We did a story last week on missing documents and self-deleting texts, and how it's frustrating judges the world over

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🔎 With Epic Games' 16-wk Australian super-trial against Apple and Google over, we've now ungated deep-dive analysis by Saloni Sinha & Ryan Cropp—plus highlights from our real-time reporting during an intense four months for #BigTech and #antitrust ⬇ lnkd.in/dHNyhYrq

UNPAYWALLED analysis of the 16-week Epic Games-Google-Apple trial from me and Saloni Sinha here. In an incredible feat of journalistic endurance, Saloni was there for every single minute of the trial. Some of the highlights of her reporting are included here as well.

MLex readers will be very familiar with the ACCC’s longrunning cartel dispute with the CFMEU. But in light of recent events, here’s me and James Panichi on the competition law story behind this week’s welter of allegations against the labor union insidestory.org.au/cfmeus-cartel-…

The “tech exits” debate has reached New Zealand, in the wake of the collapsed AlphaTheta-Serato DJ software deal. Nicely spotted by Saloni Sinha content.mlex.com/#/content/1579…

Australian tech unicorn Canva's $100m+ deal with AI startup LeonardoAI was done without the knowledge of the competition regulator -- less than a week after the govt released new draft merger laws that are partly designed to crack down on killer acquisitions

Hard to imagine a situation where the ACCC doesn't at least have a look at this. The new merger laws would mandate notification of a deal of this size. It's a pretty ballsy move to rawdog it and hope it doesn't annoy a regulator that is already very sensitive about being bypassed

Sorry to bang on about it but this AUS/US story we put together a few months back continues to be extremely correct Khushita Vasant Alex Wilts Saloni Sinha

High Court will hear ACCC’s CFMEU cartel appeal. James Panichi scooped offical media release by four minutes, too late fellas

Huge news in Australia: a High Court review of whether a militant union's boycott of non-unionized contractors amounts to a cartel. The same appeal will also iron out questions on "attempting to induce" into a cartel. MLex Ryan Cropp Saloni Sinha #antitrust

Has Big Tech’s big-spending campaign against competition law come to a university near you? James Panichi and Ryan Cropp on antitrust’s Big Tobacco moment inside.org.au/antitrusts-big…

🔎 In an exclusive interview with Ryan Cropp, Carly Kind discusses #AI ethics, her goal to raise awareness of privacy issues, and leading the Office of the Aus Information Commissioner towards more assertive enforcement of still-evolving privacy laws⬇️ lnkd.in/e5UP_Sh8

NZ Police haven't fully complied with a three-year-old order to delete illegally collected images, including those of "young people". This matters because like a lot of law enforcement agencies, NZ Police have an ~interesting~ track record when it comes to facial recognition tech

"Antitrust has come into fashion," New York judge says as she blocks an $8.5 billion merger between Tapestry (which owns of fashion brands Coach and Kate Spade) and Capri Holdings (owner of Versace and Michael Kors). Another win for FTC in what was a bipartisan deal challenge.

Fantastic FOI work here from Saloni Sinha. OAIC goes cap-in-hand to the ACCC, says it doesn't even have enough money to store documents from an investigation. ACCC says: not our problem. MLex Ryan Cropp #privacy

Imagine Rob Ghali, one of Australia's top enforcement officials, finding himself on the receiving end of this email... "I would be able to provide you with the email address for the chief information officer..." MLex Saloni Sinha

HOT TECH REG NEWS: Long-awaited ACCC proposals to introduce mandatory competition codes for big tech platforms are set to go out for formal consultation in early December. The consultation will be on policy proposals and will not involve draft legislation.

Great FOI work from my colleague Saloni Sinha on the Clearview AI #privacy issue. Documents reveal the OAIC was considering a lawsuit targeting the US company, but ultimately decided against it (the eSafety commissioner's clash with X was seen as a cautionary tale).

NEW: Australia's eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant failed to disclose her attendance at a secretive, all-expenses-paid tech policy retreat funded by mining billionaire Andrew Forrest