Back in April, the European Commission officially filed its anti-trust complaint against Google in regards to Android and its pre-installed apps and services. At the time, Google was given until the 27th of July to refute the complaint but ended up nabbing an extention, bringing the deadline to the 7th …
Read More »EU Commission continues push for single digital market
The European Commission is keen to continue improving the ability for online shoppers to buy from wherever they want without facing additional hurdles. Its latest proposals would see retailers banned from treating customers differently and would have to sell to foreign buyers, thought they wouldn't be required to handle international …
Read More »The EU said to hit Google with huge €3 billion fine
The European Commission currently has several anti-trust cases out against Google, one of which focuses on the company's monopoly on Search Engines. Some companies have accused Google of favouring its own services in search results and while Google has made its defence, reports this week are saying that the EU …
Read More »EU issues formal antitrust complaint against Android
Earlier this week we got news that the European Commission was in the final stages of its Android antitrust investigation, taking on formal complaints from companies that feel that Google has abused its market position with the Android OS. The process went quicker than expected as the commission has notified …
Read More »EU court adviser says linking to pirated content is not illegal
Over the years, plenty of sites that simply link to pirated content have been slammed with legal action despite not actively hosting. However, that could change over here in the EU as a court adviser has spoken out to say that simply linking to copyright infringing content publicly available on …
Read More »74 percent of fiction TV licensing agreements call for geo-blocking in EU
Right now, the European Commission is going through an antitrust inquiry, which has revealed a few interesting tidbits about the state of geographical content blocks throughout Europe, with apparently 74 percent of fiction TV licensing deals demanding that blocks be placed to restrict content to specific countries inside of the …
Read More »Google to extend ‘right to be forgotten’ to all domains
Back in 2014, the EU ordered Google to implement what is now known as the ‘right to be forgotten' allowing people to protect their privacy by having specifically about them to be hidden from EU-based Google search. Since its initial implementation, results were only hidden on Google's EU-based domains but …
Read More »EU demands tighter controls for U.S. data requisitions
Following its ending of the EU-U.S. Safe Harbour data exchange scheme last year, the European Union is demanding tighter controls and protections on how America requests information from EU companies. If those assurances aren't received soon, it may start taking enforcement actions against various firms. Safe Harbour previously gave U.S. companies the …
Read More »New EU laws could kick under-16s off of social media, email
Being connected as a teen is pretty important. As much as older generations may have adopted social networking, children of today have grown up with it – it's in their blood. But it may not be for much longer, as a new change to EU data protection laws could make …
Read More »Google has been asked to ‘forget’ 1.2 million URLs
Last year, Google was ordered to comply with what the EU calls ‘the right to be forgotten'. This means that anybody who wants a link pertaining to them to disappear from Google search within the EU, can send a request through to Google and it turns out, a lot of …
Read More »EU Parliament calls on countries to pardon Snowden, give asylum
Despite the United States continued stance that Edward Snowden needs to come home from Russia and face the music of his document stealing actions, the European Parliament has further solidified his position as a whistleblower by voting – by a slim margin – for EU nations to pardon him for …
Read More »Cameron promises automated filters after EU makes them illegal
David Cameron was said to have “spluttered over his cornflakes” when the ruling came in from the EU on net-neutrality, that said all data should be treated equally and therefore filters, like the ones put in place by ISPs to block pornography, would no longer be allowed under EU law. …
Read More »The EU will end data roaming charges in 2017
The European Parliament has passed a law today that will put a stop to mobile roaming data fees by June 2017. This law was passed as part of a larger legislation, which also wanted to strengthen Net Neutrality laws but unfortunately was left with some major problems that could allow …
Read More »The Overwatch beta extends to Europe this month
Earlier this month, Blizzard officially announced that it would be launching the Overwatch beta, with a release date set for the 27th of October. At the time of the announcement, the beta was only scheduled to launch over in the US, cutting out the rest of the world. However, tomorrow's …
Read More »Black Desert MMO heading to the US and EU
Black Desert, the hugely popular Korean MMO is finally making its way over to the west. Over in the US and EU, the game will be known as Black Desert Online, with closed alpha testing set to begin pretty soon. There is also a new trailer for the game to …
Read More »U.S. businesses complain about new EU privacy rules
EU citizens' data cannot be so easily sent to the U.S. any more thanks to a ruling on Tuesday which saw a European court shoot down the “Safe Harbour” system, which allows companies to self-certify whether they have enough data protection measures in place when sending customer information overseas. Moving …
Read More »Google given two more weeks for EU antitrust defence
We have been reporting on the European Commission's grievances with Google for some time now. Earlier this year, the EU officially accused Google of abusing its online position to give its own products and services an edge over the competition. At the time, Google had ten weeks to respond with a defence, …
Read More »EU clears Apple of anti-competitive behaviour with Apple Music
Earlier this year, ahead of Apple Music's initial announcement, the European Commission launched an investigation in to Apple's business practises leading up to the streaming service's launch. At the time, the EU suspected that Apple may be resorting to anti-competitive tactics in order to get an edge over competing companies. …
Read More »U.S. and EU near agreement on data sharing
Since the Edward Snowden revelations about the NSA, GCHQ and international data gathering and sharing came out in 2013, the world has been trying to figure out the right balance between privacy and security. To that end, the European Commission has been in talks with U.S. representatives to renegotiate “safe …
Read More »The EU agrees to get rid of roaming charges
The European Union has finally reached an agreement that will result in the end of roaming charges for those travelling within the 28 member countries of Europe, though this new plan doesn't start until June 2017. The new agreement was made after several months of planning, the deal also means …
Read More »Wikileaks is crowd funding a reward for TPP document leakers
The Trans Pacific Partnership, or TPP, is a trade deal that affects almost half of the world's economy and will bring a number of sweeping changes to the world of trade, law and copyright if enacted. Many organisations have railed against it and governments have defended it, but even now, …
Read More »Android facing more anti-trust complaints
Google is facing more anti-trust complaints regarding Android. The European Commission is already investigating Google over its mobile operating system due to concerns that it promotes its own apps over its competitors and now, complaints have arisen suggesting that Google is abusing its dominance in the market. This particular complaint …
Read More »Skype is refusing to hand over call data to Belgian courts
Although the Microsoft owned VOIP service might have been happy enough for the NSA to read and listen to just about everything it's members do on the service, Skype isn't quite so forthcoming in other countries. Over in Europe, the American company is being asked to appear in a court …
Read More »Blizzard is giving EU Hearthstone players some free card packs
Blizzard is giving European Hearthstone players two free card packs as an apology for connection issues that users faced last week. If you made your Hearthstone account before the third of May this year, you will be greeted with two classic card packs when you next log in. The Battle.net …
Read More »Microsoft may be forced to pay Sky to use Skype brand in EU
Have you ever confused Sky TV with Microsoft's Skype messenger service? Well a European court thinks that you probably will and has ruled that the name ‘Skype' is too similar to ‘Sky'. This prevents Microsoft from registering the Skype trademark in Europe. Here is how the European Union explained its …
Read More »Google accused of abusing online dominance by EU
The European Commission has been critical of Google and its business practices for some time now but today, it finally launched its official investigation in to the company on anti-trust grounds, accusing Google of abusing its online dominance to unfairly promote its own products and services. In a statement of …
Read More »Trade partnership TTIP looms over general election
With the general election just over a month away, politicians and their parties have spun up the rhetoric machines and begun knocking on doors around the country, hoping to win over their constituents. But while the likes of Ed Miliband and David Cameron slug it out in the press and …
Read More »EU antitrust regulators will investigate ecommerce industry
The European Union's regulatory body for international competitiveness is set to perform a thorough investigation into eCommerce within the EU, amid reports that some companies and nations may be deliberately blocking online trade, in order to further their own aims. It hopes that as part of the study it will …
Read More »Solar eclipses could soon become dangerous
Solar eclipses are probably not something that most of us humans have been scared of in a very long time, thanks to science and reasoning, but soon there may actually be a reason to be at least a little nervous. With our increasing dependence on energy drawn from the Sun …
Read More »Apple spending €1.7 Billion on EU data centers running on renewable energy
Apple has announced that it plans to spend €1.7 Billion constructing two new data centers in Europe, which will run entirely on renewable energy and provide key online services such as iMessage, Siri and iTunes. One of the two centers will be located in Ireland while the other will be …
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