Natasha Lomas, Author at TechCrunch

The EU’s AI Act is now in force

Natasha Lomas — Thu, 01 Aug 2024 11:33:13 +0000

The European Union's risk-based regulation for applications of artificial intelligence has come into force starting from today.

Axle Energy’s sprint to decarbonize the grid lights up with $9M seed led by Accel

Natasha Lomas — Thu, 01 Aug 2024 07:01:00 +0000

Axle Energy is a B2B, back-end infrastructure business focused on connecting flexible assets, such as electric vehicles and home batteries, to energy markets that aren't otherwise available for consumers to dip into.

Spain’s antitrust watchdog fines Booking.com nearly $450M for unfair terms and restricting rivals

Natasha Lomas — Tue, 30 Jul 2024 18:17:30 +0000

The CNMC opened an investigation of Booking.com back in October 2022, following complaints by the Spanish Association of Hotel Managers and the Regional Hotel Association of Madrid.

EU calls for help with shaping rules for general-purpose AIs

Natasha Lomas — Tue, 30 Jul 2024 13:18:40 +0000

The EU has kicked off a consultation on rules that will apply to providers of general purpose AI models under the bloc's AI Act.

Privacy watchdog says it’s ‘surprised’ by Elon Musk opting user data into Grok AI training

Natasha Lomas — Fri, 26 Jul 2024 17:34:46 +0000

The language is ambiguous, so it's not clear whether X is helping itself to all user data for training Grok or whether this processing refers only to user interactions with the chatbot.

Energy tech startup Greenely grabs €8M to reach more households and support Europe’s energy transition

Natasha Lomas — Fri, 26 Jul 2024 07:00:00 +0000

The energy transition is a marathon, not a sprint. But opportunities for acceleration are growing. Swedish startup Greenely* has just spotted one. It’s closing an €8 million Series A funding round to expand its energy management platform into neighbouring Nordic countries (so around $8.7M at current exchange rates). The energy tech startup is serving around […]

Apple’s App Store hit with antitrust probe in Spain

Natasha Lomas — Wed, 24 Jul 2024 11:41:44 +0000

The outcome of the Spanish authority's probe could take up to two years to complete, and leave Apple on the hook for fines in the billions.

Meta given weeks to tell EU consumer protection authorities how it’ll fix ‘pay or consent’

Natasha Lomas — Tue, 23 Jul 2024 14:46:35 +0000

Meta has been given until September 1 to respond to consumer protection concerns in the European Union. The Consumer Protection Cooperation (CPC) Network, a network of authorities responsible for the enforcement of EU consumer protection laws, is concerned about a binary choice Meta has forced on regional users of Facebook and Instagram since last November. […]

Google’s latest Privacy Sandbox gambit could pit user choice against tracking

Natasha Lomas — Tue, 23 Jul 2024 14:11:47 +0000

Google is no longer proposing to deprecate third-party tracking cookies in Chrome, instead suggesting that users be given an option to deny tracking.

EU to investigate Delivery Hero and Glovo over food delivery cartel concerns

Natasha Lomas — Tue, 23 Jul 2024 11:08:35 +0000

The EC has announced an investigation into Berlin-based food delivery giant Delivery Hero and its Spanish subsidiary, Glovo, citing cartel concerns.

The EU just re-elected its president for another five years — here’s what that means for tech

Natasha Lomas — Thu, 18 Jul 2024 16:40:17 +0000

The European Union’s president, Ursula von der Leyen, was confirmed in the role for another five years Thursday after parliamentarians voted overwhelmingly to re-elect her. The scale of her support (401 votes for versus 284 against with 15 abstentions) — a far firmer endorsement than last time around — may say more about lawmakers’ concerns […]

Google accused of misleading consumers to grab more data for ads

Natasha Lomas — Thu, 18 Jul 2024 12:24:33 +0000

Italy's competition watchdog is investigating how Google gets user consent in order to link their activity across different services for ad profiling.

On AI, new UK gov’t to work on ‘appropriate’ rules for ‘most powerful’ models and beef up product safety powers

Natasha Lomas — Wed, 17 Jul 2024 14:07:15 +0000

There had been rumors the U.K.’s shiny new-in-post Labour government would commit to introducing a dedicated artificial intelligence bill on Wednesday as it unveiled its full legislation program amid the pomp of the state opening of parliament. In the event, the King’s Speech contained a much more tentative commitment — to “seek to establish the […]

Local experience discovery startup, Bigfoot, adds GenAI to fast-track weekend planning

Natasha Lomas — Wed, 17 Jul 2024 10:09:10 +0000

Can generative AI substitute for having a social graph? California-based local experiences discovery startup Bigfoot is hoping the addition of a conversational interface to its weekend planner website — in the form of an AI chatbot it’s branding Littlefoot, which launched last week — will give it a more personalized feel while making it easier […]

Ultrahuman’s smart ring gets AFib detection

Natasha Lomas — Tue, 16 Jul 2024 11:00:00 +0000

The smart ring has long played second fiddle to the smart watch. While tech giants like Apple and Google duked it out over wrists for years, the ring has been significantly quieter, a space where plucky startups have a chance to make their mark. Things are quickly changing, however. Samsung will debut its first finger-worn […]

More bad news for Elon Musk after X user’s legal challenge to shadowban prevails

Natasha Lomas — Fri, 12 Jul 2024 13:15:23 +0000

If X continues to violate Europe's data protection rules, the company is on the hook for fines of up to €4,000 per day.

Europe confirms first clutch of DSA grievances on Elon Musk’s X

Natasha Lomas — Fri, 12 Jul 2024 11:00:18 +0000

The platform formerly known as Twitter has earned the dubious honor of being the first very large online platform (VLOP) to face a preliminary finding of breaching the European Union’s Digital Services Act (DSA), the bloc’s governance and content moderation rulebook. Penalties for confirmed breaches of the regime can reach up to 6% of global […]

EU’s AI Act gets published in bloc’s Official Journal, starting clock on legal deadlines

Natasha Lomas — Fri, 12 Jul 2024 08:51:37 +0000

The full and final text of the EU AI Act, the European Union’s landmark risk-based regulation for applications of artificial intelligence, has been published in the bloc’s Official Journal. In 20 days’ time, on August 1, the new law will come into force and in 24 months — so by mid-2026 — its provisions will […]

EU ends Apple Pay antitrust probe with binding commitments to open up contactless payments

Natasha Lomas — Thu, 11 Jul 2024 10:04:25 +0000

The European Union has accepted commitments from Apple over how it operates Apple Pay to settle a long-running competition investigation. Commission EVP Margrethe Vestager, who heads up the EU’s competition division, announced the development in a press conference Thursday. Apple has until July 25 to implement changes that will allow developers of rival mobile wallets […]

XNXX joins handful of adult sites subject to EU’s strictest content moderation rules

Natasha Lomas — Wed, 10 Jul 2024 11:41:20 +0000

The European Union has designated adult content website XNXX as subject to the strictest level of content regulation under the bloc’s Digital Services Act (DSA) after it notified the bloc it had passed the usage threshold of more than 45 million regional average monthly users. It’s the fourth porn site to be named a very […]