iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Todd Davies @todddavi.es · 30/04/2026

Alternate headline: "Tech bro discovers that non-tech people can be smart too."

Screenshot from a BBC news article with the headline "Musk accuses OpenAI lawyer of trying to 'trick' him in combative testimony".

Todd Davies @todddavi.es · 29/01/2026

I'm analysing the Commission's Google AdTech Decision and finding it exceedingly difficult because of the _insane_ number of redactions. There are 4904 redactions yet only 2247 paragraphs in the whole thing. Seriously?!

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Todd Davies @todddavi.es · 28/10/2025

Another interesting part

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Todd Davies @todddavi.es · 22/10/2025

Who could have guessed! Imo the Android Auto caselaw should stop that kind of behaviour :( I wonder if Meta thinks that it can get away with the argument that its conduct doesn't have exclusionary effects because nobody wants to use AI Assistants on WhatsApp anyway 😆

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Todd Davies @todddavi.es · 21/10/2025

Running a private equity firm in 2025 be like...

A screenshot of an article about board game collecting from The Guardian entitled "Experience: I own the world's largest Monopoly collection".

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Todd Davies @todddavi.es · 31/01/2025

Wow, I had no idea that the Hungarian government was distorting markets so brazenly!

In May 2023, the Hungarian authorities imposed a fine on the retailer SPAR Magyarország after finding that, in one of its shops, it had not respected the daily quantities in stock of five products referred to in the decree. The authorities imposed and justified the fine referring to the protection of consumers. In fact, in determining the amount of the fine, that authority took into account, among others, the large number of consumers affected by that infringement given the location of the store in question. Moreover, during the proceedings, the Hungarian Government justified the government decree by referring to the objectives of combating inflation and the protection of disadvantaged consumers by means of a guaranteed supply of basic foodstuffs at affordable prices (see para 41 of C-557/23 SPAR). SPAR brought proceedings before the Szeged High Court seeking annulment of the decision of the authorities. As the Szeged High Court had doubts concerning the compatibility of the Government Decree with the Common Market Organisation (CMO) Regulation, and in particular with the principle of free formation of selling prices of agricultural products on the basis of fair competition, that court sought a preliminary ruling from the ECJ.

The Court ruled that the Hungarian Government Decree was contrary to EU law, through undermining fair and free competition, a fundamental component of the CMO Regulation. The obligation to offer for sale agricultural products at regulated prices and in specific quantities prevented traders from freely setting their selling prices and the quantities they wish to sell on the basis of economic considerations.

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Todd Davies @todddavi.es · 10/01/2025

Peter Thiel is skating on extremely thin ice when he writes that the modern day equivalent of the "aristocracy of pre-revolutionary France" is the "old guard" of Washington. www.ft.com/content/a46c...

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Todd Davies @todddavi.es · 10/01/2025

Franz Neumann becomes more relevant every day.

A picture of Franz Neumann's book "Behemoth".

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Todd Davies @todddavi.es · 10/01/2025

It looks like the the profit motive has (finally?) been superseded the power motive. At least I've got my next Halloween costume sorted.

A screenshot of Mark Zuckerburg, channelling Roman emperor vibes, appearing on Joe Rogan's podcast.

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Todd Davies @todddavi.es · 10/01/2025

Franz Neumann becomes more relevant every day.

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Todd Davies @todddavi.es · 10/01/2025

I've been working on this recently & just posted a revision to a pre-print which examines how the competition/antitrust regime is responding to the issue of domination in digital markets. papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

Firms can be considered as oases of private power, functioning essentially as private governments within their sphere of influence. This perspective highlights their capacity to wield significant power over others within their domain. Scholarship operationalising the concept of republican liberty within competition law builds on this understanding in three ways. First, that dominant firms may, as a result of this local monopoly of power, be able to “interfere with other market participants at whim”. Second, that competition law has historically pursued non-domination in markets. Third that by preventing relationships of ‘domination’ from developing on markets, competition helps ensure that economic power is diffused. A central mechanism by which economic power is diffused is that of market contestability, since the potential for entry of new businesses prevents the entrenchment of unbalanced power dynamics on markets. Absent contestability, markets inhere a form of private “unfreedom”, where powerful economic entities can dominate less powerful ones by virtue of being in a superior bargaining position, and are not subject to competitive constraint.

A lack of choice and contestability means that modern digital markets, dominated by platforms which function as “citadels of private power”, have become particularly undemocratic. They are governed by “Big Men” unconstrained by market discipline, and impose decisions on a captive population of consumers. Consumers on monopolistic digital platforms have little say in the content of the rules to which they are subject on those platforms. The ability of consumers to choose which firms to transact with from a “meaningful range of options” is supposed to be a key source of legitimacy when it comes to firm decision making; consumers can always switch to a competitor if they are unhappy. This same mechanism also helps shape the development of markets, as firms seek to make business decisions to satisfy consumers; in a market with several, or indeed many choices for which firms to transact with, consumers could ‘vote with their feet’ by choosing to transact with the firms that they prefer the most. This mechanism shapes the direction of markets, ensuring that they are responsive to consumer preferences (i.e. the demos).

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Todd Davies @todddavi.es · 05/01/2025

I'm getting strong, feudal, "swear your fealty" vibes from this. www.independent.co.uk/news/world/a...

A screenshot of the following text:

The Apple CEO’s donation is part of a trend of wealthy business leaders and tech companies contributing to Trump’s second inaugural fund.

Citadel CEO Ken Griffin also intends to donate $1 million, according to Bloomberg.

Amazon, founded by Jeff Bezos, is expected to donate $1 million, the Journal reported. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman is expected to make a personal donation of $1 million ,while Meta, run by billionaire CEO Mark Zuckerberg, donated the same amount to the inaugural fund, according to CNBC.

Car companies Toyota, Ford, and General Motors are also each reportedly donating $1 million to the fund.

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Todd Davies @todddavi.es · 24/11/2024

As @marthagill.bsky.social points out, when we use personalised online platforms, we are "seeing the world through its lens". These platforms are not merely selecting the content that we will best like. Rather, they are also showing us content which will help shape what we like.

A screenshot of the text "But living on social media, seeing the world through its lens, is like returning to a pre-information age. First, because everything is current. Records of previous discussions fade quickly – miss a day and it is almost impossible to catch up. Instead, as with cycles of oral history, memories of the past are collective and mutable."

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Todd Davies @todddavi.es · 22/11/2024

Perhaps the most fun & engaging conference on competition law I've been to in a while, hosted by @article19law.bsky.social. Thanks for having me! Lots of engagement with commission officials, EU politicians, civil society orgs, other tech experts, and other academics. I presented, along with...

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Todd Davies @todddavi.es · 21/11/2024

So, the plan is to get Google to pay people to switch away from Google? The natural experiment is confounded (although I'm sure some smart econometrics can fix it)!

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Todd Davies @todddavi.es · 21/11/2024

I'm not convinced that Apple would actually launch a search engine to compete against Google. Tech firms are not fungible. Competencies (ahem dynamic capabilities) are a thing. Apple is primarily a hardware company, not a services company, no?

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Todd Davies @todddavi.es · 21/11/2024

Not sure how giving advertisers more information on just how much Google is able to exploit them will degrade Google's ability to actually exploit. The tie between the ad network and the search engine is crucial here! We are taking Google's deliberate architectural advantage as given!

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Todd Davies @todddavi.es · 21/11/2024

Strongly disagree with this point on p. 9. Data is hugely overrated in competition/antitrust law. We should be talking about firms' ability to participate in the chain of production (which, in digital contexts, confers data *and* the ability to experiment). See @michae.lv's chapter: osf.io/z8tw6/

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Todd Davies @todddavi.es · 21/11/2024

Here is (p. 2), imo, the killer theory of harm: Google has tied its ad network into its free services, meaning that there is a feedback loop where more users -> more ad dollars -> more users. They should break out the ad network (maybe in the AdTech case??): papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

"Users attract advertisers, and advertising dollars fund general search engines, creating a perpetual feedback loop that further entrenches Google."

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Todd Davies @todddavi.es · 15/11/2024

Reminds me of a theory from developmental psychology where development entails taking things that you "are" (Be a Thing) and turning them into things that you "have" (~Do a Thing). medium.com/@NataliMorad...

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Todd Davies @todddavi.es · 02/05/2024

Very happy to see the Rejoin EU Party on the ballot for the London Assembly election. The vote is done via proportional representation, so there is a (small) chance of getting at least one candidate elected. therejoineuparty.com/London2024/

A picture of the outside of a polling station.

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