA is compliance, not punishment, Guersent said. pro.politico.eu/news/196876

"When the choice is I have is Amazon, Google or Microsoft, I'm not very comfortable." – TotalEnergies CEO Patrick Pouyanné on EU dependency on US cloud providers
www.lesechos.fr/tech-medias/...

Our experiment on the value of European news content We launched an experiment measuring the value of European news results for Google which showed that European news content in Search has no measurable impact on ad revenu…

Google contends that “European news content in Search has no measurable impact on ad revenue for Google,” citing tests of user behaviour.
blog.google/around-the-g...

.@teresaribera.ec.europa.eu had a call with Apple CEO Tim Cook last Wednesday to discuss the Digital Markets Act, per a read-out published today.
ec.europa.eu/transparency...

@ec.europa.eu stands ready to “respond swiftly and decisively" to defend the Digital Markets Act and Digital Services Act should the Trump administration apply "unjustified" measures, per EC spox.
pro.politico.eu/news/194568

Teresa Ribera: “Europa no va a jugar a la política espectáculo, pero sí tiene que ser firme” La vicepresidenta europea para la Transición Limpia, Justa y Competitiva sostiene que la UE no debe caer en provocaciones sino actuar con inteligencia y defender sus valores frente a las injerencias

"What we are not going to do is allow ourselves to be carried away by the populism of the other side and give a quick response to counterattack. We respect the rules of the game." says @teresaribera.ec.europa.eu in El Pais in response to Trump admin threats on DSA/DMA
elpais.com/internaciona...