The U.S. Federal Trade Commission gave Google a slap on the wrist after it concluded its antitrust investigation into the company’s business practices, but it looks like it may not get away that easily in Europe. The Financial Times reports that EU Competition Commissioner Joaqiun Almunia wants to “prevent Google distorting choices for consumers and taking business from rivals.” → Read More
The European Commission has delivered a “statement of objections” to Samsung’s leadership, in which it claims that Samsung was abusing its standard-essential patents in preventing Apple from making use of the same. Providing written notice is the next step in the EC’s investigation of Samsung, which began due to the Korean company’s many injunction requests and lawsuits filed in EU member states… → Read More
Deutsche Telekom CEO René Obermann will resign his position at the head of the company as of December 31, 2013, according to a release from the company spotted by GigaOM’s David Meyer. The decision was approved by the Board today in a meeting, agreeing to Obermann’s request to leave after 16 years at the company, seven of which were spent as CEO. → Read More
The European Union’s Commissioner For The Digital Agenda Neelie Kroes told a conference in Brussels on Tuesday that the EU’s member nations should throw their support behind a plan to invest EU funds in 4G network expansion and improvement, in order to provide their citizens with consistent, widespread access to next-gen networks on the latest mobile devices. Apple’s iPhone and iPad both offer… → Read More
Apple has faced heat in Italy over its standard consumer product warranty, which offers consumers protection against manufacturer-caused defects and failures for one year, and now it looks like that might lead to even more trouble across the European Union, according to a new letter from EU Justice Commissioner Viviane Reding. In the letter, Reding asks member countries to find out whether Apple… → Read More
Some development in the e-book price war being played out in Europe — and an indirect victory for Amazon and any other retailer not called Apple in the process: the European Commission has announced that Apple and the four big publishers Hachette, Macmillan, HarperCollins and Simon & Schuster have offered to drop their agency pricing agreement for e-books sold in Europe — although the five… → Read More
Carriers are fiercely competitive, but swallowing their territorial tendencies, several around Europe have started teaming up to share mobile spectrum and other resources in the ongoing race to serve hungry mobile consumers with data for their apps, video chats and film streams — expected soon to top 1 trillion megabytes of data per month. Today the EU took a step towards formalizing that, with… → Read More
As part of an agreement with the European Commission in 2009, Microsoft was supposed to present Windows users with a choice of browsers. It turns out, however, that Microsoft quietly stopped showing this screen with the release of Windows 7 SP1 in February 2011. According to European Competition Commissioner Joaquin Almunia, this means 28 million users in the EU did not get to see this screen and… → Read More
Today, Italy’s antitrust body has fined Apple, Inc. $1.2 million (900,000 euros) for pushing customers to buy its AppleCare Protection Plan without adequately disclosing the support that already comes with their device. In Italy, companies are actually required by law to provide two years of free support to customers, which, according to the Italian Antitrust Authority, was not clearly explained… → Read More
The European Commission this morning announced that it has opened formal antitrust proceedings to investigate whether a number of international ebook publishers have engaged in anti-competitive practices affecting the sale of e-books in Europe, “possibly with the help of Apple” (which offers an e-book storefront called iBooks).
According to the press release, the opening of proceedings means… → Read More
.eu, the country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for the European Union, originally launched 7 December 2005, but full public registration started on 7 April 2006. One day early, EURid, the non-profit that operates the .eu TLD, issued a press release celebrating its fifth birthday.
According to EURid, registration of .eu domain names have doubled in five years, which puts it ninth on the list of… → Read More
.eu, the country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for the European Union, originally launched 7 December 2005, but full public registration started on 7 April 2006. One day early, EURid, the non-profit that operates the .eu TLD, issued a press release celebrating its fifth birthday.
According to EURid, registration of .eu domain names have doubled in five years, which puts it ninth on the list of… → Read More
Ministers from France, Germany and the UK are calling for the EU to cut its carbon emissions by 30% on 1990 levels by 2020, arguing that failure to reach the goal will have long-term economic consequences. The current target is a 20% reduction from 1990 levels.
The officials say increasing the target will help create jobs in clean energy sectors and help keep the EU competitive with China, Japan… → Read More
And so it begins. The European Commission this morning launched a consultation on key questions regarding the contentious issues of net neutrality and the open Internet.
The consultation covers such issues as whether ISPs should be allowed to adopt traffic management practices, prioritizing one kind of Internet traffic over another. This has become an issue with the onset of broadband and… → Read More
Sony announced a new clock radio today, the enticing named ICF-C717PJ, the latest in a long line of consumer electronics. The ICF-C717PJ has a few tricks up it’s proverbial sleeve however, including a thermometer and the ability to project the time on the wall or ceiling. → Read More
It’s official: the European Commission has granted regulatory approval for Oracle to acquire Sun Microsystems for approximately $7.4 billion, without further conditions. In a statement released moments ago, Oracle says it expects unconditional approval from China and Russia as well and intends to close the transaction shortly.
Oracle will host an all-day live event for customers, partners, press… → Read More
[EU] The latest battle in the browser wars appears to be over. The European Union has finally cut a deal with Microsoft which will see the company ditching Internet Explorer as the default browser in Windows in return for antitrust charges being dropped.
As of March, users will be given a choice of up to 12 web browsers via a pop-up screen. The sticking point, however, had been the order in which… → Read More
It’s expected that the European Commission will pass legislation that will require manufacturers to include a noise limiter on portable media players. This is being done, of course, because listening to said devices at extraordinarily loud volume levels is quite dangerous; up to 10 percent of users are in danger totally destroying their hearing by keeping the players on too loud. → Read More
The 9-year-long antitrust battle between Intel and the European Union (the European Commission, to be exact) ended today and there is a clear loser: Intel. The company faces a $1.45 billion fine for abusing its No. 1 position in the market for computer chips. This is the highest fine the European Commission has ever imposed on a company. → Read More
Ha! The green-crazy European Union is looking to ban energy inefficient TVs, including large plasmas, in the interest of saving Mother Earth. Nope, not joking. → Read More
A new set of EU Directives could force Apple to re-design its iPod and iPhone in Europe. And if it did that, it might as well re-design them for every market, right? The Directives would force manufacturers to design their products so that batteries are easily replaces—unscrew one or two screws, flip a tab, etc. Seems the EU wants to make it easier for people to dispose of their old… → Read More
Flickr’d A European Union official has warned Google to play nice with EU privacy laws if and when it launches a European version of Google Maps Street View. The service, which provides street-level photos of certain areas, has generated concern among privacy advocates and home owners. In response, Google will now automatically blur faces of people present in Street View photos. As it… → Read More
More “Google is evil” news for you. The EU, a mythical organization granted legitimacy by the BBC, has said Google has no reason to keep users’ search information for more than six months. (It currently keeps such records for up to 18 months.) The proposal to force Google’s hand was drawn up by something called the Article 29 Working Party, which advises (PDF alert) the… → Read More
[photopress:ecj.jpg,full,center] Via Le Wikipedia “Hooray for the European Court of Justice,” Europirates exclaimed today. The EU’s top court ruled that European ISPs don’t have to release the identities of downloaders even if industry groups (like Euro versions of the RIAA) demand the information. That’s the good news. The bad news, sorta, is that the Court also said… → Read More
Mobile TV is still FUBAR here, but over in Europe and Korea (especially Korea) it’s in much better shape. And now that the EU has backed a single standard for mobile TV there—one supported by Nokia—its prospects are looking better and better. The EU has given its blessing to DVB-H, which, while annoying proponents of other standards such as Qualcomm, should kick start the… → Read More
This should be a lesson to you all. Find someone that actually reads and speaks the language before you go spouting off that Microsoft will not ship Zune’s to Europe in 2007. It’s not to say that it will actually happen, but do you see how quickly the Interwebs light up at such news? This is what Ballmer really said when he was asked about Zune’s being launched in Europe: Our… → Read More
Looks like the folks on the other side of the pond won’t be seeing Zune’s in time for Christmas after all. Steve Ballmer has made it clear that the Zune won’t be shipping over seas until sometime in 2008. So why the adamant statement? It’s pretty simple, really, MS is still losing money on the Zune and it doesn’t make much sense spending more money when they… → Read More
Here’s an interesting list of 10 “inconvenient truths” that the IFPI released yesterday in regards to the EU’s latest figures on counterfeit products that were confiscated in 2006. According to the reports there were 23 million phony CDs and DVDs confiscated last year and 93 percent originated in China. The music industry’s international trade group goes as far as saying that the… → Read More
In a few separate maneuvers, European officials are beginning to look at Google and its hoarding of personal data. The European Union’s beef with Google stems from the search giant’s policy of keeping personal data of its users for two years. The EU wants to know just why Google needs to keep data for such a long time. Me, too. → Read More
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