EU regulators fined Google €890 million for favoring its own Search services and restricting Play Store developers from promoting cheaper offers.
The post Google Hit With €890M EU Fine as Regulators Crack Down Under Digital Markets Act appeared first on TechRepublic.
On Thursday, Google became the third tech giant slapped with massive Digital Markets Act (DMA) fines, ordered to pay more than $1 billion for two serious violations that the European Commission (EC) found went unchecked for way too long.
In a press release, the EC explained that the fines were due to Google “self-preferencing its own services on Google Search” ($522 million) and for anti-steering practices, like charging fees or restricting app developers from directing consumers to cheaper purchase options outside of Google Play ($488 million).
Google has 60 days to make changes to its services, or else risk even more daily fines. To comply with the DMA, the EC has asked Google to "treat third-party services that feature on Google's search results in a fair and non-discriminatory manner” compared to its own services in categories like shopping, hotels, and flights. And Google must also allow app developers, “both technically and contractually,” to freely sign up users and promote offers outside of Google Play.
© SOPA Images / Contributor | LightRocket
Hyundai Motor Company’s plan to put humanoid robots to work by 2028 is not part of current negotiations with striking South Korean autoworkers, according to the company.
The automaker is disputing news reports that partial labor strikes by the Hyundai Motor union at the world’s largest automotive plant in South Korea were spurred by concerns about the company's planned deployment of humanoid robots in the United States starting in 2028. A company statement shared with Ars describes the union’s demands as focusing on compensation-related issues such as wage increases, bonuses, and an extension of workers’ retirement age.
“Potential deployment of robots in Korean production facilities is not part of the current labor-management discussions,” according to the Hyundai statement. “Hyundai Motor Company remains committed to constructive engagement with the union and to reaching an agreement that supports the long-term interests of both employees and the company.”
© Boston Dynamics
The European Commission has fined Alibaba €550 million under the Digital Services Act, the largest penalty issued under the law so far.
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Yesterday, the European Commission slapped AliExpress with the largest fine yet under the Digital Services Act (DSA), exceeding $625 million.
In a press release, the EC said that AliExpress failed to “diligently assess and mitigate risks relating to the sale of illegal, unsafe, or counterfeit products on its e-commerce platform.”
Officials found that AliExpress not only failed to staff teams dedicated to removing counterfeit and dangerous items from the platform, but it also made it easy for bad actors to evade detection.
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Thousands of unionized Hyundai auto workers began walking off the job early after negotiations with the South Korean automaker broke down over plans to deploy humanoid robots—the most significant pushback from organized labor so far over the latest wave of robotic automation.
The partial strike at Hyundai’s automotive production complex in the city of Ulsan in South Korea represents “the car industry’s first factory stoppage addressing humanoid robots,” according to The Wall Street Journal. Workers have already ended their day and night shifts two hours early at the world’s largest automotive plant from July 13 through July 15, and plan to start staging four-hour strikes from July 20 to 22 after 15 rounds of negotiations failed to reach an agreement, The Korea Times reported.
Union pushback began as soon as Hyundai Motor Group unveiled the latest version of the Atlas humanoid robot, a two-legged robot that stands at more than 6 feet tall and can lift more than 100 pounds, at the start of this year. Atlas is made by Boston Dynamics, the US robotics company that is about to become a wholly owned subsidiary of Hyundai.
© Boston Dynamics
ROCKVILLE, Maryland—Hundreds of Bethesda Game Studios and Zenimax Online Studios employees and their supporters braved nearly 100° F temperatures to protest sweeping layoffs across Xbox during a lunchtime rally in front of parent company Zenimax's headquarters today. The rally was one of five today organized by Zenimax Workers United and its parent union, the Communication Workers of America, at offices across Texas, California, and Montreal.
Attendees held up signs with messages like "Layoffs... layoffs never change" and "Our players deserve better" as union organizers and employees rallied the crowd with speeches and songs. The overwhelming message was one of solidarity and a willingness to push back against job cuts they say have decimated their development and quality assurance teams.
"It's about us building our movement and making sure that we get seen and we're visible," Bethesda technical producer and union volunteer organizer Nathan Hahn told Ars. "Because we want to make sure that we're not okay with these layoffs and that Xbox knows."
EU regulators preliminarily found Meta’s Facebook and Instagram design addictive, raising the prospect of app changes and a potential $12.1 billion fine.
The post Meta Faces EU Breach Finding Over Addictive Facebook, Instagram Design appeared first on TechRepublic.
Apple lost its EU court challenge over iOS and the App Store, keeping both under the Digital Markets Act as another legal challenge still remains possible.
The post Apple Loses EU Court Fight Over iOS, App Store Rules appeared first on TechRepublic.
Anthropic is embarking on a major expansion in Seattle, underscoring how artificial intelligence companies are emerging as one of the few bright spots in the region’s office market.
The maker of the Claude AI model recently finalized a lease at Dexter Yard North in Seattle’s South Lake Union neighborhood, capping months of speculation about the company’s expansion plans in the region.
Terms of the deal were not publicly disclosed, but CoStar News reports that the company leased 113,000 square feet of space across multiple floors in the north tower at 700 Dexter Avenue North. CoStar called it one of the largest office deals of the year so far in Seattle.
The expansion would significantly increase Anthropic’s footprint in Seattle, where the San Francisco-based company established an engineering office in 2024 as it recruited talent from the region’s deep pool of AI researchers and software engineers.
It would also place Anthropic next door to Amazon. The companies in April expanded their existing partnership: Amazon committed to invest up to $25 billion in Anthropic, which simultaneously made a $100 billion-plus spending commitment to AWS over 10 years.
The following month, Anthropic announced $65 billion in funding at a $965 billion valuation, thought to be the last venture round before an initial public offering later this year.
On Thursday, Anthropic released Claude Sonnet 5, which the company says “can make plans, use tools like browsers and terminals, and run autonomously at a level that, just a few months ago, required larger and more expensive models.”
Also this week, The U.S. Department of Commerce removed export controls on the company’s Claude Fable 5 and Mythos 5 models, part of an ongoing back-and-forth with the Trump administration.
Anthropic’s Seattle lease provides hope that demand from AI companies could help revive parts of Seattle’s office market after several years of elevated vacancy driven by remote work and tech industry cutbacks. Seattle’s office vacancy rate inched up to 28% during the first quarter, the highest in the region.
Other AI firms, including OpenAI and Databricks, have also expanded their Seattle-area office footprints in recent months. In those instances, the companies chose to grow in nearby Bellevue.
Dexter Yard, a two-building office and life sciences campus developed by BioMed Realty, opened in 2022 and was designed to accommodate both technology and biotech tenants. The north tower contains approximately 163,000 square feet of office and lab space.
Anthropic has a number of open engineering roles spread across Seattle, New York and San Francisco. The company says it expects all staff to be in one of their offices at least 25% of the time.
A spokesperson for Anthropic acknowledged the new lease, but did not respond to requests for additional comment.
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