The EU leaders are expected to meet again on Sunday to discuss about who will be taking over the EU top jobs, while France and Germany seem unable to agree who will be the successor of Jean-Claude Juncker. Last week’s EU summit didn’t conclude on the matter, something that exerts extra pressure onto the bloc’s […]France and Germany can’t reach consensus regarding EU’s top jobs
June 26, 2019 by Leave a Comment
The EU leaders are expected to meet again on Sunday to discuss about who will be taking over the EU top jobs, while France and Germany seem unable to agree who will be the successor of Jean-Claude Juncker. Last week’s EU summit didn’t conclude on the matter, something that exerts extra pressure onto the bloc’s […]Antitrust: Commission fines Google €1.49 billion for abusive practices in online advertising
March 21, 2019 by Leave a Comment
This article is brought to you in association with the European Commission. The European Commission has fined Google €1.49 billion for breaching EU antitrust rules. Google has abused its market dominance by imposing a number of restrictive clauses in contracts with third-party websites which prevented Google’s rivals from placing their search adverts on these websites. Commissioner […]Siemens-Alstom merger: Can Germany and France lobby to circumvent EC’s rejection, against EU consumers’ interests?
February 13, 2019 by Leave a Comment
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 […]Siemens-Alstom merger: Will the EC succumb to Franco-German pressures for the sake of May’s EU Elections?
January 9, 2019 by Leave a Comment
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 […]The London City-EU connection holds despite of Brexit and the ban of LSE-Deutsche Börse merger
April 3, 2017 by Leave a Comment
European Commission’s decision to ban the Deutsche Börse – London Stock Exchange merger, on the one hand solved a long list of problems it could have triggered, in view of and after the Brexit. On the other hand though, this decision has created probably as many issues, because London is the long established low cost […]How did Facebook fool the Commission that easily during the WhatsApp acquisition?
December 21, 2016 by Leave a Comment
The European Commission announced yesterday that a Statement of Objections was sent to Facebook accusing the company of providing incorrect or misleading information during the investigation under Facebook’s acquisition of WhatsApp. The aforementioned information was that Facebook had initially reassured the EC that it was not possible to match the user accounts of Facebook and WhatsApp. However, […]Deutsche Bank again in the middle of the US-EU economic skirmishes
September 22, 2016 by Leave a Comment
The US government is reacting in many ways against the fine in back taxes of €13 billion which the European Commission imposed on Apple. Firstly, Jack Lew, the American Secretary of the Treasury, accused the EU of grabbing tax incomes which belong to the US. On 31st August he said, “What’s not appropriate is for, […]Vestager vs. Google: a fight to ensure a competitive innovation framework
April 19, 2016 by Leave a Comment
The EU Consumer and Competition Day took place yesterday in Amsterdam with Margrethe Vestager to reveal her will to charge Google for exploiting consumers by pre-installing Android apps on their smartphones. European Commission (EC) is showing its teeth once again, after Microsoft antitrust case a decade ago, against giant tech companies which are finding ways […]Starbucks and FIAT again under Commission’s microscope: is Europe ready to kick multinationals out of the house?
October 21, 2015 by Leave a Comment
Some multinationals (MNEs) such as FIAT and Starbucks have been overdoing it in the EU for quite some time now. The case of tax investigation of the aforementioned companies on whether they have paid the correct amount of corporate income tax or not is ongoing for over a year now. The Commissioner responsible for Competition, Mrs […]On Google antitrust case: “Let’s face it, some companies want to hurt Google and it goes as simple as that”
April 14, 2015 by Leave a Comment
After 5 long lingering years a bit of light will be cast on Google’s antitrust case in Europe. Former Commissioner Joaquin Almunia for Competition failed to resolve the matter successfully during his term, going back and forth numerous times. Like a modern Pontius Pilate who “washed his hands”, the Spanish politician, who launched the Google investigation back […]Yesterday’s “jokes” and sarcasm by Digital Single Market’s Vice President Ansip on EU member states’ right to protect their telco markets
March 25, 2015 by Leave a Comment
The distance between an actual speech and a press release is abyssal. A good example of that came out of Mr Ansip’s introductory speech at an event in Brussels yesterday evening about the EU Digital Single Market. The Vice President of the European Commission for the Digital Single Market (DSM) touched there briefly all current hot topics of the […]EU to Telcos: Stop Mergers and Acquisitions but please help me urgently with 5G development
March 11, 2015 by Leave a Comment
Last week in the Mobile World Congress 2015 you had the distinct feeling being in an immense supermarket, strolling from isle to isle in order to find the product that you desire. For a deep pocket investor #MWC15 could be an excellent market place where she would be able to put in her “shopping basket” […]EU to Google: How to dismantle European search engines in 13 steps
December 3, 2014 by Leave a Comment
It seems that the search engine thriller that we are watching with horror in the Old Continent goes on. Last week the Sting reported on how parliamentarians were planning to “break up with reality in the Google antitrust case”. This week we are counting the votes and the list of “guidelines” to Google and all […]Parlamentarians to “break up” with reality in the Google antitrust case
November 26, 2014 by Leave a Comment
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 […]
