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The EU’s Digital Markets Act will require certain large tech firms’ ecosystems to become more open. The Act contains few exceptions – but law-makers did include special protections for undertakings providing operating systems, like Apple and Google, to protect security. This paper explores how the Commission should assess these measures. It argues that security is not a “trump card” to undermine the Act’s objectives – instead, Apple and Google must balance security benefits of their measures against any limitations on contestability. Furthermore, the Act should continue to allow both firms to differentiate their products’ approach to security. However, Apple’s (and to a lesser extent Google’s) security measures are likely to be heavily disputed. The Act does not give the Commission effective powers to efficiently resolve such disputes nor to force gatekeepers to change their approaches to security. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although pre-drinking has attracted considerable research interest, side-loading (any drinking occurring outside of licensed premises during a night out, and excluding drinking at home) is comparatively under-studied. In this paper, we investigate the prevalence of side-loading behaviour and intoxication in the night-time economy of Hamilton, New Zealand’s fourth-largest city. Using a street-intercept survey conducted over six nights (n = 469) in March and April 2019, we found that 17.5% of research participants (82/469), and 19.9% of drinkers (82/413), had engaged in side-loading. Of those engaging in side-loading, the majority did so in a car (61.0%), with smaller proportions engaging in side-loading in the street (17.1%), a carpark (12.2%), or somewhere else (13.4%). Men were significantly more likely than women to engage in side-loading behaviour (p = 0.001). In linear models controlling for time of the night, day of the week, and demographic variables, side-loading was not statistically significantly associated with breath alcohol content. This contrasts with pre-drinking, which was associated with statistically significantly higher breath alcohol content. Our results suggest that side-loading might not be used as a method for drinkers to enhance intoxication, but instead as a means of sustaining a target level of intoxication during an evening.

Although pre-drinking has attracted considerable research interest, side-loading (any drinking occurring outside of licensed premises during a night out, and excluding drinking at home) is comparatively under-studied. In this paper, we investigate the prevalence of side-loading behaviour and intoxication in the night-time economy of Hamilton, New Zealand's fourth-largest city. Using a street-intercept survey conducted over six nights ( n  = 469) in March and April 2019, we found that 17.5% of research participants (82/469), and 19.9% of drinkers (82/413), had engaged in side-loading. Of those engaging in side-loading, the majority did so in a car (61.0%), with smaller proportions engaging in side-loading in the street (17.1%), a carpark (12.2%), or somewhere else (13.4%). Men were significantly more likely than women to engage in side-loading behaviour ( p  = 0.001). In linear models controlling for time of the night, day of the week, and demographic variables, side-loading was not statistically significantly associated with breath alcohol content. This contrasts with pre-drinking, which was associated with statistically significantly higher breath alcohol content. Our results suggest that side-loading might not be used as a method for drinkers to enhance intoxication, but instead as a means of sustaining a target level of intoxication during an evening., Competing Interests: The authors declare the following financial interests/personal relationships which may be considered as potential competing interests: Michael P. Cameron is a District Licensing Committee member and commissioner in New Zealand, and has acted as an unpaid expert witness for local authorities before the Alcohol Regulatory and Licensing Authority. Peter G. Miller receives funding from Australian Research Council and Australian National Health and Medical Research Council, grants from NSW Government, National Drug Law Enforcement Research Fund, Foundation for Alcohol Research and Education, Cancer Council Victoria, Central Australian Aboriginal Congress, Northern Territory government, Australian Rechabites Foundation, Northern Territory Primary Health Network, Lives Lived Well, Queensland government and Australian Drug Foundation, travel and related costs from Queensland Police Service, Northern Territory government, Queensland Office of Liquor Gaming and Racing and the Australasian Drug Strategy Conference. He has acted as a paid expert witness on behalf of a licensed venue and a security firm., (© 2021 The Author(s).)