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Google has lost its final appeal against a €4.1bn ($4.7bn) European Union antitrust fine after the bloc's highest court upheld findings that the company abused the dominant position of its Android operating system by requiring device manufacturers to pre-install Google Search, Chrome and the Play Store, while restricting the use of rival operating systems. The ruling brings to an end an eight-year legal battle over the penalty, originally imposed at €4.34bn in 2018 before being reduced in 2022, and is expected to bolster the EU's crackdown on Big Tech while increasing the risk of further damages claims and regulatory action against Google under the Digital Markets Act.

 

Deutsche Welle

Politico

Reuters

A majority of investment analysts and portfolio managers oppose the SEC's proposal to replace mandatory quarterly financial reporting with semiannual reporting, according to a new CFA Institute survey of more than 2,500 investment professionals. Sixty-two percent of respondents opposed reducing the reporting frequency, while 70% opposed allowing companies to choose their own reporting schedules, citing concerns that inconsistent reporting would make it more difficult to compare companies and industries. Most respondents also said that, if semiannual reporting is adopted, companies should still be allowed to voluntarily report quarterly, although only about one-third believe most companies would continue doing so. Nearly three-quarters of respondents said negative developments could take longer to reach investors, more than half worried that management would have greater opportunities to benefit from insider information, and many expected earnings releases to contain less information if Form 10-Q filings were eliminated.

 

CFO

The Federal Antimonopoly Service, Russia's anti-monopoly watchdog, has called on Apple ​to address what ​it describes as discriminatory ⁠practices against local ​search engines and ​software. The regulator said the U.S. tech giant must ensure Russian ​software, including ​search engines and messenger Max, ‌is ⁠pre-installed on its devices by ⁠July 15, or it could face ​a fine ​of ⁠up to 4bn roubles ($51.6m).

 

Reuters

Writing in the FT, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman proposes a US-led international forum that establishes accepted standards, and provides expert and impartial analysis of capabilities and risks, to make AI safe.

 

Financial Times

A new division in Amazon Web Services' cloud unit will employ engineers to embed with ​clients to help them more quickly and efficiently adopt AI software. Amazon is to commit an initial $1bn with the goal of sending five to six pods of the so-called forward-deployed engineers to customers for 45-day periods, said Francessca Vasquez, AWS vice president of frontier AI engineering and ​services. “We have a ton of demand for customers who are asking for our help ​to really drive agentic AI patterns in their workflows,” Vasquez said. Aaron Levie, the CEO of content management company Box, said in a LinkedIn post earlier this year that ‌forward-deployed engineers ⁠are “about to become one of the most in-demand jobs in tech."

 

Reuters

China has implemented a new overseas investment law aimed at protecting national interests against foreign trade barriers. The Regulation on Overseas Investment allows for “necessary and defensive measures” to safeguard Chinese investors abroad. The government will investigate trade-related barriers and coordinate responses. Also known as the 2026 regulation on outbound direct investment (ODI), Beijing's new law requires Chinese investors to cooperate with authorities during any investigations overseas. Officials labelled the law a “milestone in the history of China's outbound-investment development.”

 

South China Morning Post

⁠Alibaba is to ban its employees ​from ‌using Claude Code ‌- Anthropic's AI coding assistant for software developers - in ⁠workspace ⁠environments from July 10 ​due to alleged ​security risks involving ⁠embedded backdoors. Developers say Claude Code contains mechanisms that inspect user environments, including timezone and proxy-related information, and insert subtle markers into prompts sent to Anthropic's servers. Alibaba employees are reportedly being told to use ⁠the ⁠company's own coding platform ⁠Qoder.

 

U.S. News

Rhode Island Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, the top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, has requested records from the Justice Department, Treasury Department, and IRS related to a settlement agreement that reportedly shields President Donald Trump and certain family members from federal tax audits. Whitehouse is seeking internal IRS memoranda discussing legal defenses against Trump's $10bn lawsuit over the disclosure of his tax records, as well as documents detailing coordination between the agencies and the identities of officials involved in negotiating an addendum that provides protection from future federal tax investigations. The request follows reports that the IRS had recommended dismissing Trump's lawsuit before the settlement was reached, raising questions about whether the Justice Department overlooked potential legal defenses. Whitehouse has asked the agencies to provide the documents by July 14, one day before Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche's Senate confirmation hearing.

 

Bloomberg

Alibaba has agreed to pay $600m to settle a dispute with the U.S. government regarding the sale of illegal pharmaceuticals, controlled substances, regulated chemicals, and pill-making equipment. The allegations state that Alibaba's U.S.-based payment processor, AUS Merchant Services, failed to prevent merchants from selling unlawful products through its platforms, Alibaba.com and AliExpress.com. Between January 2016 and December 2024, approximately 80,000 illegal product sales occurred. Jarod Koopman, Chief of IRS Criminal Investigations, said: "The resolution underscores IRS Criminal Investigation's commitment to following the money and ensuring compliance with federal law.”

 

U.S. News

Home rental company Airbnb must face a lawsuit by the city ​of Los Angeles, which claims price ‌gouging during the January 2025 wildfires in southern California. Judge Robert Broadbelt of the California Superior Court said that ​even if it is hosts who set prices, Los ​Angeles' allegations that Airbnb's advertising of those prices and charging for ⁠rentals violated the state's penal code and Los Angeles' municipal code. The lawsuit accuses Airbnb of violating a California law that prohibits prices of essential goods and services from rising more than 10% following a state of emergency.

 

Reuters

Sony will stop producing physical discs for all new PlayStation game releases from January 2028, completing its transition to digital distribution as consumers increasingly buy games online. Digital downloads accounted for around 80% of the company's full-game software sales in fiscal 2025, with all new titles from 2028 to be sold exclusively through the PlayStation Store and retailers offering digital formats. The move will not affect games already released or scheduled for disc launch before 2028. Sony also announced it will begin closing the PlayStation Store on legacy PS3 and PS Vita consoles, starting in selected markets this year before expanding globally in 2027, citing the ageing platforms' inability to support modern payment systems. Previously purchased games will remain available for download after the stores close.

 

TechCrunch

Financial Times

Reuters