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The entrance to Google’s U.K. offices in London.

Olly Curtis | Future Publishing | via Getty Images

LONDON — Britain’s competition watchdog on Friday issued a statement of objections over Google’s ad tech practices, which the regulator provisionally found are impacting competition in the U.K.

In a statement, the Competition and Markets Authority alleged that the U.S. internet search titan “has harmed competition by using its dominance in online display advertising to favour its own ad tech services.”

The “vast majority” of the U.K.’s thousands of publishers and advertisers use Google’s technology in order to bid for and sell space to display ads in a market where players were spending £1.8 billion annually as of a 2019 study, according to the CMA.

The regulator added that it is also “concerned that Google is actively using its dominance in this sector to preference its own services.” So-called “self-preferencing” of services by technology giants is a key concern for regulators scrutinizing these companies.

The CMA further noted that Google disadvantages ad technology competitors, preventing them from competing on a “level playing field.”

“Many businesses are able to keep their digital content free or cheaper by using online advertising to generate revenue. Adverts on these websites and apps reach millions of people across the UK — assisting the buying and selling of goods and services,” Juliette Enser, interim executive director of enforcement at the CMA, said in a statement Friday.

“That’s why it’s so important that publishers and advertisers — who enable this free content — can benefit from effective competition and get a fair deal when buying or selling digital advertising space,” Enser added.

Google did not immediately respond to a CNBC request for comment.

It’s not the first time the U.S. tech giant has been said to be abusing its dominant position in ad tech to harm competition. Within the European Union, regulators last year charged Google with breaching antitrust rules in ad tech and said they may seek a break-up of parts of the tech giant’s business to allay their concerns.

Stateside, a federal judge in August sided with the Justice Department over allegations that Google has held a monopoly on search and text advertising for years.

That ruling — the first anti-monopoly decision against a tech company in decades — has been compared with an antitrust pronouncement against Microsoft, determining that the firm had illegally used the market power of its Windows operating system to quash competition form rival browsers, namely Netscape Navigator.

In the CMA’s decision Friday, the watchdog said that, since 2015, Google has abused its dominant position as the operator of both ad buying tools “Google Ads” and “DV360,” and of a publisher ad server known as “DoubleClick For Publishers,” in order to strengthen the market position of its advertising exchange, AdX.

Ad exchanges are technology platforms that facilitate the buying and selling of media advertising inventory. They work by fielding requests for bids from publishers offering space to sell ads, then matching them with responding bids from advertisers through an auction process.

AdX, on which Google charges its highest fees to advertisers, is the “centre of the ad tech stack” for the company, the CMA said, with Google taking roughly 20% of the amount for each bid that’s processed on its platform.

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OpenAI temporarily blocked from using ‘Cameo’ after trademark lawsuit

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OpenAI temporarily blocked from using 'Cameo' after trademark lawsuit

Dado Ruvic | Reuters

OpenAI will not be allowed use the word “cameo” to name any products or features in its Sora app for a month after a federal judge placed a temporary restraining order for the term on the AI startup.

U.S. District Judge Eumi K. Lee granted a temporary restraining order on Monday, blocking OpenAI from using the “cameo” mark or similar words like “Kameo” or “CameoVideo” for any function related to Sora, the company’s AI-generated video app.

“We disagree with the complaint’s assertion that anyone can claim exclusive ownership over the word ‘cameo’, and we look forward to continuing to make our case to the court,” an OpenAI spokesperson told CNBC.

Lee granted the order after OpenAI was sued in October by Cameo, a platform that allows users to purchase personalized videos from celebrities. Cameo filed a trademark lawsuit against the artificial intelligence company following the launch of Sora’s “Cameo” feature, which allowed users to generate characters of themselves or others and insert them into videos.

“We are gratified by the court’s decision, which recognizes the need to protect consumers from the confusion that OpenAI has created by using the Cameo trademark,” Cameo CEO Steven Galanis said in a statement. “While the court’s order is temporary, we hope that OpenAI will agree to stop using our mark permanently to avoid any further harm to the public or Cameo.”

The order is set to expire on Dec. 22, and a hearing for whether the halt should be made permanent is scheduled for Dec. 19.

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OpenAI announces shopping research tool in latest e-commerce push

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OpenAI announces shopping research tool in latest e-commerce push

Sam Altman, chief executive officer of OpenAI Inc., during a media tour of the Stargate AI data center in Abilene, Texas, US, on Tuesday, Sept. 23, 2025.

Kyle Grillot | Bloomberg | Getty Images

OpenAI announced a new tool called “shopping research” on Monday, right as consumers will be ramping up spending ahead of the holiday season.

The startup said the tool is designed for ChatGPT users who are looking for detailed, well-researched shopping guides. The guides include top products, key differences between the products and the latest information from retailers, according to a blog.

Users will be able to tailor their guides based on their budget, what features they care about and who they are shopping for. OpenAI said it will take a couple of minutes to generate answers with shopping research, so users who are looking for simple answers like a price check can still rely on a regular ChatGPT response.

When users submit prompts to ChatGPT that say things like, “Find the quietest cordless stick vacuum for a small apartment,” or “I need a gift for my four year old niece who loves art,” they will see the shopping research tool pop up automatically, OpenAI said. The tool can also be accessed from the menu.

OpenAI has been pushing deeper into e-commerce in recent months. The company introduced a feature called Instant Checkout in September that allows users to make purchases directly from eligible merchants through ChatGPT.

Shopping research users will be able to make purchases with Instant Checkout in the future, OpenAI said on Monday.

OpenAI said its shopping research results are organic and based on publicly available retail websites, and that it will not share users’ chats with retailers. It’s possible that shopping research will make mistakes around product availability and pricing, the company said.

Shopping research is rolling out to OpenAI’s Free, Go, Plus and Pro users who are logged in to ChatGPT.

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Tesla fans told by Dutch safety regulator to stop pressuring agency on ‘FSD Supervised’

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Tesla fans told by Dutch safety regulator to stop pressuring agency on 'FSD Supervised'

A Tesla logo outside the company’s Tilburg Factory and Delivery Center.

Karol Serewis | Getty Images

Tesla is trying to get its “FSD Supervised” technology approved for use in the Netherlands. But Dutch regulators are telling Tesla fans to stop pressuring safety authority RDW on the matter, and that their efforts will have “no influence” on the ultimate decision.

The RDW issued a statement on Monday directed at those who have been sending messages to try and get the agency to clear Tesla’s premium partially automated driving system, marketed in the U.S. as the Full Self-Driving (Supervised) option. It’s not yet available for use in the Netherlands or Europe broadly.

“We thank everyone who has already done so and would like to ask everyone not to contact us about this,” the agency said. “It takes up unnecessary time for our customer service. Moreover, this will have no influence on whether or not the planning is met. Road safety is the RDW’s top priority: admission is only possible once the safety of the system has been convincingly demonstrated.”

The regulator said it will make a decision only after Elon Musk’s company shows that the technology meets the country’s stringent vehicle safety standards. The RDW has booked a schedule allowing Tesla to demonstrate its systems, and said it could decide on authorization as early as February.

Last week, Tesla posted on X encouraging its followers to contact RDW to express their wishes to have the systems approved.

The post claimed, “RDW has committed to granting Netherlands National approval in February 2026,” adding a message to “please contact them via link below to express your excitement & thank them for making this happen as soon as possible.” Tesla said other EU countries could then follow suit.

The RDW corrected Tesla on Monday, saying in a statement on its official website, that such approval is not guaranteed and had not been promised.

Tesla didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

In the U.S., the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration opened an investigation into Tesla’s FSD-equipped vehicles in October following reports of widespread traffic violations tied to use of the systems.

The cars Tesla sells today, even with FSD Supervised engaged, require a human driver ready to brake or steer at any time.

For years, Musk has promised that Tesla customers would soon be able to turn their existing electric vehicles into robotaxis, capable of generating income for owners while they sleep or go on vacation, with a simple software update.

That hasn’t happened yet, and Tesla has since informed owners that future upgrades will require new hardware as well as software releases.

Tesla is testing a Robotaxi-brand ride-hailing service in Texas and elsewhere, but it includes human safety drivers or supervisors on board who either conduct the drives or manually intervene as needed. Musk has said the company aims to remove human driers in Austin, Texas, by the end of 2025.

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