Amazon fined under GDPR: The tech giant was fined €746 million for using consumer shopping data for ad targeting without consent—which doesn’t bode well for other Big Tech companies that are facing privacy-related scrutiny.

Digital users in North America and Europe have reached a comfort level with shopping and buying via mobile, but more often than not, they still prefer their larger-screen computers to finalize transactions. This dynamic is still evolving, but slower than before.

The news: The EU reached an agreement last week on the Digital Services Act (DSA), which will impose stricter rules on major tech companies such as Meta, Google, Twitter, and Amazon in the hopes of fighting illegal content and making the internet safer.

Amazon's antitrust debut: DC's lawsuit marks the company's first formal complaint by the US government—but with several probes ongoing and with Amazon continuing its rapid expansion, more suits are certain to come soon.

Alibaba, Amazon and Tencent will collectively account for a 17.0% share. No other market participant will have more than a 2.5% slice of the pie. Read Next.

For context, Amazon warehouses already rely on vast combinations of physical robots and AI-powered software, and the company hopes to one day make them fully autonomous.

Big Tech companies like Apple, Google, Amazon, and PayPal have ceased operations and closed offices in Russia, erasing thousands of jobs and entire industries. At least 33 foreign airlines have stopped flying to Russia, and the majority of European airports prohibit Russian flights from entering their airspace. That means refugees are limited to crossing the border into Finland or the Baltic states.

Intel scores rare antitrust win against European Commission: Regulators criticized for failing to provide sufficient evidence in $1.2B case. Ruling could serve as a rallying point for other Big Tech companies battling antitrust suits.

While leading eplatforms like Amazon saw in uptick in ecommerce sales during the pandemic, slower delivery times in countries like Canada, allowed other retailers to claim greater shares. In countries like the US and France, ecommerce has been revised upwards due to account for a boost from the pandemic.

Article: India proposes tighter ecommerce rules targeting Amazon and Flipkart.

Where are people buying into social buying?

Many successful D2C brands are based [or have major offices] in Europe, such as Happy Socks or Glossier. Amazon remains the dominant marketplace in many European countries, but it’s not the only player, as the landscape is far more fragmented, with many niche and category-specific marketplaces.

The full-size Fresh store announcement comes just as Amazon is offers Just Walk Out tto other retailers. Being able to provide retail automation from small airport kiosks to full-size grocery stores puts Amazon at a competitive advantage.

Amazon’s AR push: The ecommerce giant has opened an in-person hair salon to show off its new augmented reality (AR) tools. Were Amazon to integrate AR into its site, it could make this experimental mode of shopping commonplace.