Breaking up is expensive: losing Apple as a customer meant Qualcomm missed out on 50 million cellular modem chipset sales for the latest batch of iPhones, and slipped into a net loss for its fiscal 2018. However, the chip designer insisted the worst is over. US-based Qualcomm on Wednesday released [PDF] its fourth-quarter and …

A US district judge has made a preliminary ruling that Qualcomm is obliged to license its technologies to its rivals. Judge Lucy Koh of the US District Court for the Northern District of California published her judgement yesterday as part of an ongoing lawsuit brought in 2017 by the Federal Trade Commission. Judge Koh's …

America's trade watchdog's case against network device maker D-Link will go ahead next January – after a district judge rebuked the two sides for wasting money drawing up and filing demands for summary judgments. The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) brought its lawsuit against Taiwanese D-Link early last year in California, …

Google has responded to an outcry over how it continues to keep a record on people's whereabouts – even when they specifically opt-out – by changing the word of its misleading help page. Earlier this week, researchers revealed that even if you went to Google's "location history" setting and turned it off, its most common iOS, …

No less than four federal agencies in the US are now investigating Facebook following yet more revelations over how it gave vast quantities of personal data to developers. As well as the Department of Justice, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the FBI, and America's financial watchdog the Securities and Exchange Commission ( …

Two US senators have asked the nation's Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to take another look at Google's location harvesting. Democrat Senators Richard Blumenthal and Edward Markey fired off their request-that-can't-be-ignored (PDF) late last week, asking the FTC to “open an investigation into the potential deceptive acts and …

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has revealed the names of six companies it formally warned over efforts to force consumers to use only their replacement parts. Following a freedom of information request from a number of people – including The Register – the federal consumer watchdog has published the letters [PDF] it sent, …

In a further sign that punching your way out of a paper bag is much harder than people assume, America's consumer rights watchdog the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has ended up with one commissioner too many. Christine Wilson was unanimously confirmed by the Senate last week as one of five new FTC commissioners, but there is …

Uber hid a database hack from America's Federal Trade Commission (FTC) while the very same watchdog was investigating Uber for a separate database hack, it was revealed on Thursday. The taxi app maker reached a settlement with the FTC in August 2017 after the biz allegedly "deceived consumers about its privacy and data …

America's Federal Trade Commission has told "six major companies" to cut it out when it comes to trying to force consumers to only use their replacement parts for repairs. The regulator has refused to name the companies that claim a product's warranty is voided if consumers don't use their special parts but did reveal that …

The US Federal Trade Commission has confirmed it is probing Facebook over privacy concerns, sending the social network's share price into a downward spiral. The FTC said in a statement on Monday it has launched a non-public investigation into reports of Facebook's policies amid continued revelations about Cambridge Analytica's …

America's trade regulator the FTC has issued a warning over reports of a new data-harvesting operation that is targeting the victims of a previous scam. The federal watchdog says someone is emailing people, claiming to be from the FTC and soliciting claim forms from the $586m Western Union settlement payout. In this case, the …

PayPal has avoided that terribly tedious act of coughing up a fine, and instead has agreed to play nice with people's privacy – thus settling a complaint against its payment app Venmo by America's trade watchdog, the FTC. The peace treaty, signed this week, will see PayPal avoid any monetary penalties, but will bring the …

A US federal appeals court has prevented the country from falling into a telecoms black hole – by asserting that the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) does have the authority to fine phone giant AT&T for misleading subscribers. The decision today marks a significant shift in how telecommunications companies will be regulated in …

Broadcom has confirmed it's under investigation by the United States' Federal Trade Commission (FTC) over antitrust issues, but doesn't believe that's going to affect its business. News of the investigation broke when the usual “people familiar with the matter” told the Wall Street Journal (probably paywalled) the FTC was …

The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) today agreed to a settlement deal with a children's electronic toymaker it had accused of collecting kids' personal information and then failing to properly secure that data. The government watchdog said VTech will pay $650,000 and agree to a set of privacy and security requirements in …

The US government's trade watchdog, the FTC, has finalized its settlement deal with Lenovo on charges the PC builder sold Americans machines crammed with intrusive adware. The Federal Trade Commission kicked off 2018 announcing it has approved a deal that will end lawsuits against Lenovo in more than three dozen US states – as …

One of the US government's top regulators has warned that her department is in no position to take on the mantle of protecting the open internet if its sister organization, the FCC, votes on repealing net neutrality regulations later this month. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Commissioner Terrell McSweeny has repeatedly warned …