MWC 2016 LIVE: Ericsson/Cisco partnership on track, insist execs

The importance of the high-profile Ericsson/Cisco partnership was laid bare at the Swedish vendor’s press conference on Monday. Hans Vestberg, Ericsson’s CEO, stressed that the agreement, which has only been operational for 74 days, was already gaining significant traction and had the continuous commitment from both companies. Cisco’s chief strategy officer, Hilton Romanski, was more […]

MWC 2016 LIVE: 5G to trigger disruption, claim industry leaders

The next generation of mobile technology will be a key enabler for disrupting traditional business models, claimed a panel of senior industry execs on Monday. “Complete business models are changing,” said Ralph de la Vega, vice chairman of AT&T. “Once we have data in the cloud there will be no stopping industries from disruption.” Vega pointed […]

After swallowing effortlessly the right to be forgotten time for Google Ads now to behave

2016 is not yet 60 days old and it already seems that this will be another tough year for Google in the EU. Only days after the world learned that Google swallowed the right to be forgotten effortlessly by hiding search results from all its websites to better appease the European Union’s privacy regulators, the news broke out that […]

MWC 2016 LIVE: Zuckerberg warns mobile industry not to ignore the unconnected

Mark Zuckerberg, chief executive of Facebook, warned Congress delegates not to overlook the task of connecting some four billion people that still don’t have access to the web. Under questioning, he expressed “disappointment” that the 5G industry focus was on connecting things rather than the unconnected, and that there was a danger of just providing […]

MWC 2016 LIVE: Mobile World Congress shows off planes, trams and automobiles

The Mobile World Congress 2016 has just opened its doors today in Fira Barcelona and the Sting is in Barcelona as Brussels’ only EU media to be GSMA’s media partner for many years now. This year’s Mobile World Congress (MWC), under the over-arching theme of Mobile is Everything, will showcase mobile in a plethora of industry sectors. […]

MWC 2016 LIVE: The top 5 themes of this year’s Mobile World Congress

Mobile World Congress is back for its eleventh year in Barcelona and the European Sting is the only Brussels-based EU media to be official media partner. Last year’s event drew more than 94,000 people and 2016 will see even more flocking to the Fira Gran Via during the week of 22-26 February. Past visitors have […]

Google succumbs unconditionally to EU’s “right to be forgotten” ruling

With an unprecedented move, Google has recently made a new, decisive turning decision to its never-ending story with the European Union. As reported last week, the American tech giant is about to take the “Right to be Forgotten” case to the next level. Google indeed will soon hide content from all its global domains, including the American […]

The New EU-US “Shield” for data privacy is full of holes

Vĕra Jourová, European Commissioner in charge of JusticeLast week the “post-Safe Harbour era” was officially launched. On February 2 the European Union and the United States have agreed on a new framework for transatlantic data flows, the so-called Privacy Shield. The two sides have now a brand new data-sharing deal, which will allow websites like Facebook, Apple and Google to transfer EU citizens’ […]

“Airbnb and YouTube are two great examples of a crowd based capitalism”, key stakeholders outline the boundaries of the 4th Industrial Revolution in Davos

On the second day of the World Economic Forum 2016 there was a truly interesting session on how digital platforms can increase innovation and help the digital economy grow. The lively session, named “A New Platform for the Digital Economy”, focused indeed on the core theme of 2016 Davos annual event, by analysing some of the key-aspects […]

WEF Davos 2016 LIVE: “European unity and cooperation is being called on question”, Vice President Joe Biden criticizes from Davos

The end of the first day of the World Economic Forum 2016 welcomed the Vice President of the United States of America, Mr Joe Biden, at the Congress Hall of the Davos Congress Centre. The American politician gave then a very long speech, too long for many, about the 4th industrial revolution and how it affects America and […]

WEF Davos 2016 LIVE: “Employment contracts today are a reducing share of the workforce”, scientists worry in Davos that the 4th industrial revolution threatens employment globally

During the afternoon of the first day of the World Economic Forum 2016, a very stimulating session took place called: “The Promise of Progress”. The panel discussion was on the 4th industrial revolution, the theme of this year’s WEF, and cast light on the reasons why the technological revolution that we are living today could […]

EU Commission announces Safe Harbour 2.0 and a wider Data protection reform

The new EU-US data transfer deal, currently under development, will give the European Union the right to suspend the pact if privacy concerns are raised again, EU Justice Commissioner Věra Jourová said in a statement last week. For the first time, such right is formally guaranteed, and even though the pact is still a draft, the […]

A Sting Exclusive: “eHealth can change many dimensions of how the healthcare area functions”, Polish MEP Michal Boni underscores from Brussels

Written by Michal Boni, Polish MEP with the European People’s Party (EPP) There are completely new opportunities related to the healthcare area. The new drivers come from the digital revolution. Digital devices are around us – everywhere. We have computers in our pockets. We use wearables with chips monitoring the real-time state of our health […]

October’s EU strong digital mix: From Safe Harbour to Net Neutrality, Roaming and Snowden

The month of October 2015, which began with another turning point in the Google-EU question and with a decisive judgment on data protection legislation will be remembered for a long time as a milestone for the digital European Union. On Net Neutrality First, last week, the European Parliament passed new rules on net neutrality which […]

EU Court of Justice invalidates Safe Harbour and the game for thousands US businesses suddenly changes

In what some American media already call a “dramatic judgement”, the European Court of Justice last week changed the course of history for data protection and handling between the EU and the United States. After having declared the “Safe Harbour” data transfer agreement invalid earlier last week, on October 06, the EU’s highest court last Friday […]

Google and Apple suddenly realise that doing business in EU is tough?

Last week was definitely a reference for digital European Union. For those who have felt that the European Commission has specifically targeted Google for some reason, or are particularly interested in the impact that regulators can have on big companies like Google last week must have truly paid off in terms of newsfeed. The Google bias? Let’s start with Google’s story. Last week, European Competition Commissioner […]

Oh, well, you are wrong, Google responds to the European Commission

Many months post the European Commission filed formal antitrust actions against Google, the American tech-giant issued its response to the Commission last week. Google, which has always denied the European Union’s antitrust charges, this time decided to formalise its response and speak wide open. In short, the high interests and the enormous weight the case has in antitrust […]

EU and US close to an agreement on data sharing amid European citizens’ concerns

The European Union and the United States are close to sealing a deal on data sharing, which will affect the way banks and other businesses store data. As reported by Reuters last week, the European Commission is working with US authorities on the final details of the same commercial data-sharing deal that was frozen two years […]

EU finally agreed to cut roaming charges in 2017 but criticism is always there

The European Union finally reached an agreement last week to end roaming charges for people travelling within its 28 member countries as of June 2017. After 12 hours of negotiation the Latvian presidency reached a provisional deal last Tuesday with the European Parliament on new rules to end mobile phone roaming fees and safeguard open […]

Google’s bare truth: Europe’s Chief denies EU accusations but admits they “don’t always get it right”

When back in April the European Commission formally filed a complaint against Google it was clear that the action could have turned the page of the whole “EU vs Google” case. But after the tech giant responded and set out the initial arguments against the Commission’s findings, almost immediately, no further discussion about the thorny […]

“The winner is who can accelerate the transition to a new digital era”. The Sting reports live from EBS 2015: a Digital Europe 4.0

The Digital Economy touches every aspect of our society, from the job market and the economy to our social life. The world is changing and who wants to be competitive must adapt quickly. This was the message reinforced at the EBS 2015 Session on Europe and the digital era last week, which was moderated by Bruno […]

It’s EU vs. Google for real: the time is now, the case is open

As anticipated by the European Sting in a latest Sting of the day last week on Google’s antitrust case in Europe, the European Commission did take finally formal actions and filed a complaint against the Northern American tech giant, alleging the company’s search results unfairly favoured its own shopping services over third-party sites. The antitrust charge followed a five-year […]

EU seeks foreign support on 5G from Mobile World Congress 2015 as the “digital gold rush” begins

“The digital economy is simply becoming the economy. And the future network infrastructure, 5G, will become the infrastructure”. These words came from Günther Oettinger, the European Union Commissioner for Digital Economy and Society, and they were spelled in Barcelona, during Mobile World Congress, 2015 last week. Those words stood for Mr. Oettinger’s introduction for the […]

Mobile World Congress 2015 first to debate EU’s new stance on Net Neutrality and Roaming Charges

Did you really think that Christmas 2015 would be the perfect chance to travel abroad in Europe, do your shopping in London or Paris and call your folks back home for wishes at zero roaming cost? More so, did you really think that Christmas 2015 would be the perfect chance for you to Skype with your pal without […]

New VAT rules in the EU: how a digital sea could have become an ocean

From 1 January 2015, a major change to the European Union VAT rules occurred affecting the digital world, which is destined to be discussed widely for a long time. A new regulation has come into place where VAT on digital products sold in the EU will be chargeable in the place of purchase rather than […]

Parlamentarians to “break up” with reality in the Google antitrust case

How many years can an antitrust case endure in the EU? It certainly depends on many factors but in the case of Google 4 is the minimum. This is because the topic of a ‘digital monopoly’ of a search engine is so refined and sophisticated that for the majority of EU stakeholders it is “terra incognita”. Also […]

It’s Time to Disrupt Europe, Digital First

Written by Kumardev Chatterjee, Founder & President of European Young Innovators Forum Over the last 30 years, the European Union has failed in innovation capacity and the main reason is its mindset: in on the one hand, societally, europeans have grown increasingly risk-averse in the last 30 years while on the other, structurally, it has […]

Digital business is Europe’s best hope to get back to growth

Digital market has received a lot of interest lately in Europe. Not only by the market players that have always lobbied more favourable or less regulation in general, but most importantly by the EU leadership. New Commissioner, new priorities Jean Claude Juncker, new President of the European Commission, seems to have ‘bet all his money’ […]

Facebook wins EU approval for WhatsApp acquisition; just a sign of the times

After a few months of sleepless nights, Facebook founder and young billionaire Mark Zuckerberg can finally relax a bit. The world’s largest social network will likely receive approval by the European Union for its $19 billion purchase of mobile messaging startup WhatsApp, reports said. Citing two people “familiar with the matter” Reuters revealed on Thursday […]

Look Mom, even the House of Lords says the #righttobeforgotten is not right

The relation between the UK and the EU is like that passionate thing usually developped between a cat and a dog. Historically since the very beginning of this love and hate affair in 1973, when London realized that the European project is a ‘good’ one, the UK always seeked to receive special attention, reminding to […]

“None of our member states has the dimension to compete with China and the US, not even Germany!”, Head of EUREKA Pedro Nunes on another Sting Exclusive

This revealing exclusive interview with Pedro Nunes, Head of EUREKA, was conducted by Carlo Motta at the European Sting’s pavilion during European Business Summit 2014. In the following interview Carlo Motta will be signalled as C.M and Mr Nune as P.N.   C.M.: I am very please to welcome to our booth Mr Pedro Nunes, Head of EUREKA. So […]

“Is Europe innovative? Oh, Yes we are very innovative!”, Director General of the European Commission Mr Robert-Jan Smits on another Sting Exclusive

This revealing exclusive interview with Mr Robert-Jan Smits, Director General of the European Commission for Research and Innovation, was conducted by Carlo Motta at the European Sting’s pavilion during European Business Summit 2014. In the following interview Carlo Motta will be signalled as C.M and Mr Smits as R.J.S.   C.M. : It is a big honour and pleasure to welcome in […]

Teamgum @ TheNextWeb 2014

Written by Divyesh Kharade, Co_founder of Teamgum Teamgum was amongst the 96 Startups which were selected for the TNW Boost program and as a part of the package we were promised a stand to showcase our product, PR coverage and a star list of people we could meet and network with, thanks to WeTransfer.  The real […]
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