By Alastair Macdonald BRUSSELS (Reuters) – Can a bunch of graying politicians in Brussels really get with it and give Europe a revolutionary open market in digital technology? Jean-Claude Juncker and other EU executives poked fun at their own generation in an online video posted on Twitter on Wednesday to try and convince younger Europeans that they can.
Read moreThe EU executive will propose cutting the bloc’s sales tax on online newspapers, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said on Wednesday, in a move that would bring them into line with print media. Addressing Germany’s newspaper publishers federation BDZV in Brussels, Juncker said the Commission would put forward draft legislation in the first half of next year to extend national governments’ right to set reduced rates of value-added tax (VAT) on newspapers to their digital versions
Read moreBy Alastair Macdonald BRUSSELS (Reuters) – U.S. companies, including tech rivals Microsoft and Google , were among leading spenders on corporate lobbying in Brussels last year, a Reuters review of new data showed (table below)
Read moreBritish pop singer Jessie J has upset her fans after she “unfollowed” hundreds of people on Twitter. At the start of the month, the “Price Tag” singer was following 885 people on the micro-blogging site, where pop stars often have huge followings.
Read more(Reuters) – Google Inc said it would launch an experimental portal that allows interested patent holders to sell their patents to the company. Patent holders can tell Google about the patents they're willing to sell and the expected price through the portal, the company said on its blog.
Read moreBy Julia Fioretti BRUSSELS (Reuters) – Internet platforms such as Google, Microsoft and Yahoo! will be the subject of a widespread inquiry by European regulators to determine whether they are transparent enough in how they display search results. In a draft of the Commission's strategy for creating a digital single market, seen by Reuters, it says it will “carry out a comprehensive investigation and consultation on the role of platforms, including the growth of the sharing economy.” The investigation, expected to be carried out next year, will look into the transparency of search results – involving paid for links and advertisements – and how platforms use the information they acquire
Read moreThe European Union accused Google Inc on Wednesday of cheating competitors by distorting Internet search results in favor of its Google Shopping service and also launched an antitrust probe into its Android mobile operating system. “Today’s statement of objections on comparison shopping is of course limited.
Read moreThe European Union's digital commissioner Guenther Oettinger said he expects the European Commission to make a decision in a five-year investigation over whether Google has abused its dominant position in the next few days. “We have to make or even force platforms, search engines to follow our rules in Europe,” Oettinger said an event organized by engineering association VDMA on the sidelines of the Hanover Trade Fair.
Read moreBy Foo Yun Chee and Rene Wagner BERLIN (Reuters) – European Union regulators plan to investigate ecommerce to help remove barriers to cross-border trade in the 28-nation bloc, the EU's antitrust chief said, a move that may lead to action against companies which deliberately block online sales. European Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager said she decided to launch the year-long inquiry because such hurdles were hampering the growth of online sales. According to the European Commission, while one in two EU consumers shopped online last year, just 15 percent bought a product online in another EU country because of restrictions such as language, different laws and anti-competitive behavior, “It is high time to remove remaining barriers to ecommerce, which is a vital part of a true Digital Single Market in Europe,” Vestager told reporters at a conference organized by the German competition authority on Thursday
Read moreThe Italian government approved a plan on Tuesday to bring its high-speed broadband network into line with European Union targets, but it held back from forcing operators to replace their copper-wire networks with fiber-optic cable. Italy faces growing pressure to strengthen its telecommunications infrastructure and digital sector to help improve the performance of an economy that has been in virtual stagnation for two decades. “We are creating a plan to give our country the digital infrastructure, the digital highways like any other European country,” Industry Minister Federica Guidi told reporters.
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