DIRS.INFO The most relevant business & tech news

French Junior Minister for Digital Affairs Jean-Noel Barrot leaves following the weekly cabinet meeting at the Elysee Palace in Paris, France, November 22, 2023. REUTERS/Sarah Meyssonnier/File Photo Acquire Licensing RightsBRUSSELS, Dec 5 (Reuters) - EU countries and lawmakers may have to meet for yet another round of talks to hammer out crucial details of rules for artificial intelligence even if they clinch a deal on Wednesday, French Digital Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said on Tuesday. There is still a gap between both sides, Barrot said. Barrot cited biometric surveillance and general-purpose AI where the two sides have to work further on the finer details. Further discussions, however, could delay the rollout of landmark rules in Europe that could set the benchmark for other countries.

Persons: Digital Affairs Jean, Noel Barrot, Sarah Meyssonnier, Jean, Europe's, Barrot, Foo Yun Chee, Matthew Lewis Organizations: French Junior, Digital Affairs, REUTERS, Rights, French Digital, European Commission, Microsoft, Thomson Locations: Paris, France, Europe, Brussels

A padlock is seen in front of the word 'spyware' and binary code in this illustration taken May 4, 2022. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo Acquire Licensing RightsBRUSSELS, Dec 5 (Reuters) - Lobby group Japan Association of New Economy has joined U.S. Big Tech to warn against proposed EU cybersecurity labelling rules that they said could hamper their access to the bloc's markets, according to a letter sent to the EU industry chief. A requirement that Amazon (AMZN.O), Alphabet's (GOOGL.O) Google, Microsoft (MSFT.O) and other non-EU cloud providers set up a joint venture with an EU-based company to qualify for the EU cybersecurity label has triggered criticism from some EU countries and foreign vendors. The Japan Association of New Economy also slammed these requirements. The Japan Association of New Economy is a business lobby group focused on e-business and developing new industries.

Persons: Dado Ruvic, Hiroshi Mikitani, Thierry Breton, Mikitani, Foo Yun Chee, Dave Dolan, Miral Organizations: REUTERS, Rights, Japan Association of New, U.S, Big Tech, European Union, Google, Microsoft, EU, Reuters, Japan Digital Partnership, Thomson Locations: EU, Japan, Japanese, Brussels, Tokyo

Foundation models like the one built by Microsoft (MSFT.O)-backed OpenAI are AI systems trained on large sets of data, with the ability to learn from new data to perform various tasks. In a meeting of the countries' economy ministers on Oct. 30 in Rome, France persuaded Italy and Germany to support a proposal, sources told Reuters. Until then, negotiations had gone smoothly, with lawmakers making compromises across several other conflict areas such as regulating high-risk AI, sources said. France-based AI company Mistral and Germany's Aleph Alpha have criticised the tiered approach to regulating foundation models, winning support from their respective countries. Other pending issues in the talks include definition of AI, fundamental rights impact assessment, law enforcement exceptions and national security exceptions, sources told Reuters.

Persons: Carlos Barria, Thierry Breton, Geoffrey Hinton, Alpha, Mistral, Mark Brakel, Supantha Mukherjee, Josephine Mason, Alexander Smith Organizations: Technology, Intelligence, REUTERS, Rights, Reuters, Foundation, Microsoft, European Commission, Mistral, Lawmakers, Life Institute, Thomson Locations: San Francisco, California, U.S, Rights STOCKHOLM, BRUSSELS, LONDON, France, Germany, Italy, Rome, Spain, Belgium, Stockholm

☆ Meta must provide details on measures against child sexual abuse by Dec. 22, EU says
▼ + stars: | 2023-12-01 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: 1 min

EU flag and Meta logo are seen in this illustration taken, May 22, 2023. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo Acquire Licensing RightsBRUSSELS, Dec 1 (Reuters) - EU tech regulators on Friday ordered Meta Platforms (META.O) to provide details on measures taken to tackle child sexual abuse material on Instagram by Dec. 22. "Information is also requested about Instagram's recommender system and amplification of potentially harmful content," the European Commission said in a statement. The request for information was done under the EU's Digital Services Act (DSA), new tech rules requiring Big Tech to do more to police illegal and harmful content on their platforms. Reporting by Foo Yun Chee in Brussels and Charlotte Van Campenhout in Amsterdam;Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Persons: Dado Ruvic, Foo Yun Chee, Charlotte Van Campenhout Organizations: REUTERS, Rights, European Commission, EU's Digital Services, Big Tech, Thomson Locations: EU, Brussels, Amsterdam

EU flag and TikTok logo are seen in this illustration taken, June 2, 2023. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration//File Photo Acquire Licensing RightsBRUSSELS, Dec 1 (Reuters) - Chinese conglomerate ByteDance's TikTok has asked Europe's second highest court to suspend its designation as a gatekeeper under onerous new EU tech rules until judges rule on its challenge against the label. TikTok last month challenged the EU decision at the Luxembourg-based General Court, saying its designation risks undermining the DMA goal of protecting gatekeepers from newer competitors like itself. "We have applied for interim measures," a spokesperson said. The bar for the court to approve interim measures is very high.

Persons: Dado Ruvic, TikTok, Europe's, Foo Yun Chee, Barbara Lewis Organizations: REUTERS, Rights, Markets, Google, Apple, Microsoft, EU, Companies, Commission, Thomson Locations: Luxembourg

☆ Meta Must Provide Details on Measures Against Child Sexual Abuse by Dec. 22, EU Says
▼ + stars: | 2023-12-01 | by ( Dec. | At A.M. | ) www.usnews.com time to read: 1 min

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - EU tech regulators on Friday ordered Meta Platforms to provide details on measures taken to tackle child sexual abuse material on Instagram by Dec. 22. "Information is also requested about Instagram's recommender system and amplification of potentially harmful content," the European Commission said in a statement. The request for information was done under the EU's Digital Services Act (DSA), new tech rules requiring Big Tech to do more to police illegal and harmful content on their platforms. (Reporting by Foo Yun Chee in Brussels and Charlotte Van Campenhout in Amsterdam)

Persons: Foo Yun Chee, Charlotte Van Campenhout Organizations: European Commission, EU's Digital Services, Big Tech Locations: BRUSSELS, EU, Brussels, Amsterdam

REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo Acquire Licensing RightsBRUSSELS, Nov 30 (Reuters) - EU countries and EU lawmakers on Thursday agreed to rules to protect laptops, fridges, mobile apps and smart devices connected to the internet from cyber threats following a spate of such attacks and ransom demands in recent years around the world. It sets out cybersecurity requirements for the design, development, production and the sale of hardware and software products. They must be more transparent on the security of hardware and software products for consumers and business users, and report cyber incidents to national authorities. Importers and distributors will have to verify that products conform with EU rules. The Commission has said the cybersecurity rules could save companies as much as 290 billion euros ($316 billion) annually versus compliance costs of about 29 billion euros.

Persons: Dado Ruvic, Jose Luis Escriva, Foo Yun Chee, Josie Kao Organizations: REUTERS, Rights, European Commission, Manufacturers, EU, Thomson Locations: Rights BRUSSELS

REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo Acquire Licensing RightsBRUSSELS, Nov 30 (Reuters) - Meta Platforms' (META.O) paid no-ads subscription service, which it rolled out in Europe this month, breaches EU consumer laws, Europe's largest consumer group said on Thursday as it took its grievance to consumer protection authorities. Meta has said it launched the paid no-ads subscription service, which applies to Facebook and Instagram, to comply with EU rules requiring companies to give users a choice on whether their data can be collected and used for targeted ads. It also took issue with the "very high subscription fee for ad-free services" which could deter users. The ad-free service cost 9.99 euros ($10.96) monthly for Web users and 12.99 euros for iOS and Android users. Meta has said these prices are in line with Google's (GOOGL.O) YouTube and Spotify's (SPOT.N) premium services and with Netflix (NFLX.O).

Persons: Dado Ruvic, NOYB, Meta, BEUC, Ursula Pachl, Pachl, Foo Yun Chee, Matthew Lewis Organizations: Meta, REUTERS, Rights, European Consumer Organisation, CPC, Facebook, EU, YouTube, Netflix, Thomson Locations: Rights BRUSSELS, Europe, Austrian, Brussels

Figurines are seen in front of displayed Adobe logo in this illustration taken June 13, 2022. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo Acquire Licensing RightsBRUSSELS, Nov 29 (Reuters) - Adobe (ADBE.O) will aim to counter EU antitrust charges that its proposed $20 billion acquisition of cloud-based designer platform Figma hurts competition at a closed hearing on Dec. 8, two people familiar with the matter said on Wednesday. The European Commission two weeks ago warned that the deal may reduce competition in the global market for the supply of interactive product design software where market leader Figma competes with Adobe. It said the acquisition would eliminate Figma as a competitor in the supply of vector editing tools and supply of raster editing tools and reinforce Photoshop maker Adobe's dominance. The EU antitrust enforcer, which is due to decide on the deal by Feb. 5, declined to comment.

Persons: Dado Ruvic, Figma, Dana Rao, Foo Yun, Mark Potter Organizations: REUTERS, Rights, European Commission, Adobe, Rivals, Reuters, Thomson Locations: Rights BRUSSELS, EU, Britain

The Commission's legal service did not think a statement of objections regarding the deal was warranted, in contrast with antitrust officials handling the case, the people said. Without such a charge sheet, the deal would have been cleared unconditionally. The lawyers subsequently changed their mind and backed antitrust officials' decision to send the charge sheet setting out their concerns, the sources said on condition of anonymity, declining to provide confidential details. Antitrust officials can override objections from the legal service by either tweaking or narrowing their concerns to get their backing or by appealing to the top officials. While Amazon might still gain unconditional approval to buy iRobot, the charge sheet indicates that officials are looking to remedies from the company to address their concerns.

Persons: Pascal, Foo Yun Chee, Richard Chang Organizations: Rights, European Commission, Antitrust, Reuters, EU, Google, Digital, Big Tech, Thomson Locations: Boves, France, Rights BRUSSELS

Meta announced the service for Facebook and Instagram last month. The ad-free service cost 9.99 euros ($10.90) monthly for Web users and 12.99 euros for iOS and Android users. Contrary to this law, Meta charges a 'privacy fee' of up to 250 euros per year if anyone dares to exercise their fundamental right to data protection," NOYB data protection lawyer Felix Mikolasch said in a statement. NOYB filed the complaint with the Austrian Data Protection Authority. The complaint will likely be forwarded to the Irish data protection watchdog which oversees Meta because it has its European headquarters in Ireland.

Persons: Dado Ruvic, Meta, Max Schrems, Felix Mikolasch, NOYB, Foo Yun Chee, Matthew Lewis Organizations: REUTERS, Rights, Meta, Facebook, EU, Austrian Data Protection, Netflix, YouTube, Google, Thomson Locations: Rights BRUSSELS, Europe, Austrian, Europe's, Vienna, Ireland, Brussels

BRUSSELS, Nov 28 (Reuters) - EU antitrust regulators have asked Microsoft's (MSFT.O) rivals whether the U.S. software giant's proposal to unbundle its chat and video app Teams from its Office product is sufficient to address their concerns, according to a questionnaire seen by Reuters. Microsoft announced its offer in August, a month after the European Commission opened an investigation into its bundling of Office and Teams, following a 2020 complaint by Salesforce-owned (CRM.N) Slack, a rival rival workspace messaging app. Regulators asked rivals to provide feedback from potential customers on how their services could operate in tandem with Microsoft's services, the pricing of products with and without Teams and eligibility criteria. In August Microsoft said that Office without Teams would be 2 euros per month cheaper than with Teams. Asked for comment, Microsoft referred to its August statement saying that the company was committed to finding solutions to address the Commission's concerns.

Persons: Microsoft's, Slack, Foo Yun, David Goodman Organizations: Reuters, Microsoft, European Commission, Salesforce, EU, Regulators, Thomson Locations: BRUSSELS, U.S

[1/2] An illuminated Google logo is seen inside an office building in Zurich, Switzerland December 5, 2018. Walker said Europe should aim for the best AI rules, not the first AI rules. "We've long said that AI is too important not to regulate, and too important not to regulate well. The race should be for the best AI regulations, not the first AI regulations." Business group DigitalEurope and 32 European digital associations last week warned the EU against over-regulating foundation models.

Persons: Arnd, Kent Walker, Walker, Foo Yun Chee, Josie Kao Organizations: REUTERS, Rights, European Union, European Commission, Technological, Business, Thomson Locations: Zurich, Switzerland, Rights BRUSSELS, Europe

The logo of Amazon is seen at the company's logistics centre in Boves, France, October 6, 2021 REUTERS/Pascal Rossignol/File Photo Acquire Licensing RightsBRUSSELS, Nov 27 (Reuters) - EU antitrust regulators said on Monday Amazon's (AMZN.O) $1.4 billion acquisition of robot vacuum maker iRobot (IRBT.O) may squeeze out rival robot cleaners on its online marketplace. The EU competition enforcer said Amazon's online marketplace is an important channel for robot vacuum cleaners (RVCs) in France, Germany, Italy and Spain. "iRobot, which faces intense competition from other vacuum cleaner suppliers, offers practical and inventive products. We believe Amazon can offer a company like iRobot the resources to accelerate innovation and invest in critical features while lowering prices for consumers," the company said. Reporting by Foo Yun Chee; editing by David EvansOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Persons: Pascal, Foo Yun Chee, David Evans Organizations: Rights, Amazon, Big Tech, European Commission, EU, Commission, Reuters, Thomson Locations: Boves, France, Rights BRUSSELS, Germany, Italy, Spain

Nvidia is the world's largest maker of chips used both for artificial intelligence and for computer graphics. Demand for its chips jumped following the release of the generative AI application ChatGPT late last year. Its graphics cards (GPUs) are high-performance devices that enable powerful graphics rendering and processing for use in video editing, video gaming and other complex computing operations. The French watchdog raided Nvidia's local office in September, a person familiar with the matter had told Reuters. Separately, Nvidia has delayed the launch of a new China-focused AI chip, two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters.

Persons: Foo Yun Chee, Susan Fenton Organizations: Regulators, European Union, Nvidia, French Competition Authority, Reuters, Thomson Locations: BRUSSELS, China, France, U.S, California

The logo of Amazon is seen at the company logistics center in Lauwin-Planque, northern France, January 5, 2023. REUTERS/Pascal Rossignol/File Photo Acquire Licensing RightsBRUSSELS, Nov 23 (Reuters) - Amazon (AMZN.O) is set to win unconditional EU antitrust approval for its $1.4 billion acquisition of robot vacuum maker iRobot (IRBT.O), three people familiar with the matter said on Thursday. The Commission, which is due to decide on the deal by Feb. 14, declined to comment. The deal announced in August would add iRobot's Roomba robot vacuum to U.S. online retail giant Amazon's portfolio of smart devices, includes the Alexa voice assistant, smart thermostats, security devices and wall-mounted smart displays. Reporting by Foo Yun Chee Editing by Mark Potter and David GoodmanOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Persons: Pascal, Foo Yun, Mark Potter, David Goodman Organizations: REUTERS, Rights, Big Tech, European Commission, Amazon, Thomson Locations: Lauwin, France, Rights BRUSSELS

AI (Artificial Intelligence) letters are placed on computer motherboard in this illustration taken, June 23, 2023. "As European digital industry representatives, we see a huge opportunity in foundation models, and new innovative players emerging in this space, many of them born here in Europe. The signatories, who said just 3% of the world's AI unicorns come from the European Union, backed a joint proposal by France, Germany and Italy to limit the scope of AI rules for foundation models to transparency requirements. They also said the current broad scope of the draft AI rules could clash with existing legislation in certain sectors such as healthcare. The companies also rebuffed calls from creative industries for the AI rules to tackle copyright issues.

Persons: Dado Ruvic, DigitalEurope, Georgina Prodhan, Foo Yun Chee, Sharon Singleton Organizations: REUTERS, Rights, Airbus, European Union, Apple, Ericsson, Google, LSE, SAP, Siemens, Thomson Locations: BRUSSELS, Europe, France, Germany, Italy

A number of companies have recently demanded that antitrust enforcers pay default interest on fines in annulled antitrust cases. Deutsche Telekom challenged the fine at the Luxembourg-based General Court, Europe's second highest, which cut it to 19 million euros in 2018, forcing the EU competition enforcer to repay the difference. Deutsche Telekom returned to the court after the EU competition enforcer refused to pay interest for the period between the payment and the reimbursement and got judges to back its fight. The Commission then appealed to the Luxembourg-based EU Court of Justice (CJEU). The case is C‑221/22 P European Commission v Deutsche Telekom AG.

Persons: Fabian Bimmer, Deutsche, Anthony Michael Collins, refunding, Foo Yun Chee, Kirsten Donovan Organizations: Deutsche Telekom, ITS, REUTERS, Companies Deutsche Telekom AG, Intel, Deutsche, European Commission, EU, Court of Justice, Deutsche Telekom AG, Thomson Locations: Hamburg, Germany, Slovakia, Luxembourg

The latest proposal from EU cybersecurity agency ENISA concerns an EU certification scheme (EUCS) which vouches for the cybersecurity of cloud services and determines how governments and companies in the bloc select a vendor for their business. The document retains key provisions contained in earlier drafts such as a requirement that U.S. tech giants set up a joint venture with an EU-based company to qualify for the EU cybersecurity label. Another provision states that cloud service must be operated and maintained from the EU, while all cloud service customer data must be stored and processed in the EU, with EU laws taking precedence over non-EU laws regarding the cloud service provider. The latest draft sets out the possibility for these tough requirements to be extended to the third highest security level. EU countries are now reviewing the latest draft after which the European Commission will adopt a final scheme.

Persons: OpenAI's, CCIA, ENISA, Alexandre Roure, Foo Yun Chee, Jonathan Oatis Organizations: European, Google, Microsoft, Big Tech, EU, Tech, European Banking Federation, European Savings Banks Group, Association for Financial Markets, Federation, Insurance, Thomson Locations: BRUSSELS, European Union, EU, Europe

REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo Acquire Licensing RightsBRUSSELS, Nov 22 (Reuters) - EU lawmakers agreed on Wednesday to draft rules requiring Alphabet's (GOOGL.O) Google, Meta (META.O) and other online services to identify and remove online child pornography, saying that end-to-end encryption would not be affected. EU lawmakers have to thrash out the final details with member states before the draft can become legislation in a process that may be finalised next year. An EU Centre on Child Sexual Abuse will be set up to act as a hub of expertise and to forward reports to the police. To avoid mass surveillance, EU lawmakers beefed up detection orders to allow judicial authorities to authorise time-limited orders to find and delete CSAM. These can only be issued if there is reasonable grounds of suspicion of child sexual abuse.

Persons: Dado Ruvic, Foo Yun Chee, Alexander Smith Organizations: Facebook, REUTERS, Rights, Google, European, European Union, EU, Liberal, Thomson Locations: Rights BRUSSELS

☆ EU antitrust regulators raid online food delivery companies, probe no poach deals
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-21 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

Companies Delivery Hero SE FollowBRUSSELS, Nov 21 (Reuters) - EU regulators on Tuesday raided several online food delivery companies in two EU countries on concerns that they may have breached EU rules against cartels, with the focus also on their no poach agreements. The European Commission, which did not name the companies nor the EU countries, said the ongoing dawn raids were conducted in the context of those made in July last year. German online takeaway food company Delivery Hero (DHER.DE) and its Spanish business Glovo had confirmed last year's raids. Companies risk fines as much as 10% of their global turnover for breaching EU antitrust rules. Reporting by Foo Yun CheeOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Persons: Glovo, Foo Yun Chee Organizations: European Commission, EU, Thomson Locations: BRUSSELS

The logo of Meta Platforms' business group is seen in Brussels, Belgium December 6, 2022. REUTERS/Yves Herman/File Photo Acquire Licensing RightsSTOCKHOLM/BRUSSELS, Nov 15 (Reuters) - Meta (META.O) on Wednesday appealed against "gatekeeper" designations for its Messenger and Marketplace platforms, the first Big Tech company to challenge new European Union rules setting out dos and don'ts for the online services. Meta's Facebook, Instagram, Marketplace, and WhatsApp qualified as gatekeepers under the DMA, which was designed to level the playing field between Big Tech companies and smaller competitors. "This appeal seeks clarification on specific points of law regarding the designations of Messenger and Marketplace under the DMA," a spokesman said. Microsoft and Google have said they will not challenge DMA designations, while sources expect TikTok to file a challenge.

Persons: Yves Herman, WhatsApp, Microsoft's Bing, Supantha Mukherjee, Yun Chee, Emelia Sithole Organizations: REUTERS, Rights, Big Tech, Union, Digital Markets, Facebook, European Commission, Microsoft, Apple, Google, Meta, Thomson Locations: Brussels, Belgium, Rights STOCKHOLM, BRUSSELS, Stockholm

Adobe logo is seen on smartphone in this illustration taken June 13, 2022. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration Acquire Licensing RightsCompanies Adobe Inc FollowBRUSSELS, Nov 15 (Reuters) - Photoshop maker Adobe (ADBE.O) expects to get an EU antitrust warning on its $20 billion bid for cloud-based designer platform Figma and is open to proposing remedies to resolve regulatory concerns, its chief counsel told Reuters on Wednesday. The Adobe deal comes amid heightened regulatory scrutiny around the world on Big Tech acquisitions which boost dominant companies' market power or those involving start-ups seen as nascent rivals. "We are expecting a statement of objections from the European Commission," Dana Rao said in an interview, confirming a Reuters story on Tuesday. "We are certainly open to the discussion of remedies.

Persons: Dado Ruvic, Dana Rao, Rao, Foo Yun Chee, Kirsten Donovan Organizations: REUTERS, Inc, Adobe, Big Tech, European Commission, Thomson Locations: EU

The corporate logo of software company Adobe is seen in Posa Studio school in Caracas, Venezuela October 9, 2019. The European Commission is readying a statement of objections to send to the companies in the coming days, the people said. Such documents or charge sheets set out the EU competition watchdog's concerns on why deals could be anti-competitive. The Commission and Adobe, which can offer remedies to stave off the EU warning, declined to comment. Some companies prefer to wait for a statement of objections so that they know the precise regulatory worries before they offer concessions.

Persons: Manaure Quintero, Foo Yun Chee, Susan Fenton Organizations: Adobe, REUTERS, Rights, Tech, European, Video Communications, Thomson Locations: Caracas, Venezuela, Rights BRUSSELS, EU, San Francisco

[1/2] A sign is pictured outside a Google office near the company's headquarters in Mountain View, California, U.S., May 8, 2019. REUTERS/Paresh Dave/File Photo Acquire Licensing RightsBRUSSELS/STOCKHOLM, Nov 14 (Reuters) - Microsoft and Google will not challenge an EU law requiring them to make it easier for users to move between competing services such as social media platforms and internet browsers. As part of its latest crackdown on Big Tech, the European Union in September picked 22 "gatekeeper" services, run by six of the world's biggest tech companies, to face new rules . The Digital Markets Act (DMA) requires these gatekeepers to inter-operate their messaging apps with competitors and allow users to decide which apps they pre-install on their devices. The DMA will apply to services from Alphabet (GOOGL.O), Amazon (AMZN.O), Apple (AAPL.O), Meta (META.O), Microsoft (MSFT.O) and TikTok owner ByteDance.

Persons: Paresh Dave, ByteDance, Meta, WhatsApp, TikTok, Foo Yun Chee, Supantha Mukherjee, Sharon Singleton, Alexander Smith Organizations: REUTERS, Microsoft, Google, Big Tech, European Union, Markets, Apple, Amazon, Digital Services, European Commission, Digital Markets, Windows, LinkedIn, Industry, Reuters, Facebook, Bloomberg, Thomson Locations: Mountain View , California, U.S, BRUSSELS, STOCKHOLM, Luxembourg, Brussels, Stockholm

Search resuls for: "Foo Yun Chee"

25 mentions found