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EU antitrust regulators approve Vivendi, Lagardere deal
  + stars: | 2023-06-09 | by ( Foo Yun Chee | ) www.reuters.com   time to read: +2 min
BRUSSELS, June 9 (Reuters) - Vivendi (VIV.PA), the French media conglomerate controlled by billionaire Vincent Bollore, on Friday won conditional EU antitrust approval for its acquisition of France's largest publisher Lagardere (LAGA.PA). Vivendi last year announced the deal which would give it control of Lagardere's flagship weekly publications Journal du Dimanche (JDD) and Paris Match. Vivendi said in a statement that it was confident it would finalise those two transactions by the end of October. "The remedies proposed by Vivendi will allow for the preservation of existing competition in those markets, to the benefit of consumers." Reuters reported in April that the remedies were sufficient to help Vivendi gain EU antitrust clearance for the acquisition.
Persons: Vincent Bollore, Margrethe Vestager, Daniel Kretinsky, Yannick Bollore, Foo Yun Chee, Bart Meijer, Sudip Kar, Gupta, Louise Organizations: Vivendi, Paris Match, European Commission, Reuters, Le Monde, TF1, Thomson Locations: BRUSSELS, EU, Czech, Le
BRUSSELS, June 8 (Reuters) - Meta Platforms' (META.O) Instagram, Alphabet's (GOOGL.O) YouTube, TikTok and Twitter could face regulatory action after European consumer group BEUC complained to the European Commission and consumer authorities that the online platforms allegedly facilitate the misleading promotion of crypto assets. U.S. regulators suing crypto platforms Coinbase COIN.O and Binance, along with last year's collapse of FTX, have sparked concerns over consumer protection related to crypto assets such as bitcoin and ether. It urged the Consumer Protection Cooperation Network to require the online platforms to adopt stricter advertising policies on crypto and take measures to prevent influencers from misleading consumers. The group called on European consumer authorities to cooperate with European Supervisory Authorities for financial services to ensure the platforms adapt their advertising policies to prevent the misleading promotion of crypto. "This is why we are turning to the authorities in charge of protecting consumers to ensure Instagram, YouTube, TikTok and Twitter fulfil their duty to protect consumers against crypto scams and false promises," she said.
Persons: BEUC, Monique Goyens, Foo Yun Chee, Lisa Shumaker Organizations: YouTube, Twitter, European Commission, European Union, Consumer Protection Cooperation Network, Commission, European, Authorities, Crypto, Consumer, Thomson Locations: BRUSSELS, Denmark, France, Greece, Italy, Lithuania, Portugal, Slovakia, Spain
BRUSSELS, June 8 (Reuters) - Fourteen European Union countries will grant up to 8.1 billion euros ($8.7 billion) in public support to 56 companies working together on projects in microelectronics and communication technologies, the European Commission said on Thursday. The projects concern "research and development projects covering microelectronics and communication technologies across the whole value chain from materials and tools to the chip designs and manufacturing processes," the EU executive said. ($1 = 0.9314 euros)Reporting by Foo Yun CheeOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
Persons: Foo Yun Chee Organizations: Union, European Commission, Thomson Locations: BRUSSELS
BRUSSELS, June 8 (Reuters) - EU industry chief Thierry Breton will meet Meta Platforms (META.O) Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg on June 23 and demand that he act immediately to tackle content targeting children, as Meta's voluntary child protection code seemed not to be working. Social media platforms such as Meta's Instagram, ByteDance's TikTok, Snap's (SNAP.N) Snapchat and Alphabet's (GOOGL.O) YouTube have stirred concerns among regulators and users over content targeted at young children. "#Meta’s voluntary code on child protection seems not to work," Breton said in a Twitter post. Breton said Meta would also have to demonstrate the measures it plans to take to comply with European Union online content rules known as the Digital Services Act (DSA) after Aug. 25 or face heavy sanctions. The DSA bans certain types of targeted advertisements on online platforms such as those meant for children or when they use special categories of personal data, such as ethnicity, political views and sexual orientation.
Persons: Thierry Breton, Mark Zuckerberg, ByteDance's, Breton, Meta, Foo Yun Chee, Mark Heinrich Our Organizations: Meta, YouTube, EU, Reuters, Meta's, European Union, Digital Services, DSA, Thomson Locations: BRUSSELS, Menlo Park, California
Batman wins EU trademark dispute with Italian designer
  + stars: | 2023-06-07 | by ( Foo Yun Chee | ) www.reuters.com   time to read: +2 min
REUTERS/Henry RomeroBRUSSELS, June 7 (Reuters) - Caped crusader Batman won a trademark fight with an Italian clothing retailer on Wednesday after Europe's second-top court sided with an EU patent office, ruling that the Batman logo is distinctive enough to warrant its EU trademark. The Italian company had asked EUIPO to annul the trademark for clothing and carnival items, saying that it lacked a distinctive character. Judges backed the EU trademark body. The Italian company can appeal to the EU Court of Justice, Europe's highest, on points of law. The case is T-735/21 | Aprile and Commerciale Italiana v EUIPO – DC Comics (Representation of a bat in an oval surround).
Persons: Henry Romero BRUSSELS, Batman, Europe's, EUIPO, Aprile, Foo Yun Chee, Louise Heavens Organizations: DC Comics, REUTERS, EU, Warner Bros, European, Intellectual Property, Commerciale Italiana, Italiana Srl, Justice, Europe's, Commerciale, Thomson Locations: Mexico City, Mexico, Italian, EU, Luxembourg
It is better to be a telco in the U.S. than in Europe," Breton told a conference. Adjusted for GDP, 5G investment in the EU is lower than in other regions of the world," he said. He dismissed fears that requiring some users to pay more than others would breach EU net neutrality rules which say all users should be treated equally. "We will not touch net neutrality. It is not a question of changing net neutrality.
Persons: Thierry Breton, Breton, Foo Yun Chee, Richard Chang Organizations: Big Tech, EU, Deutsche Telekom, Telefonica, Telecom Italia, Alphabet's, Google, Apple, Netflix, Microsoft, Thomson Locations: BRUSSELS, Europe, United States, U.S, Breton, Orange
Unveiled late last year, Microsoft-backed (MSFT.O) OpenAI's ChatGPT has become the fastest-growing consumer application in history and set off a race among tech companies to bring generative AI products to market. "Signatories who integrate generative AI into their services like Bingchat for Microsoft, Bard for Google (GOOGL.O) should build in necessary safeguards that these services cannot be used by malicious actors to generate disinformation," Jourova told a press conference. "Signatories who have services with a potential to disseminate AI generated disinformation should in turn put in place technology to recognise such content and clearly label this to users," she said. Companies such as Google, Microsoft and Meta Platforms (META.O) that have signed up to the EU Code of Practice to tackle disinformation should report on safeguards put in place to tackle this in July, Jourova said. "By leaving the Code, Twitter has attracted a lot of attention and its actions and compliance with EU law will be scrutinised vigorously and urgently," Jourova said.
Persons: Bard, Vera Jourova, OpenAI's ChatGPT, Jourova, scrutinised, Foo Yun Chee, Kirsten Donovan Organizations: Companies, European Commission, Microsoft, Google, Meta, Twitter, Thomson Locations: BRUSSELS, EU
BRUSSELS, June 3 (Reuters) - A majority of EU countries have rejected a push by Europe's big telecoms operators to force Big Tech to help fund the rollout of 5G and broadband in the region, people familiar with the matter said. Telecoms ministers from 18 countries either rejected or criticised the proposed network fee levy on tech firms at a meeting with EU industry chief Thierry Breton in Luxembourg on Thursday, the sources said. That echoed comments made last month by EU telecoms regulators' group BEREC. Breton is expected to issue a report by the end of June with a summary of feedback provided by Big Tech, telecoms providers and others which will indicate his next steps. Any legislative proposal needs to be negotiated with EU countries and EU lawmakers before it can become law.
Persons: Thierry Breton, Breton, Foo Yun Chee, Rosalba O'Brien Organizations: EU, Big Tech, Deutsche Telekom, Telefonica, Telecom Italia, France Telecom, French, Google, Apple Inc, Inc, Netflix Inc, Amazon.com Inc, Microsoft Corp, Thomson Locations: BRUSSELS, Luxembourg, Orange, Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Ireland, Lithuania, Malta, Netherlands, Cyprus, France, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Poland, Portugal, Romania
Amazon's iRobot deal faces July 6 EU antitrust deadline
  + stars: | 2023-06-01 | by ( Foo Yun Chee | ) www.reuters.com   time to read: +1 min
BRUSSELS, June 1 (Reuters) - EU antitrust regulators will decide by July 6 whether to clear Amazon.com Inc's (AMZN.O) $1.7 billion acquisition of the maker of robot vacuum cleaner iRobot Corp (IRBT.O), according to a European Commission filing on Thursday. The EU competition enforcer can either clear the deal with or without remedies after its preliminary review or it can open a four-month long investigation if it has serious concerns. "We’re working cooperatively with the relevant regulators in their review of this merger," an Amazon spokesperson said. Amazon has said it would continue to supply iRobot products to other retailers and keep them compatible with other companies' voice assistants. Critics say the iRobot acquisition presents a privacy nightmare because it would expand personal home information in the company's arsenal.
Persons: Alexa, Foo Yun Chee, Kirsten Donovan Organizations: Amazon, EU, U.S . Federal Trade Commission, Regulators, Big Tech, Thomson Locations: BRUSSELS
BRUSSELS, June 1 (Reuters) - The Dutch government has stepped up its criticism of a push by EU telecoms operators to get Big Tech to help pay for the rollout of 5G and broadband, saying claims that unchecked data growth has pushed up network costs are not backed by facts. "In reality, contrary to all these persistent claims, the strong growth of Internet data in the past did not confront large telecom operators with higher network costs," the paper seen by Reuters said. "In reality the total network costs have remained constant despite the consistently high growth over the last decades, whilst the profit margins of European telecom operators have improved significantly over the last decade," the paper said. They said direct payments are unjustified as end-users already pay for their access line including network traffic costs while such intervention would affect the functioning of the internet. "The synergies for such cross-border mergers to telecom operators are generally considered relatively limited, whilst there don’t seem to be convincing benefits to wider society."
Persons: Foo Yun Chee, Chizu Organizations: EU, Big Tech, European Commission, Reuters, Deutsche Telekom, Telefonica, Telecom Italia, Google, Apple Inc, Inc, Netflix Inc, Amazon.com Inc, Microsoft Corp, Netflix's, Thomson Locations: BRUSSELS, Luxembourg, Orange, Dutch
EU looks to 100 unicorns to boost green, digital goals
  + stars: | 2023-06-01 | by ( Foo Yun Chee | ) www.reuters.com   time to read: +1 min
BRUSSELS, June 1 (Reuters) - The European Commission kicked off an initiative on Thursday to help 100 unicorns scale up to become Europe's deep tech champions and help drive the bloc's green and digital objectives. Unicorns are startups valued at $1 billion or more while deep tech startups focus on significant scientific or engineering developments. The EIC Scale Up 100 initiative will identify and support the growth of 100 promising European deep tech companies with the potential to become unicorns, the EU executive said in a statement. Startups will be picked in areas that contribute to Europe's green and digital transition such as sustainability (climate and energy), digital and health. The selected startups will also get a helping hand from a group called the EIC Scaling Club which includes 100 investors including venture capital, growth and government funds, 100 companies with innovation units and 100 independent mentors.
Persons: Foo Yun, Frances Kerry Organizations: European Commission, Unicorns, Thomson Locations: BRUSSELS
"Mitigating the risk of extinction from AI should be a global priority alongside other societal-scale risks such as pandemics and nuclear war," more than 350 signatories wrote in a letter published by the nonprofit Center for AI Safety (CAIS). As well as Altman, they included the CEOs of AI firms DeepMind and Anthropic, and executives from Microsoft (MSFT.O) and Google (GOOGL.O). Elon Musk and a group of AI experts and industry executives were the first ones to cite potential risks to society in April. AI pioneer Hinton earlier told Reuters that AI could pose a "more urgent" threat to humanity than climate change. Last week OpenAI CEO Sam Altman referred to EU AI - the first efforts to create a regulation for AI - as over-regulation and threatened to leave Europe.
BRUSSELS, May 30 (Reuters) - EU industry chief Thierry Breton will meet OpenAI CEO Sam Altman in San Francisco next month to discuss how the company will implement the bloc's world-leading rules on artificial intelligence (AI), EU officials said on Tuesday. Breton will also discuss an AI pact with Altman with the goal of getting OpenAI to join a group of European and non-European companies to apply the AI rules ahead of their enforcement in 2026, the EU officials said, asking not to be named. "Breton will discuss the practical aspects of the implementation of the AI Act. It will be a working session, with an in-depth discussion on datasets," one of the EU officials said. Last week, after meeting Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai, Breton said the U.S. tech giant and the European Commission will discuss a voluntary AI pact to help companies anticipate implementation of the AI legislation.
Persons: Thierry Breton, Sam Altman, Breton, Altman, OpenAI, irked Breton, Sundar Pichai, Foo Yun, Mark Potter, Barbara Lewis Organizations: European, Thomson Locations: BRUSSELS, San Francisco, U.S
Uganda enacts harsh anti-LGBTQ law including death penalty
  + stars: | 2023-05-29 | by ( ) www.reuters.com   time to read: +4 min
Same-sex relations were already illegal in Uganda, as in more than 30 African countries, but the new law goes much further. It imposes capital punishment for some behaviour including transmitting a terminal illness like HIV/AIDS through gay sex, and stipulates a 20-year sentence for "promoting" homosexuality. Uganda receives billions of dollars in foreign aid each year and could now face another round of sanctions. The bill's sponsor Asuman Basalirwa told reporters that parliament speaker Anita Among's U.S. visa was cancelled after the law was signed. "Our data shows that this law runs counter to the interests of economic progress and prosperity of all people in Uganda," he said.
NATO head urges Kosovo to ease tensions with Serbia
  + stars: | 2023-05-28 | by ( Sabine Siebold | ) www.reuters.com   time to read: +2 min
Stoltenberg, the transatlantic military alliance's Norwegian secretary-general, said he had spoken to European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell about Kosovo. Ethnic Albanians make up more than 90% of the population in Kosovo as a whole. Local Serbs, backed by Belgrade, said they will not accept the mayors and that they do not represent them. The situation remained tense on Sunday with heavily armed police in armoured vehicles still guarding the mayors' offices. Reporting by Sabine Siebold, writing by Foo Yun Chee; Editing by Sharon SingletonOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
NATO urges Kosovo to de-escalate tension with Serbia
  + stars: | 2023-05-27 | by ( ) www.reuters.com   time to read: +2 min
The resulting clashes on Friday between Kosovan police and protesters opposed to the ethnic Albanian mayors prompted Serbia to put its army on full combat alert and to move units closer to the border. "We urge the institutions in Kosovo to de-escalate immediately and call on all parties to resolve the situation through dialogue," said Oana Lungescu, a spokeswoman for the transatlantic military alliance, in a Twitter post. She said KFOR, the 3,800-strong NATO-led peacekeeping mission in Kosovo, would remain vigilant. It is also the right of citizens to be served by those elected officials," Kurti said on Twitter on Saturday. Ethnic Albanians form more than 90% of the population in Kosovo, with Serbs only the majority in the northern region.
BRUSSELS, May 26 (Reuters) - Twitter cannot run away from its obligations even after quitting a voluntary EU code of practice to tackle disinformation, EU industry chief Thierry Breton warned the company late on Friday. Companies which signed up to the code are required to provide regular progress reports with data on how much advertising revenue they had averted from disinformation actors. "Twitter leaves EU voluntary code of practice against disinformation. You can run but you can't hide," Breton said in a tweet. Twitter, which no longer has a public relations department, responded to an emailed request for comment with a poop emoji.
SummarySummary Companies OpenAI CEO reverses earlier threat to leave EuropeSays had productive week of conversations about regulating AIEU lawmakers were critical about OpenAI's threat regionMay 26 (Reuters) - OpenAI has no plans to leave Europe, CEO Sam Altman said on Friday, reversing a threat made earlier this week to leave the region if it becomes too hard to comply with upcoming laws on artificial intelligence. "We are excited to continue to operate here and of course have no plans to leave," Altman said in a tweet on Friday. His threat of quitting Europe had drawn criticism from EU industry chief Thierry Breton and a host of other lawmakers. He called his tour a "very productive week of conversations in Europe about how to best regulate AI!" OpenAI first clashed with regulators in March, when Italian data regulator Garante shut the app down domestically, accusing OpenAI of flouting European privacy rules.
BRUSSELS, May 22 (Reuters) - The European Commission expects to finalise a data transfer pact with the United States by summer, a spokesman said on Monday after the Irish privacy regulator gave Meta Platforms (META.O) five months to stop transferring users' data across the Atlantic. "We expect this data protection framework between the EU and the U.S. to be fully functionable by the summer. This will guarantee stability and legal certainty," a Commission spokesman told a daily news conference. Reporting by Foo Yun Chee in Brussels and Bart Meijer in Amsterdam;Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
BRUSSELS, May 19 (Reuters) - EU antitrust regulators are asking Microsoft's (MSFT.O) rivals what kind of customer data they are required to provide to the U.S. tech giant as part of their Azure cloud contracts, six months after a trade group complained about its cloud computing practices. Cloud Infrastructure Services Providers in Europe (CISPE), whose members include Amazon (AMZN.O), alleged last November that Microsoft's new contractual terms imposed on Oct. 1 together with other practices were harming the European cloud computing ecosystem. In a questionnaire sent to cloud providers seen by Reuters, the European Commission asked recipients for a list of contractual clauses requiring these companies to report information about their European customers to Microsoft. The EU watchdog asked if Microsoft may have used the information to go directly to the recipients' customers. Microsoft, hit by more than 1.6 billion euros ($1.8 billion) in EU fines in the previous decade for various antitrust violations, declined to comment.
BRUSSELS, May 19 (Reuters) - The EU telecoms regulators' group BEREC on Friday criticised a push by telecoms providers to get Big Tech to help pay for the rollout of 5G and broadband in Europe, saying it doubted whether such a move would help the bloc meet its connectivity targets. The Body of European Regulators for Electronic Communications (BEREC) said a mandatory financial fee may lead to higher costs for consumers and impact Europe's net neutrality rules. The comments were part of BEREC's feedback - submitted on Friday - to the European Commission which is looking into the issue. Reporting by Foo Yun Chee; Editing by Sudip Kar-GuptaOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
REUTERS/Dado RuvicMay 17 (Reuters) - Meta Platforms Inc (META.O) is set to face a record European Union privacy fine related to data transfer of Facebook's EU users to U.S. servers for failing to comply with a warning by a top EU court, two sources familiar with the matter said. The penalty will be higher than the previous record 746 million euros ($821.20 million) fine for Amazon.com Inc (AMZN.O), according to the sources. Meta declined to comment, while the Irish Data Protection Commission (DPC) and the European Commission did not immediately respond to Reuters' requests for comment. EU regulators led by Ireland's Data Protection Commissioner Helen Dixon have been finalising a ban on the legal tool used by Facebook to transfer European user data because of concerns U.S. intelligence agencies could access the information. Europe's highest court ruled in 2020 that an EU-U.S. data transfer agreement was invalid, citing surveillance concerns.
BRUSSELS, May 17 (Reuters) - U.S. chipmaker Broadcom (AVGO.O) has offered interoperability remedies in an effort to address European Union antitrust concerns over its $61 billion VMware (VMW.N) bid, people familiar with the matter said. Broadcom submitted its proposal on Tuesday, a European Commission filing showed. The EU competition enforcer, which did not provide details in line with its policy, extended its deadline for a decision to July 17. Broadcom may restrict competition in some hardware components which interoperate with VMware's virtualisation software, the Commission warned the company last month as it laid out its concerns. "While we maintain that this deal does not present any competition issues, we have made a proposal to address fully the concerns expressed by the European Commission," said Broadcom.
BRUSSELS, May 17 (Reuters) - Broadcom (AVGO.O) has offered interoperability remedies in an attempt to address EU antitrust concerns about its $61 billion bid for VMware (VMW.N), people familiar with the matter said. Broadcom submitted its proposal on Tuesday, a European Commission filing showed on Wednesday. The EU competition enforcer, which did not provide details in line with its policy, extended its deadline for a decision to July 17. On Wednesday, Broadcom reiterated its aim of closing the VMware transaction in the 2023 fiscal year, and added it was making progress with various regulatory filings regarding this deal around the world. "While we maintain that this deal does not present any competition issues, we have made a proposal to address fully the concerns expressed by the European Commission," said Broadcom.
BRUSSELS, May 17 (Reuters) - Korean Air Lines's (003490.KS) proposed acquisition of rival Asiana (020560.KS) may restrict competition in passenger and cargo air transport services between Europe and South Korea, EU antitrust regulators said on Wednesday. The European Commission said it had sent a statement of objections outlining its concerns, confirming a Reuters story last week. The EU competition enforcer said it had sought feedback from rival airlines, potential market entrants and customers on the potential impact of the deal. "The transaction may reduce competition in the provision of passenger transport services on four routes between South Korea and France, Germany, Italy and Spain," it said in a statement. It said the deal may also reduce competition in the provision of cargo transport services between all of Europe and South Korea.
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