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Facebook changes how it pays tax in the UK
Facebook has announced that starting this April, it'll radically simplify its business arrangements in the UK. Boor-ing, right? Except this means that the social network's tax dealings will now be much more transparent. It's a big deal because, until now, the company has been accused of avoiding paying its fair share. After all, in 2014 it paid less than $7,000 despite the UK being its biggest overseas market. It somehow managed to pay a rate of just four percent on its operations, despite the going rate for businesses being 20 percent, so you can see why people were angry.
Google will make it easier to be 'forgotten' online in Europe
Google has been complying with the European Union's "right to be forgotten" laws for nearly two years now, but it hasn't always been easy. Up until this point, Google has been reviewing and potentially removing information related to a search for a person's name that appears to be "inadequate or irrelevant." But thus far, it's only been removing those results from the search engine in the country that the request originated from -- for example, Google.fr search results would omit information for a French citizen's request, but the data could still be found on Google.com.
US and Europe struggle to agree on data sharing
How tech companies share your data overseas is a thorny issue, and it doesn't appear to be getting any easier. The US and European Union failed to reach a deal over data sharing before an end-of-January deadline, leaving important questions of privacy and legal responsibility up in the air. According to the New York Times, the two sides aren't even close. The EU wants promises that data is protected against bulk US spying, for instance, but it's not thrilled by a proposed US State Department "data ombudsman" who'd help Europeans concerned about American misuse of their info.
European Union lays down first cybersecurity rules
The European Parliament has made headway into the development of cybersecurity rules its member states should follow. Under the first set of regulations it has laid down, critical service companies in all 28 member states will have to make sure they're using a system robust enough to fend off cyberattacks. By "critical service companies," we mean those that fall under any of these six categories: energy, transport, banking, financial market, health and water supply. Each member state will have to list businesses that can be identified as critical service companies under a category. Any company that makes the cut will have to be able to quickly report security breaches to authorities.
Germany scales back its spying while other nations want more
The UK and other countries might be pushing for greater spying powers than they've ever had before, but don't tell that to Germany -- it's doing just the opposite. The country hopes to ban its intelligence agency, the BND, from indiscriminately spying on European Union citizens or organizations. Effectively, it'll give the EU the same privacy rights as it would offer people within its own borders. The proposed law will limit digital snooping and wiretaps to extreme situations, such as when there are suspicions of terrorism, organized crime or broken arms embargoes. It also explicitly forbids spying on allies' institutions (ahem, NSA) and economic espionage.
Europe's lawmakers suggest giving Snowden amnesty
The European Parliament has voted to grant amnesty to Edward Snowden, the former US government contractor who revealed the depth of the country's surveillance programs back in 2013. By a vote of 285 to 281, the European Parliament is recommending that the 28 states of the EU "drop any criminal charges against Edward Snowden, grant him protection and consequently prevent extradition or rendition by third parties, in recognition of his status as whistle-blower and international human rights defender".
Germany orders recall of 8.5 million emissions-cheating Volkwagens
The outcome for consumers affected by the diesel emissions cheating scandal that has enveloped Volkswagen over the past month is becoming clearer, at least in Europe. According to the AP, Germany is ordering the company to recall all cars that include the emissions-cheating software across the European Union. That comes out to 8.5 million cars out of the total 11 million affected vehicles that were sold worldwide. Naturally, the fix will be free for owners -- and it's still possible that Volkswagen could compensate those who own cars affected by the scandal, as resale values are sure to drop significantly.
Google: EU is 'wrong as a matter of fact, law, and economics'
Google officially responded to charges levelled by the European Commission that it unfairly favored its own products over its competition and abused its market dominance to crowd out potential rivals. The EC began poking around back in 2010 so this isn't the first time that Google has had to publicly defended its position. "Economic data spanning more than a decade, an array of documents and statements from complainants all confirm that product search is robustly competitive," Kent Walker, Google's general counsel, wrote in the Google Europe blog.
Electric car sales are soaring in Europe (but not the US)
You might think that the US would be the hotbed for electric car sales given California's fondness for green transportation, but nope -- it's Europe. The European Automobile Manufacturers Association reports that EV sales in the European Union shot up 78 percent year-over-year in the first half of 2015. Most of the surge comes from the biggest countries, such as France, Germany and the UK, but even smaller nations saw an uptick. Bulgaria sold 20 EVs instead of 2, for instance. While the sales were still a drop in the bucket compared to conventional cars (just shy of 53,000 EU-wide), it's clear that the Old World is big on clean tech.
EU finds that Apple and labels didn't conspire to end free music
Apple Music is facing its fair share of scrutiny over concerns of possible anti-competitive behavior, but it's not going to get that much flak from Europe. According to both Mlex and Recode's sources, the European Commission has found no evidence that Apple or major music labels conspired to stifle free music services like Spotify. While the regulator is going to keep its eye on the music market as Spotify renews its label deals, it's now doubtful that you'll see a repeat of the EU's crackdown on e-book pricing.
EU to decide whether or not Uber is a transportation service
Uber has repeatedly insisted that it's not just a ridesharing company, but that interpretation is about to get an important test. A Spanish judge has requested that the European Court of Justice determine whether or not Uber is a generic "digital service," as it claims, or a "mere transport activity." If it's the former, European Union countries may have to rethink court rulings and laws that ban Uber. If the court deems Uber a transportation firm, however, the company may have no choice but to obey the same licensing and safety rules as taxis and other hired vehicles. While Uber will undoubtedly be ecstatic if it's victorious, it also risks losing one of its most important legal defenses. [Image credit: AP Photo/Bertrand Combaldieu]
Google tosses 59 percent of Europe's 'right to be forgotten' requests
How is the European Union's "right to be forgotten" faring a year after it kicked in? If you ask Google, it's more than a little messy. The internet firm has published an updated Transparency Report which reveals that the company rejected about 59 percent of the search result takedown requests received to date. While it doesn't break down exactly why it's tossing those requests, its examples typically include criminals trying to hide their unpleasant pasts and professionals embarrassed by their earlier work. And to no one's surprise, the top sites under the crosshairs are typically social services like Facebook, Google+ and Twitter.
EU aims to remove regional restrictions on digital goods by 2017
Being an EU citizen means you can grab your passport, head to the airport and travel freely among the 28 EU member states. When you arrive at your final destination, however, and fire up Netflix in your hotel room, you'll find a local content catalog that may not include your favorite show. The same level of localization is true for many digital goods and services, which is why the European Commission wants to create a "Digital Single Market" to rid the EU of geo-blocking and encourage a more connected Europe online. The Commission gave a vague outline of its Digital Single Market strategy back in March, but today its released a detailed proposal of what it intends to do by the end of next year to make it happen.
EU expected to file antitrust suit against Google
The Wall Street Journal reports that after a half decade-long investigation, the EU's chief antitrust regulator will be moving forward with a case against Google for reported violations of European law. The official declaration is expected to take place tomorrow when EU antitrust chief Margrethe Vestager meets with rest of the European commissioners. The complaint stems from a number of continental shopping and travel sites which assert that Google manipulated search results in order to better promote its own brands at their expense. The search behemoth has attempted to settle the case repeatedly since it began in 2010 but to no avail. Should Google be found guilty of the charges, it could theoretically face fines totalling more than $6 billion dollars.
WSJ: EU is gearing up to file antitrust lawsuit against Google
Google might have avoided going to court over antitrust charges in the US, but it could still face a lawsuit in Europe. According to the Wall Street Journal, the European Commission has started asking companies that filed complaints against Google's practices for permission to publish the details in those documents. A Brussels lawyer representing one of Mountain View's competitors said: "The fact that the commission has been seeking fuller [information] from complainants, against short deadlines [of] a couple of days, shows it is in the final stages of getting a statement of objections together. It's part of the choreography you always see."
The EU wants to remove regional limits on digital goods
Think regional locks on movie streaming and other digital goods are silly? So does the European Commission. It's outlining a new strategy (the Digital Single Market) that would prevent companies from geo-blocking online services when it's not truly necessary. This kind of arbitrary limit "cannot exist" in a single European Union-wide digital marketplace, officials argue. It's not clear what rules will be involved (you'll likely hear more about that when the full strategy is due in May), but the implication is that you wouldn't be forced to download or stream from a country-specific service. If you wanted to watch French Netflix from Germany, for example, you could.
European Union tells search sites how to handle your 'right to be forgotten'
When the European Union first put the "right to be forgotten" into effect, it didn't really give search sites much help. Should search listings disappear simply because they're embarrassing? What if you're a notable figure? At last, though, there are some clearer answers. The European Commission has published guidelines that tell search providers how to handle your takedown requests. For the most part, the recommendations line up with what Google has been doing so far. Websites have to balance your privacy demands against the public's rights; a search firm can pull details of your personal life, for instance, but it can refuse to hide criminal convictions or your official work record.
European Union wants Google to extend 'right to be forgotten' worldwide
The European Union wants Google to extend the range and impact of the "right to be forgotten" measures that passed earlier this year. The proposal would take the current limitation of EU-only domains like those ending in ".fr" and ".co.uk," and open it to traditional ".com" URLs, according to The Wall Street Journal. Meaning, it'd help to close the current loophole that lets you sidestep any removed websites where unflattering information might exist simply by searching on Google.com as opposed to a European variation like Google.de.
Google details how Europeans are wielding their 'right to be forgotten'
It's no secret that plenty of people are using (and abusing) the European Union's "right to be forgotten" online, but have you wondered just how these requests tend to break down? You won't have to wonder for much longer. Google has updated its Transparency Report with a new section for European search removal requests, letting you see how many requests it gets in a given EU country, how often it honors them and which websites are typically affected.
Microsoft lets the EU exercise its 'right to be forgotten' on Bing
Microsoft is clearly taking a cautious stance on the European Union's "right to be forgotten;" several weeks after Google started accepting requests to scrub yourself out of search results, you can finally ask for the same treatment on Bing. The company has posted a form that walks EU residents through the request process, giving them a relatively easy way to block offending pages from showing up in queries.
