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This article is brought to you thanks to the collaboration of The European Sting with the World Economic Forum. Author: Cathy Li, Head, Shaping the Future of Media, Entertainment & Sport; Member of the ExCom, World Economic Forum 1. Metaverse requires competition checks, EU antitrust chief says The metaverse needs regulatory scrutiny to ensure unfair competition does not […]
Apple Inc. together with the Irish government showed up yesterday at the EU’s second-highest court to appeal for the 13 billion euros EU tax order. The US corporation has decided to legally challenge the 2016 European Commission’s decision by claiming that its products and services are created in the US and thus the profits were […]
High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini together with the 28 EU Foreign Ministers met Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi last Monday to discuss the agenda of the EU-China Strategic Dialogue. During the meeting, both parties had the opportunity to enhance and promote their mutual cooperation on several international topics. Both sides […]
The European Commission (EC), after months of investigation and discussions, came to the independent conclusion to refuse the merger of the rail companies Siemens and Alstom despite the improvements provided by the two firms together with the continuous pressure by the French and German governments. Nevertheless, France and Germany still believe that the EU has wrongly […]
It was yesterday when executives of Siemens and Alstom met with EU Commissioner Margrethe Vestager in one of their last attempts to convince her to give the green light for their merge. The European Commission (EC) is now left to decide till February 18 whether or not to approve the merger of the rail operations […]
This article is brought to you thanks to the strategic cooperation of The European Sting with the World Economic Forum. Author: Kate Whiting, Senior Writer, Formative Content Germany is currently in the driving seat when it comes to innovation – thanks in part to the speed it’s developing new technologies like driverless cars. In the World Economic Forum’s latest […]
Last week, the European Union has announced it has formally launched an investigation into a massive data breach that has recently made vulnerable millions of Facebook accounts. The Irish Data Protection Commission, which is Facebook’s lead privacy regulator in Europe, said last Wednesday that it will look into whether the US social media giant is […]
US President Donald Trump’s thundering trade salvos now seem to be concentrating exclusively against China. This week’s cannonade though didn’t remain unanswered. On Monday, the Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman, Geng Shuang, said “China will inevitably take countermeasures to resolutely protect our legitimate rights”. On Friday 7 September, the ‘America first’ ex TV celebrity aboard ‘Air […]
Last week, the European Commission has given its official approval to Apple’s planned acquisition of British song-recognition app Shazam, after months of investigation. The in-depth study by EU regulators focused onto whether the deal would give the Cupertino, California-based company an unfair advantage over rival music services like Spotify. Now, despite Apple hasn’t revealed how […]
“There is no life before coffee”, a famous sentence says, giving some kind of indication on the size of two things: how difficult is to wake up every morning and the importance of the coffee industry. Last week will be remembered as a turning point in the history of the coffee industry in Europe and […]
The US-Mexico trade agreement, with or without Canada on board, targets Europe aggressively. For one thing, it will make life difficult for the German car companies which produce in Mexican assembly lines and sell in the US. Last Thursday, the European Sting reported the hidden sides of the US-Mexico trade deal in an article entitled, […]
Last week, the European Commission has announced it has opened a formal investigation against Qatar Petroleum over supply agreements that appeared to be restrictive for European buyers. In particular, the EU watchdog’s probe was launched to assess whether supply agreements between Qatar Petroleum, the bloc’s biggest sea-borne gas supplier, and European importers of liquefied natural […]
A final word on the thorny EU vs Google case over Android antitrust charges could arrive as soon as next month, according to people familiar with the matter. Late last week, Reuters announced that the EU antitrust investigation into Google’s operative system Android could be on the way of concluding shortly, and that the American […]
Apple has started to pay off its 13 billion euros tax bill to Ireland over disputed taxes, transferring a first € 1.5 billion ($1.18 billion) payment to an escrow account set up by the Irish government. The announcement came on Friday, when Irish Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe confirmed to Reuters the payment was received. As […]
Last week, the European Commission approved, under the EU Merger Regulation, the acquisition of Rockwell Collins by United Technologies Corporation (UTC) in the aerospace sector. The EU watchdog clarified that the decision is conditional to the divestment by UTC of businesses in actuators, pilot controls, ice protection and oxygen systems, which is something that UTC has […]
This article was exclusively written for the Sting by Mr Carlo Petrini, founder and President of Slow Food, a global, grassroots organization, founded in 1989 to prevent the disappearance of local food cultures and traditions and counteract the rise of fast food culture. The opinion expressed in this piece belongs strictly to the writer and does not necessarily reflect The […]
The European Commission attempts to tackle disinformation which is spread online by building up strategic measures in the EU. Last January, the EC assigned to a High Level Expert Group (HLEG) to define the problem and propose concrete recommendations on how it can be dealt. The report which was completed last month sets this issue […]
Last Monday, the European Commission sent a letter to Facebook asking whether EU citizens were involved in the Cambridge Analytica scandal. The EU is taking the turn from U.S. which has already opened an investigation to find out how Facebook permitted data breach of 50 million users. Facebook has been experiencing fierceful attacks both by […]
Last week, the European Union formally gave its approval to Germany multinational company Bayer’s $62.5 billion acquisition of US-based Monsanto. Bayer AG, leader in the chemical and pharmaceutical industry, got one step closer to take over the world’s largest seed company, after agreeing to bolster BASF SE by selling to it seeds, pesticides and digital […]
The European Commission has opened an in-depth investigation to assess a proposed merger between German industrial gases group Linde and US peer Praxair Inc., under the EU Merger Regulation. The official announcement came last Friday, as the Commission said it has concerns “that the merger may reduce competition in the supply of several crucial gases, […]
The EU antitrust fine to Qualcomm comes as the latter attempts to avoid the 105 billion dollar hostile takeover by competitor Broadcom which keeps on biding higher and higher. Qualcomm seems to be in serious pressure as several fines have been imposed on the company for market dominance abuse and there are plenty of cases […]
Last week the European Union announced one of the biggest investment plans on digital to date. With an official statement, the European Commission unveiled its plans to spend € 1 billion on supercomputers, to boost the bloc’s competitiveness and to catch-up with other international superpowers. The plan, whose aim is to develop Europe’s own exascale […]
Last week, the European Commission has ordered Amazon to pay a 250 million euros ($293 million) bill in back taxes to Luxembourg, as a consequence of “undue tax benefits”. The Commission also announced that it is planning to take the Irish government to European court over its failure to recover €13bn in unpaid taxes from […]
This article was exclusively written for the Sting by Mr Adrien Lepic, the Secretary General of the European Confederation of Junior Enterprises (JADE) for the 2017/2018 term (JADE). The opinion expressed in this piece belongs to the writer and does not necessarily reflect The European Sting’s one. In the business environment, there are new challenges everywhere and […]
Digital multinationals such as Amazon, Facebook and Google may face higher tax bills in the European Union as a new plan for harmonised tax treatment of online companies has been discussed by EU Finance Ministers on Saturday. French finance minister Bruno Le Maire led the initiative and claimed on Friday nearly one third of EU […]
Last week the European Court of Justice, Europe’s highest court, ruled that US chipmaker Intel’s € 1.06 billion ($1.26 billion) antitrust fine be re-examined by a lower court. The ECJ found that the General Court, which upheld the hefty fine imposed on Intel by the Commission for abuse of a dominant position in the market, […]
The European Commission is about to impose more than one billion euros fine to Google as a result of online shopping service search abuse according to the Financial Times. If the above is implemented, it would be the highest penalty in the history of anti-competitive behavior after Intel’s case in 2009. The repercussions for Google, […]
It was last Monday when the EU ministers gathered in Brussels to draft new rules to prevent future emissions cheating from the automotive companies after the VW emissions scandal. The Council of Ministers from 28 countries proposed rules for cutting down the national authorities’ power giving at the same time the ability to the European […]
Last week the European Commission has communicated its decision to formally accept commitments by US tech giant Amazon to end an EU antitrust investigation over contracts with e-book publishers. The Seattle-based company has proposed to drop some clauses in its contracts that required publishers to inform about terms offered to the company’s competitors and to […]
Last week, the European Commission has proposed a new set of rules to give national antitrust authorities more power and resources against anti-competitive practices. The proposed rules, which followed a public consultation that was launched last year, are intended to make the bloc’s national competition agencies more autonomous but also more reactive against multinational firms […]
Volkswagen, the giant German automaker, has pleaded guilty to criminal charges in a Detroit federal court last Friday to conspiracy to defraud the U.S., commit wire fraud, and violate the Clean Air Act, obstruction of justice and import violations. However, VW still denies compensating European car owners arguing that a ‘technical fix’ can make cars […]
EU Regulators have found last week an agreement on new rules concerning online content portability, allowing EU citizens to access online subscription services with no restrictions while travelling within the Union. The new rules will practically end the so-called “geo-blocking tactics”, and will enable European consumers to access services such as Netflix, Sky’s Now and Spotify […]
With an official statement, the European Commission last week published its proposal to reform the existing European online privacy rules. Companies such as Facebook, WhatsApp and Google will face tougher rules on the tracking of users under a wider update of the e-privacy directive, which will also impact cookies regulation. The EU says the new […]
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