Neowin News Feed for: Ftc

Senator blames Microsoft for weak security in Windows despite having enterprise monopoly

Usama Jawad — Thu, 11 Sep 2025 15:16:01 +0000

A U.S. Senator wants to hold Microsoft accountable for building weak cybersecurity mechanisms in Windows that allow it to profit from hacks by selling secondary security services. Read more...

FTC chairman puts Big Tech on notice over EU, UK data privacy demands

Hamid Ganji — Fri, 22 Aug 2025 07:06:01 +0000

The FTC chairman says that U.S. technology companies should not yield to regulatory pressure from the EU and the UK. Read more...

Instagram and WhatsApp could be torn from Meta as FTC's antitrust case nears trial

Karthik Mudaliar — Wed, 02 Apr 2025 22:40:01 +0000

The FTC's long-running antitrust case against Meta, which stems from its acquisition of Instagram and WhatsApp more than a decade ago, will go to trial on April 14. Read more...

GM responds to FTC's proposed five-year ban on selling customer data

David Uzondu — Fri, 17 Jan 2025 13:40:01 +0000

Last year, it was reported that GM was selling user data to insurance companies without consent. The FTC has now proposed an order banning this practice, prompting a response from GM. Read more...

FTC puts an end to junk fees on short-term lodging and online rentals

Hamid Ganji — Wed, 18 Dec 2024 08:16:01 +0000

The US Federal Trade Commission has just passed a new law that bans hidden junk fees in short-term lodging and live-event ticket prices. Read more...

FTC calls out lack of transparency in smart device support

Ramat Adetunji — Wed, 27 Nov 2024 05:18:01 +0000

A recent FTC study reveals that 89% of connected devices lack transparency on software updates, leaving consumers in the dark. Read more...

FTC makes it easier for you to cancel subscriptions with ‘Click-to-Cancel'

Hamid Ganji — Thu, 17 Oct 2024 17:00:01 +0000

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) wants to force online services to reduce the complexity of unsubscribing for customers. Read more...

Microsoft responds to the FTC's filing about Game Pass changes to the US Court of Appeals

John Callaham — Sat, 20 Jul 2024 04:02:02 +0000

Microsoft has sent its own letter challenging the FTC's earlier filing to the US Court of Appeals about its recent changes to the company's Xbox Game Pass price increases and features. Read more...

The FTC slams Microsoft over this month's Xbox Game Pass changes

John Callaham — Fri, 19 Jul 2024 00:22:01 +0000

The US Federal Trade Commission has filed a document to the US Court of Appeals, which slams Microsoft over its changes to Xbox Game Pass, including its price hikes and the upcoming Standard plan. Read more...

The FTC has sent warnings to ASRock, Zotac, and Gigabyte about their warranty policies

John Callaham — Wed, 03 Jul 2024 20:02:01 +0000

The US Federal Trade Commission has sent formal warning letters to ASRock, Zotac, and Gigabyte, stating that their current warranty policies could violate laws concerning consumer rights to repair. Read more...

The US FTC files a lawsuit against Adobe for its alleged deceptive subscription plans

John Callaham — Mon, 17 Jun 2024 17:30:01 +0000

The US Federal Trade Commission has filed a lawsuit against Adobe, claiming that the software company hides early termination fees for its software plans and for making it hard to cancel the plans. Read more...

The FTC has reportedly started an antitrust probe of Microsoft's deal with Inflection AI

John Callaham — Thu, 06 Jun 2024 10:30:01 +0000

The US Federal Trade Commission has reportedly begun an antitrust probe into Microsoft's recent deal with Inflection AI to see if it was structured to try to avoid a government inquiry. Read more...

Razer will send $1.1 million in refunds for Zephyr mask customers as part of FTC settlement

John Callaham — Mon, 29 Apr 2024 17:46:01 +0000

Game accessory maker Razer will send $1.1 million in refunds for people who bought its Zephyr mask to settle a complaint from the FTC that the mask was falsely labeled as N95 certified, Read more...

FTC accuses Jeff Bezos, Andy Jessy and others of deleting chats amid antitrust investigation

Karthik Mudaliar — Fri, 26 Apr 2024 06:02:01 +0000

The FTC alleges that founder Jeff Bezos and CEO Andy Jassy destroyed messages discussing business matters to erase potential evidence amid the FTC's ongoing antitrust investigation against Amazon. Read more...

Reddit says it is being investigated by the FTC over its AI data licensing programs

John Callaham — Sat, 16 Mar 2024 16:08:01 +0000

Reddit revealed late on Friday that the online forum is under investigation by the Federal Trade Commission over its deals to license its data to be used by generative AI companies. Read more...

The FTC feels Microsoft's gaming layoffs don't jibe with its Activision Blizzard statments

John Callaham — Wed, 07 Feb 2024 22:34:01 +0000

The Federal Trade Commission has filed a formal complaint to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, saying Microsoft's gaming layoffs contradict its previous Activision Blizzard claims. Read more...

US senator claims NSA buys user data, including internet metadata, without warrants

Anushe Fawaz — Fri, 26 Jan 2024 17:16:01 +0000

A letter by Senator Ron Wyden sheds light on the illegal buying of sensitive American user data by the National Security Agency of the U.S. It also exposes the data broker industry. Read more...

Microsoft, OpenAI, Google, Amazon, and Anthropic are targets of a new FTC AI inquiry

John Callaham — Thu, 25 Jan 2024 19:48:01 +0000

The Federal Trade Commission has just announced a new inquiry centering on AI partnerships and investments, with Microsoft, OpenAI, Google, Amazon, and Anthropic all being asked to send information. Read more...

Report: DOJ and FTC both want to investigate Microsoft-OpenAI relationship

Omer Dursun — Fri, 19 Jan 2024 22:00:01 +0000

The DOJ and FTC are engaged in a "turf war" over who gets to investigate Microsoft's investment in and partnership with OpenAI for antitrust issues. Sources say neither agency will cede jurisdiction. Read more...

Real or fake voice? FTC gives you $25,000 if you help solve huge tech challenge of AI era

Martin Hodás — Fri, 05 Jan 2024 05:30:01 +0000

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission is now accepting submissions for its Voice Cloning Challenge, aiming to counter the misuse of AI tools able to generate synthetic voices of real persons. Read more...

The FTC is reportedly looking into the Microsoft-OpenAI partnership

John Callaham — Fri, 08 Dec 2023 19:18:01 +0000

A new report claims that the Federal Trade Commission is looking into whether Microsoft's current partnership with OpenAI might violate US antitrust laws, but that no formal investigation has started. Read more...

The FTC and Microsoft will do battle again today in appeals court over Activision Blizzard

John Callaham — Wed, 06 Dec 2023 16:56:15 +0000

The Federal Trade Commission and Microsoft will battle in a US appeals courtroom today. The FTC will try to convince the judges that Microsoft's purchase of Activision Blizzard is anticompetitive Read more...

FTC: Microsoft's purchase of Activision Blizzard is still "a threat to competition"

John Callaham — Fri, 13 Oct 2023 16:42:01 +0000

The US Federal Trade Commission is still going to go through with its court case against Microsoft's purchase of Activision Blizzard, claiming that the $69 billion deal is "a threat to competition" Read more...

The FTC will try again to contest the Microsoft/Activision Blizzard deal

John Callaham — Thu, 28 Sep 2023 14:06:02 +0000

The US Federal Trade Commission will hold its own in-house trial to challenge Microsoft's plan to buy Activision Blizzard, but that trial is unlikely to prevent the deal from closing in October. Read more...

FTC sues Amazon over alleged unlawful, anticompetitive conduct to maintain its monopoly

Anushe Fawaz — Tue, 26 Sep 2023 18:16:01 +0000

The FTC has declared war once again on Amazon claiming that the company is allegedly engaging in anticompetitive tactics and unlawful conduct that protect its monopoly in the industry. Read more...

Microsoft gains allies in its case to buy Activision Blizzard

Steve Bennett — Fri, 22 Sep 2023 10:50:01 +0000

A blog post from Microsoft has detailed how 38 signatories filed nine "friend of the court" briefs, showing support for Microsoft's position against the FTC in its bid to buy Activision Blizzard. Read more...

Some Fortnite gamers can now file to get refunds for unwanted in-game purchases

John Callaham — Tue, 19 Sep 2023 19:46:02 +0000

Thanks to a $245 million settlement with the FTC, some Fortnite players can now get their money back from Epic Games for unwanted in-game purchases, with a January 17, 2024 deadline. Read more...

Leaked Bethesda launch schedule has Oblivion and Fallout 3 remasters, Dishonored 3, more

Pulasthi Ariyasinghe — Tue, 19 Sep 2023 09:10:01 +0000

According to another leaked document, Zenimax Media and Bethesda had been planning on remastering its hit RPGs Oblivion and Fallout 3. A brand-new Doom entry is also reportedly coming. Read more...

Microsoft Xbox plans to overthrow Sony PS5 by 2030 with Arm64, AMD Zen6, DLSS-like upscaling

Sayan Sen — Tue, 19 Sep 2023 08:46:01 +0000

A massive leak of confidential documents containing a ton of hardware details and specifications for Microsoft's next-gen Xbox reveals how the company plans to become console king by 2030. Read more...

Leak shows off next-gen Xbox controller featuring haptic feedback like Sony's DualSense

Pulasthi Ariyasinghe — Tue, 19 Sep 2023 08:00:02 +0000

Leaked documents reveal Microsoft is planning a major Xbox Wireless Controller upgrade that will reportedly include haptic feedback and an accelerometer akin to PlayStation's DualSense. Read more...

Massive leak reveals Xbox Series X console refresh for 2024

Pulasthi Ariyasinghe — Tue, 19 Sep 2023 07:16:01 +0000

FTC v. Microsoft courtroom battle leaks have started again, and the latest edition may have accidentally revealed Microsoft's next major hardware release from its Xbox console business. Read more...

Nintendo reportedly told Activision that Switch 2 will match Xbox One/PS4 performance

Omer Dursun — Mon, 18 Sep 2023 17:50:01 +0000

Newly leaked emails from 2022 reveal that Activision was briefed on Nintendo's next-gen Switch 2. The emails suggest that the new system would offer performance on par with the Xbox One/PS4. Read more...

The Elder Scrolls 6 will not be released on PlayStation 5

Steve Bennett — Mon, 18 Sep 2023 14:56:01 +0000

In recent documents that have been released during the FTC vs. Microsoft case, it's been confirmed that the next installment of The Elder Scrolls franchise won't be coming to PlayStation 5 Read more...

Zoom's CEO thinks the US government should look into Microsoft's bundling of Teams

John Callaham — Wed, 06 Sep 2023 14:28:02 +0000

During a tech conference this week, Zoom's CEO Eric Yuan thinks that the US Federal Trade Commission should look into Microsoft's bundling of Teams with Microsoft 365, saying, "You've got to be fair." Read more...

Tesla's misleading autopilot safety ads under investigations by California Attorney General

Ishtiaqe Hanif — Thu, 27 Jul 2023 02:28:01 +0000

California's Attorney General is investigating Tesla's Autopilot safety claim advertisements for being false and misleading. He collected customer complaints from FTC filings via the online database. Read more...

The FTC has paused its own in-house trial against the Microsoft/Activision Blizzard deal

John Callaham — Thu, 20 Jul 2023 23:06:01 +0000

The US Federal Trade Commission's in-house trial was set to being in early August. However, the fact that it has decided to pause the trial is yet another big victory for Microsoft. Read more...

Microsoft and Activision Blizzard will extend their merger deal deadline to October 18

John Callaham — Wed, 19 Jul 2023 12:56:17 +0000

The companies now officially have three more months to try to close the deal so Microsoft can finally acquire Call of Duty and Diablo game publisher Activision Blizzard for $79 billion. Read more...

Microsoft and Activision Blizzard reportedly still want to merge as the deal's deadline ends

John Callaham — Wed, 19 Jul 2023 09:00:01 +0000

The official date for the deal for Microsoft to acquire Activision Blizzard to close has now come and gone, but the two companies reportedly still want to make this purchase happen. Read more...

Appeals court denies FTC request to keep Microsoft from buying Activision Blizzard

John Callaham — Sat, 15 Jul 2023 00:18:01 +0000

The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has denied the Federal Trade Commission's request for injunctive relief against Microsoft, which could mean the deal to buy Activision Blizzard could close soon. Read more...

FTC's appeal of its battle with Microsoft over Activision Blizzard reveals its strategy

John Callaham — Thu, 13 Jul 2023 23:08:02 +0000

The Federal Trade Commission, in its filing to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, claims the judge's decision in the lower court had a number of issues that should allow for an overturned decision. Read more...