Leah 'AntiTrustButVerify' Nylen

Cali just banned bosses from requiring workers to repay them if they quit: www.gov.ca.gov/wp-content/u...

Staffing agencies have sued hundreds of healthcare workers for quitting or refusing work, sometimes seeking five figures, I reported in this investigation: www.bloomberg.com/news/feature...

"The court is required to continue its constitutional functions"

US judges so far have rejected the Justice Department’s requests to delay more than a dozen legal challenges to Trump administration policies as the government shutdown enters its second week:
www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

OpenAI Warns EU Antitrust Watchdogs of Big Tech’s Data Dominance OpenAI has raised concerns with European Union antitrust enforcers over potentially harmful conduct by the likes of Alphabet Inc.’s Google, Microsoft Corp. and Apple Inc.

from my colleagues in Brussels

Google Hired Lazard for Potential Ad Exchange Sale in 2020 Alphabet Inc.’s Google hired investment bank Lazard Inc. to evaluate the potential sale of its advertising exchange unit in 2020, according to court testimony on Wednesday. A federal judge declared la...

www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

Before landing, the captain asked passengers who weren’t in a hurry to stay in their seats, so the H-1B travelers could make a dash for immigration, people on board recalled. The flight landed in San Francisco at 7:59 p.m. local time. When cellphone service returned for those on board, many found messages from loved ones saying the new $100,000 fee wouldn’t impact them after all. The woman from seat 22D sat in her seat crying while waiting to deplane.

Like a spy thriller, but it's a plane load of H1-B holders rushing to fly back to the U.S. to meet a (maybe, confusing) White House deadline. www.wsj.com/politics/pol...

*that allows

For the next two weeks, I get to spend most of my waking hours in a courthouse to allows no electronics for a trial about the future of the Open Web. #irony

Breakup of Google Ad Tech Monopoly on the Table in Remedy Trial The Justice Department gets a second chance to force a breakup of Alphabet Inc.’s Google Monday as it heads to court before the Virginia federal judge who ruled the search giant illegally monopolized ...

www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

How Trump Broke Corporate America’s Most Valuable Consultant Businesses are begging the White House and RFK Jr. to rethink their massive cuts to Niosh, a workplace research agency that saves the US billions of dollars a year.

New @businessweek.bsky.social feature: On a budget of $1 per American, NIOSH conducts or funds most US research on how to keep workers alive & well. The Trump Administration decided to blow it up.
www.bloomberg.com/news/feature...
Based on interviews with 40+ current/recent staff throughout NIOSH

Ticketmaster, Live Nation Sued by FTC Over Ticket Resales The US Federal Trade Commission and seven states sued Live Nation Entertainment Inc. and its Ticketmaster subsidiary for failing to stem the use of automated ticketing bots and large-scale resale oper...

www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

This was also the most interesting thing to me as well. The number of deals is falling but the number of Big Deals (+$1B) is rising.

Bessent, Like Fed Governor, Made Contradictory Mortgage Pledges US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent once agreed to occupy two different houses as his “principal residence” at the same time, mortgage documents show — the same kind of contradictory pledges that Pres...

SCOOP by @anthonycormier.bsky.social & Zach Mider

Bessent once agreed to occupy 2 different houses as his “principal residence” at the same time, mortgage documents show — the same kind of contradictory pledges thatTrump has been using to try to oust Lisa Cook.

www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

Assistant AG for Antitrust Gail Slater speaks from behind a podium

AAG for Antitrust Gail Slater: “we should reject the suggestion that the only path to our economic security is to turn a critical market over to a monopolistic corporation. National champions are too often national chokepoints.”

FTC Probes Whether Ticketmaster Does Enough to Stop Resale Bots Live Nation Inc.’s Ticketmaster is being probed by the US Federal Trade Commission over whether it’s done enough to keep bots from illegally reselling tickets on its platform.

by @sisco.bsky.social www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

"The Court should not discard precedent merely to scratch
an ideological itch. Preserving Humphrey’s Executor would show proper fidelity to stare decisis and an appropriate measure of judicial restraint."

"It would suggest that decades of accepted legal
development can be undone in an instant, swept aside by what appears, given the stakes, like a scholastic hairsplitting exercise."

Techfreedom argues the Supreme Court needs to reinstate Slaughter "For generations, lawmakers relied on the reasonable assumption that Humphrey’s Executor permitted them to establish independent agencies. To now declare that the case never carried that weight would look like a trick—a 'gotcha.'"

Fate of Fed Intertwined With FTC Democrat, Supreme Court Told Allowing President Donald Trump to remove independent agency members undermines the legal basis for the independence of the Federal Reserve, lawyers for the Federal Trade Commission’s sole remaining D...

www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

Google Ad Tech Sale Offer Fell Far Short of Breakup DOJ Seeks Google considered selling off parts of its ad tech business to resolve antitrust concerns in Europe and the US, a lawyer for the company said Monday, but a Justice Department proposal to force the sal...

www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

Amazon, Google Probed by FTC Over Search Advertising Practices The US Federal Trade Commission is investigating whether Amazon.com Inc. and Alphabet Inc.’s Google misled advertisers that place ads on their websites, according to people familiar with the matter.

With @sisco.bsky.social www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

Google, Meta, OpenAI Face FTC Inquiry on Chatbot Impact on Kids The Federal Trade Commission ordered Alphabet Inc.’s Google, OpenAI Inc., Meta Platforms Inc. and four other makers of artificial intelligence chatbots to turn over information about the impacts of th...

www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

 The seven companies include Google; OpenAI; Meta and its Instagram unit; Snap Inc.; Elon Musk’s xAI; and Character Technologies Inc., the developer of Character.AI.

The Federal Trade Commission ordered seven companies to turn over information about the impacts of their artificial intelligence chatbots on kids.

The Department of Energy HQ is purportedly cancelling all pending #FOIA requests submitted before October 1, 2024, unless the requester emails a specific address w/i 30 days asking the agency to continue processing.

This is wildly illegal.

public-inspection.federalregister.gov/2025-15490.pdf

EchoStar Airwaves Sale Spells Death for 4-Player Mobile Market EchoStar Corp.’s sale of billions of dollars in wireless spectrum to AT&T Inc. and SpaceX will benefit Charlie Ergen and the companies involved, but may leave consumers facing higher prices and fe...

With @kelcee.bsky.social

Google admits the open web is in ‘rapid decline’ One Google exec recently said the web is “thriving.”

Well, well, well: in a court filing, Google finally admits 'the web is in rapid decline.' Sharply at odds' with executives' public comments this year www.theverge.com/news/773928/...

But, let’s be clear what John Roberts did this morning:

Roberts effectively overturned the Humphrey’s Executor precedent and both lower courts’ rulings in this case in order to allow Trump to fire Slaughter for now — on the shadow docket and through an “administrative” stay issued by him alone.

US Chief Justice Lets Trump Oust FTC Commissioner for Now US Chief Justice John Roberts let President Donald Trump temporarily oust a Democratic member of the Federal Trade Commission, signaling that the Supreme Court is likely to back Trump’s bid to assert ...

After working for three days last week, FTC Commissioner Slaughter is now back in limboland.

www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

Bad Google Search Results Are Costing Consumers up to $616 Bad Google Search Results Are Costing Consumers up to $616

Wallethub is out with an interesting study today on how much consumers would overspend if they simply follow the top results on Google
wallethub.com/blog/bad-goo...