Digital Single Market

MEPs unite behind ‘pro-Uber’ report
Est. 6minMembers of the European Parliament backed Uber-type companies in the heated debate about the sharing economy, calling on regulators to encourage their development in Europe.

INFOGRAPHIC: New GSMA study: European economy boosted by 4G investments
Realising a genuine Digital Single Market will require increased investment and innovation, first and foremost in digital networks. Investing in mobile networks and meeting the goal of digitalising everything is key to realising its potential.

€4-5bn EU digital investment fund needed, France says
Est. 4minFrance's Minister for the Economy, Emmanuel Macron, insisted on the need for a €4-€5 billion European digital investment fund at the French-German digital conference on Tuesday (27 October). EURACTIV France reports.

France and Germany push their own digital agenda
Est. 3minFrançois Hollande and Angela Merkel will use a conference at Paris' Élysée Palace today (27 October) to rally support for their vision of the digital single market. EURACTIV France reports.

No regulation needed for online ‘gatekeepers’, experts tell Commission
Est. 5minThe European Commission's intention to regulate online giants such as Google, Ebay and Uber, has received a lukewarm response among analysts in the field.

Tirole: Brussels must level the playing field for online platforms
Est. 4minOnline platforms have become the “gatekeepers” of the digital world, the 2014 Nobel laureate in Economics, Jean Tirole told the FT-ETNO summit on 13 October.

Lawmakers rebuke US ‘digital protectionism’ charges
Est. 4minEU lawmakers have spoken out against accusations that Europe is promoting protectionism aimed at damaging American technology firms.

Brexit won’t affect roaming charges, vows UK government
Est. 5minBritish consumers can rest assured they'll benefit from EU plans to drop roaming charges in 2017—regardless of the outcome of the UK referendum on EU membership, a British official told a concerned House of Lords committee yesterday (7 September).

Commission mulls new measures in divisive inquiry of online giants
Est. 6minEyeing the growing influence of online platforms, and the risk they'll abuse their dominant positions, the European Commission is considering whether new measures are needed to limit firms that could include Google and Facebook, or Apple's app store.

Autonomous driving takes back seat as connected car rules prepared
Est. 6minEuropean Commission and Parliament officials said on Thursday (3 September) that they were moving towards regulating connected cars, but are still a long way off from sealing new legislation on autonomous vehicles.

EU official: Big data ‘here forever and in all sectors’
Est. 8minThe data revolution is so pervasive that it’s hard to predict which sectors of the economy are going to be hit first, said Robert Madelin in an interview with EURACTIV. The senior EU official warned lawmakers against being too restrictive on privacy protection, saying it was “utopian” to believe that citizens should always be “enabled to hide”.

Germany to set up ‘Bundescloud’
Est. 5minNew German rules for government cloud computing means official data can only be processed in Germany. The restrictions are a strike against US-based cloud providers such as Amazon and Google.

Top Hollywood studios face EU antitrust probe
Est. 3minThe EU accused six top Hollywood studios and the Sky TV pay channel today (23 July) of breaching antitrust laws, in the latest salvo in Brussels' efforts to break down digital barriers in Europe.

WTO trade deal set to cut tariffs for 200 tech products
Est. 3minAfter months of delays, eighty countries negotiating over the Information Technology Agreement (ITA) reached a breakthrough on Saturday (18 July) at a meeting brokered by the World Trade Organization.

Copyright reform: Oettinger open to Spanish ‘Google tax’ model
Est. 4minEU Digital Commissioner Günther Oettinger said that he prefers Spain's controversial ancillary copyright law on Tuesday (14 July), sometimes nicknamed a 'Google tax', to the German model.

EU’s circular economy to use power of tech innovation like Uber
Est. 4minThe European Commission’s new proposal for a circular economy will try to exploit the disruptive power of tech innovation, such as Uber or Airbnb.

EU quizzes online retailers over cross-border sales
Est. 2minEU antitrust regulators have asked e-commerce retailers to spell out the kind of sanctions imposed on them when refusing orders by digital content companies to restrict cross-border online sales.

Oettinger meets almost exclusively with corporate lobbies, report shows
Est. 4minDigital Commissioner Günther Oettinger is a prime target for lobbyists, but his door is almost exclusively open to telecoms, according to Transparency International. EURACTIV Germany reports.

Germany’s digital security disparity ‘remains striking’
Est. 4minGermany shows significant discrepancies among private users with regard to protection against cyber attacks, a recent study shows, with internet users growing increasingly uneasy despite an improved security situation. EURACTIV Germany reports.

SMEs largely wary of digitalisation in Germany
Est. 4minThe EU’s strategy for the digital single market includes ambitious targets, including copyright reform, improving the digital infrastructure and eliminating national borders in online trade. But experts argue that SMEs should receive more support. EURACTIV Germany reports.

Member states see digital security as a national issue
Est. 3minCybersecurity legislation is still being held up by member state reluctance to report attacks on their digital networks.

Big telcos take the stage in Germany’s new spectrum auction
Est. 4minGermany launched its first radio spectrum auction today (27 May) since 2010. The auction includes the sale of 700 MHz band for mobile broadband for the first time in Europe, where it has been used for television broadcast up until now.

Oettinger urges Council to move fast on audiovisual reform
Est. 3minBack from his two-day trip to the Cannes film festival, Digital Economy Commissioner Günther Oettinger said on Tuesday (19 May) that talks on the Audiovisual Media Services Directive (AVMSD) need to pick up the pace.

Ansip denies ‘rumours’ of encryption backdoors in EU’s digital plan
Est. 3minEuropean Commission Vice-President Andrus Ansip, in charge of the Digital Single Market, rejected suggestions on Tuesday (19 May) that the European executive was planning workarounds to crack encryption technologies, which ensure secure communications on the Internet.