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The EU wants an investigation of the Switch's Joy-Con 'drift' issues
The European Consumer Organisation received more than 25,000 complaints over the problem.
Tech giants call for more content liability protection in the EU
Safeguards would give them more leeway to tackle hate speech, a lobby argued.
The EU is testing cross-border COVID-19 contact tracing
Six countries are trialing the system, which should go live next month.
EU antitrust regulators are investigating Google's Fitbit purchase
They said Google's plan to 'silo' the wearable company's fitness data was 'insufficient.'
Facebook is facing an EU investigation over data collection
Google isn't the only tech giant facing an investigation from European Union antitrust regulators over data collection and monetization. The European Commission has Facebook in its sights too.
Google appeals $1.7 billion EU fine over restrictive ad contracts
As was expected, Google is appealing a €1.49 billion ($1.7 billion) fine laid against it by the European Commission related to its AdSense advertising business. Antitrust officials found that, in contracts with major sites between 2006 and 2016, Google included restrictive contracts that could be seen as it trying to muscle rivals out of the market.
EU fines Google $1.7 billion for 'abusive' advertising practices
The European Commission has fined google €1.49 billion ($1.69 billion) over what it calls "abusive practices in online advertising." That's on top of the $5 billion and $2.4 billion fines it slapped on the search giant in 2018 and 2017. Competition commissioner Margrethe Vestager said Google "shielded itself from competitive pressure" via exclusive advertising contracts with publishers. Google did this mainly through its AdSense service, which dominated 70 percent of the market in Europe over a 10 year period.
Mozilla says Facebook isn't transparent enough with political ads
It's not just activist groups complaining that Facebook's browser add-on policies are hurting political ad transparency. Mozilla has sent a letter to the European Commission contending that Facebook's approach is creating a "lack of transparency." The browser developer wants to launch a Firefox Election package for the EU's upcoming parliamentary elections, but Facebook's recent changes will prevent an add-on in that package from identifying ads and showing how they're targeting users. Mozilla further noted that Facebook's political ad archive toolkit is still private and limited to a "small number of privileged researchers."
EU offers bounties to help find security flaws in open source tools
The European Union believes it has a simple way to bolster its digital security: offer lots of cold, hard cash. The European Commission is launching bug bounties in January that will offer prizes in return for spotting security flaws in 14 free, open source software tools EU institutions use. These include well-known tools like VLC Media Player, KeePass, 7-zip and Drupal as well as something as vital as the GNU C Library.
EU approves Disney's purchase of Fox assets, with conditions
Disney's acquisition of Fox studios and TV channels is one step closer to becoming a practical reality. The European Commission has approved the mega-deal under the condition that Disney has to divest its stake in "factual channels" it controls in the European Economic Area, including History, Crime & Investigation and Lifetime. The buyout would have eliminated competition between two rivals in several countries, the Commission said.
Germany calls for global minimum tax on large tech companies
German Finance Minister Olaf Scholz has called for a global minimum tax on large technology companies, The Telegraph reports, and it's a move aimed at ensuring tech firms pay taxes in the countries in which they generate revenue rather than only in the countries where they're headquartered. "We need a worldwide minimum tax level that no state may go below," Scholz told Welt am Sonntag. "We require coordinated mechanisms which prevent the displacement of revenues to tax havens."
EU approves Microsoft's $7.5 billion GitHub takeover
The EU has unconditionally approved Microsoft's $7.5 billion deal for GitHub, moving the acquisition another step closer towards closing. After a five-week probe, European Commission antitrust officials concluded that the takeover raises "no competition concerns because the merged entity would continue to face significant competition from other players."
Google to split Chrome and Search from Android in EU
Google is fighting the EU's Android antitrust fine tooth and nail, but it's also making major changes to its licensing policy to comply with that decision in the meantime. To begin with, it's separating the license for its standard apps from Chrome and the official search app. If a company wants to offer Gmail and YouTube but rely on Bing for search and Firefox for browsing, they can. However, this will come at a cost. As Google used its bundled search and browser to "fund the development and free distribution of Android," there will now be a paid license for mobile devices shipped to the European Economic Area. Android itself will remain free.
Google appeals its $5 billion EU antitrust fine
In July, the European Commission fined Google a record-setting €4.3 billion ($5 billion) for antitrust violations regarding its Android OS. Now, Google's pushing back on that fine. "We have now filed our appeal of the EC's Android decision at the General Court of the EU," the company told Reuters. Google said back in July that it planned to pursue an appeal and it argued at the time that its product has given consumers more choice, not less, like the EC has claimed. "Android has created more choice for everyone, not less. A vibrant ecosystem, rapid innovation and lower prices are classic hallmarks of robust competition," it said.
Europe moves forward with content quotas for Netflix and Amazon
The European Parliament has voted to approve new regulations that will place a European content quota on streaming services like Netflix and Amazon Prime Video. Once the new rules are formally approved, 30 percent of video-on-demand platform content catalogs will have to be European -- a move aimed at supporting "the cultural diversity of the European audiovisual sector." Additionally, these companies will be asked to support the development of European productions either through direct investment or by paying into national funds, contributions that should be "proportional to their on-demand revenues in that country."
Apple pays off its $15.4 billion Irish tax bill
The EU is to drop its litigation against Apple over its cosy tax relationship with Ireland now that the iPhone-maker has paid back 13.2 billion Euros ($15.4 billion) in back taxes, plus interest of 1.2 billion Euros ($1.4 billion). That sum is going in an escrow holding account pending Dublin and Apple's appeal against the ruling.
EU probes BMW, Daimler and VW for colluding over clean emissions tech
The European Commission has opened a formal investigation to determine whether BMW, Daimler and VW colluded to avoid competing with each other on clean emission technologies. The EU is assessing whether the companies met to limit the development of catalytic systems that reduce nitrogen oxide diesel emissions and particulate matter ("Otto" systems) from gas-powered cars.
EU will fine social media sites for lingering extremism
The EU has been threatening to take action against online platforms that fail to remove extremist content within an hour for the most part of the year -- and now we know what form its punishment will take. The likes of Google, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube could be slapped with fines as high as 4 percent of annual turnover, revealed European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker.
European Commission approves Apple’s purchase of Shazam
After launching an investigation into Apple's proposed acquisition of Shazam in April, the European Commission has cleared the deal. The EC looked into whether data obtained in the purchase would allow Apple to target its competitors' music streaming customers and if rivals, like Spotify, would be harmed if Apple chose to stop referring customers to them through Shazam. "After thoroughly analysing Shazam's user and music data, we found that their acquisition by Apple would not reduce competition in the digital music streaming market," Commissioner Margrethe Vestager said in a statement.
Netflix and Amazon will have to make more European content by law
Streaming services like Netflix and Amazon Prime Video will likely soon have to ensure at least 30 percent of their libraries are dedicated to local content in the European Union. A preliminary agreement on the rules is already in place, and Roberto Viola, who oversees the European Commission department in charge of networks, content and technology, said the quota is set to become law in December. He indicated to Variety that the vote is "a mere formality."
