The logic of leniency rules is rock-solid in the eyes of enforcers: Deals promising lighter sentencing can coax cartelists out of the woodwork and reveal otherwise undetectable anticompetitive agreements. But in Malaysia, leniency rules have been in place for eight years without a single successful application, sparking soul-searching about what changes are needed to make the rules work. Also on today’s podcast: Why are insurers so keen to get their hands on fitness data generated by your smartwatch? Australia is pondering this very question, with data-driven discounts raising the question of whether those unwilling to hand over the data from a wearable device risk facing discrimination from insurers amassing new levels of information.

Ongoing concerns over the struggles of those tasked with enforcing the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation have raised questions about whether the bloc’s landmark privacy legislation remains fit for purpose — a mere four years after it came into effect. But while the European Data Protection Supervisor has sounded the alarm over cross-border privacy-enforcement challenges, there are those who argue that the GDPR is already equipped with all the enforcement tools it needs. Also on today’s podcast: The US Securities and Exchange Commission’s defense of whistleblowers returns to centerstage in the Biden Administration.

The data breach that affected US bank-holding company Capital One was one of the largest in US history. Now, the woman behind that breach, Paige Thompson, has been found guilty of wire fraud and hacking by a court in Seattle, and is awaiting sentencing. But Thompson’s trial revealed a complicated backstory that veered from the usual hacker-for-profit narrative. Also on today’s podcast: Is trash-talk directed at your competitors an antitrust issue? A probe by the European Commission into disparaging remarks made by a pharmaceutical company appears set to answer that question

A European court’s decision to overturn a 1 billion euro penalty that had been imposed on Qualcomm is being seen as a watershed moment for antitrust enforcement in the EU, with judges faulting competition investigators over both the procedures and the substance of their claims against the US chipmaker. Also on today’s podcast: why reports of the Asia-Pacific region’s CBPR privacy mechanism demise may have been premature.

Lina Khan’s leadership of the US Federal Trade Commission has come under fire recently, with surveys suggesting the agency’s regulatory force of 1,100 staffers is particularly unhappy. But is the disquiet simply the result of institutional reluctant to embrace new directions? Or is there more to it? MLex reporters have investigated the issue. Also on today’s podcast: The mechanism designed to bring privacy regulators in different EU jurisdictions to the negotiating table when they disagree on privacy enforcement. While the mechanism under the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation hasn’t been used much, there are already suggestions the system may be facing challenging times ahead.

The nature of Broadcom’s $61 billion buyout of California-based cloud giant VMware is posing new challenges for regulators on both sides of the Atlantic, with horizontal overlaps no longer the biggest show in town. The nature of the deal has left M&A observers to review parallels with the Nvidia’s bid to acquire British software designer Arm; and for both deals, the issue of how innovation could be affected is playing a big part in the reviews. Also on today’s podcast, the incredible story of Swiss mining and commodities company Glencore, which has agreed to pay a fine of $1 billion for having paid over $100 million in bribes to officials in Africa and South America. And there may be more enforcement pain on the way.

The growing use of smart speakers and TV sets has prompted a global conversation about privacy and the use of personal data on the part of the Big Tech companies behind them: Amazon, Apple and Google. But there’s another smart-device debate — once based in antitrust concerns — that’s gaining momentum. What happens if your smart device directs you not to the free-to-air version of a podcast or a TV drama, but to the paywalled property managed by the platform itself? In Australia, these concerns are being driven by commercial radio operators that fear Echo, Siri and Assistant may increasingly get in between their station and their listeners. Also on today’s podcast: Why planned tougher penalties for privacy violations in the Philippines look good on paper but may be facing a baptism of fire.

For years, financial regulators in the US have urged banks and other financial institutions to experiment with new products to help combat money laundering and other illicit financial activity. And they have increasingly done so. So, why the enthusiasm for automation in anti-money laundering practices? Also on this week’s podcast: the UK bottling businesses that found themselves on the wrong side of the Bribery Act. The take-away from it all wasn’t just that managers should watch out for corrupt behavior, but that if they don’t enforce and promote their internal safeguards, they could wind up in court.

All eyes were on top US competition regulators Lina Khan and Jonathan Kanter at a recent conference in Berlin, with European officials keen to know how the relatively new heads of the Federal Trade Commission and the Department of Justice’s antitrust division would manage what appears to be a remarkable overhaul in the US’s regulatory landscape. MLex’s Nicholas Hirst was at this year’s ICN conference and was able to cover the comments by the heavy hitters of global antitrust. Also on this week’s podcast: How the FTC and DOJ’s revamp of antitrust reviews is likely to unfold in Washington, amid a growing consensus that past practices have been too lax.

There’s a lot riding on Meta’s recent attempt to overturn a decision by the UK’s competition watchdog to block the tech giant’s acquisition of Giphy, an online database of gifs — visual aids popular in social-media postings. It’s significant because it’s the Competition and Markets Authority’s first ever prohibition of a Big Tech deal; the case in the Competition Appeal Tribunal could also illustrate how a completed global deal may be affected by the recalcitrance of one, significant jurisdiction. Also on today’s podcast: How the regulatory reverberations of the Archegos scandal in the US are raising concerns among activist shareholders.