While UK businesses will raise a cheer at the EU's data adequacy proposal, their joy may prove premature.

The growth of artificial intelligence in a wide range of business applications is likely to place another burden on European data protection authorities.

Ryanair has suffered a setback in its challenge to the EU’s state aid response to the Covid-19 pandemic, after the EU’s lower court rejected its appeals.

A highly anticipated EU report on standard-essential patents has laid bare the problem: There's no sign of peace.

As the UK’s emerging collective-action regime finds it feet, eyes are focused on this significant “carriage dispute”.

Large online platforms could be held responsible for hosting misleading financial-market information or abuse, EU regulators have suggested.

Apple & Google’s UK lawsuits from Epic Games over their lucrative app store governance not only re-expose the US tech titans to rising antitrust risk, but also broaden litigation.

EU insurance watchdogs should publish details of how national regulators vote on laws affecting the sector,

EU banking officials are still pursuing measures which would undermine international rules designed to ensure lenders hold enough capital.

Insurers’ defeat at the hands of the UK's top judges against small businesses claiming Covid-19 payouts could be the first step toward irreversible change for the sector.

WhatsApp’s controversial privacy-policy changes have now drawn the scrutiny of Italian regulators.

Proposals for EU powers to fine “very large” platforms up to 6% of their annual revenue for violating rules on hate speech and the sale of illegal goods will spark a debate.

Sports-governing bodies will breathe a sigh of relief at a judgment from EU judges, despite siding against the International Skating Union.

Proposed EU rules to force Big Tech companies to remove illegal content will establish a complex enforcement structure.

Established Internet giants and tomorrow’s digital gatekeepers alike could face dawn raids, information demands and interview requests for top executives.

EU financial markets are set to get a unified data service, known as a consolidated tape, even as the US rethinks its own longstanding arrangements.

With its weighty fines for Google and Amazon.com, France’s data-protection authority appears to have found a workaround to the GDPR's clunky one-stop shop mechanism.

End-to-end encryption in messaging services has been a boon for privacy.

EU banks hope the expansion of their new payments initiative will ease antitrust concerns that the planned rival to Visa and Mastercard is a closed shop.

Insurers could face a defeat on a key legal ruling on whether policyholders were restricted in accessing their place of business during the height of the UK’s Covid-19 outbreak.

Mergers and acquisitions involving foreign investors will be facing tough new standards in the UK, amid growing concerns over national security.

The EU shouldn’t expect any “revolutionary” changes to how a new US administration approaches talks on trans-Atlantic data transfers.

EU-based data exporters began reviewing updated model contracts for international data transfers — known as Standard Contractual Clauses or SCCs.

Would-be foreign investors into UK companies have seen the government this week lay out a regime for screening deals under national-security grounds that is so far-ranging.

Google, Facebook, Twitter and other platforms may see new obligations to swiftly remove terrorist content online passed this year.

Amazon.com’s data-driven business model and its dizzy expansion have prompted a pioneering European Commission probe into Big Data online.

WhatsApp, Signal and other messaging services may face new EU obligations to cooperate with law-enforcement agencies.

New EU legislation that would impose restrictions on the likes of Facebook, Amazon and Google is facing headwinds.

A privacy campaigner's Irish judicial review relating to Facebook's data handling will be heard next January.

The UK’s plan to roll over EU trade-defense measures after the end of Brexit transition period has drawn the opposition of Russia and China.

Google’s online advertising business and the importance of data for competition have been at the forefront of Europe’s antitrust debate for the last half-decade

EU data regulators will issue guidance on how EU-based data exporters should implement a landmark EU court decision.

The European Commission is grouping together its initiatives relating to the functioning of online markets — including plans to regulate gatekeeper platforms — in a proposal called the Digital Markets Act.

The British slice of Goldman Sachs’ hefty global 1MDB settlement represented a modest 5 percent of the $2.3 billion total.

The future of data flows between the UK and the European Union in a post-Brexit world aren’t at the top of the agenda in negotiations between the two sides.

The UK already had a high wall to climb for it to win an adequacy decision that will let it continue data flows to the EU after Brexit.

Visa's UK clearance to buy Plaid showed the Competition and Markets Authority to be unafraid of evaluating and dismissing "killer acquisition" concerns.

Undue secrecy in EU financial lawmaking by supervisory watchdogs will be probed by the bloc’s ombudsman, Emily O’Reilly.

The General Law for Data Protection (LGPD), effective since Sept. 18, was a huge step toward a bigger role for Brazil in the global digital economy.

The current legal safeguard for whistleblowers in the UK is "toothless, overly complex and lacks the backing it needs to be effective."

Microsoft is to be asked by German watchdogs to improve its data-protection standards for its Office 365 program.

The LSE’s planned sale of Borsa Italiana probably won’t in itself be enough to secure EU approval for its purchase of financial data powerhouse Refinitiv.

Proposal to allow WhatsApp, Skype, Viber & others to continue screening for child-abuse images & messages could help ease negotiations on draft bloc-wide rules.

Virtual currencies and other innovative payment methods could ultimately get a boost from EU regulators.

The UK government's draft laws to change parts of the divorce agreement with the EU would waive its obligations to keep Northern Ireland under EU state aid rules.

The nomination of Ireland’s Mairead McGuinness to be EU financial services commissioner is unlikely to derail the bloc’s major political goals.

The EU plans to extend its temporary Covid-19 waiver on airport slot rules.

EU judges’ recent invalidation of the bloc’s data-transfer agreement with the US has meant uncertainty and risk for tech giants.

Huawei must accept a single global license for mobile-phone patents held by Unwired Planet.

Google, Facebook & other social media giants may face new restrictions as European Parliament members have called for a clampdown on behavioral advertising.

Division over Ireland's Twitter probe between EU regulators has flared up after the authorities were invited to give their input.

EU clean-energy investors shouldn’t hold their breath for a deal on planned bloc-wide rules to make climate neutrality by 2050 legally binding.

British Airways has denied that customers subject to a data breach in 2018 suffered any serious financial loss or are due any compensation.

A growing number of UK banks are choosing to follow US recommendations on how to structure contractual fallbacks.

Connected-car patent pool Avanci’s 5G licensing program was approved by the US Department of Justice.

Microsoft’s planned purchase of TikTok won't likely face the antitrust resistance that seems to meet all Big Tech acquisitions in the EU these days.

Allianz Global Investors & other fund managers scored a win, as a UK judge agreed to their request to re-plead an antitrust lawsuit.

A planned EU levy on carbon-intensive imports is likely to be proposed next year.

International Airlines Group now estimates that it may need to pay 22 million euros in GDPR fine

Restaurants and bars that have been ordered to keep registers with customers' personal data to track Covid-19 infections are being closely monitored.

A patent-licensing dispute between Nokia and Daimler could create years of uncertainty for technology companies signing license agreements.

A legal case taken by Wirecard investors against the German financial regulator BaFin is in “uncharted waters”.

Shippers and airlines operating in the EU have been reminded that the bloc plans to propose an expansion of its Emissions Trading System.

Eight of the world’s biggest insurance companies are gearing up for a court case brought by the UK’s financial services regulator.

A landmark ruling by the EU’s top court on international data flows will lead to more legal uncertainty for thousands of companies that use an EU data transfer mechanism.

Google’s appeal of a French injunction to negotiate with press publishers is a sharp judicial test for the French competition authority’s bold use of interim measures.

Google had a “state of play” meeting with EU merger case handlers yesterday to discuss its planned acquisition of fitness tracker company Fitbit.

Tackling Big Tech’s challenges is a team effort, the UK’s competition regulator signaled.

Football clubs around Europe are turning to antitrust rules in a bid to avoid relegation or secure a spot in lucrative European competitions.

The Competition and Markets Authority, which today published the final report on its year-long market study into online platforms and digital advertising

Lossmaking small businesses will be eligible to receive EU support under the temporary Covid-19 state aid framework.

Lufthansa’s 9 billion-euro bailout package, approved by the European Commission and shareholders, will be talked about for years to come.

The Daimler-Nokia patent-licensing dispute has drawn a third round of questions to market participants from the European Commission.

Nokia, Sharp, Daimler, Continental & others fighting over licensing technology in connected cars may see their dispute effectively fast-tracked.

Commerzbank’s multimillion-pound fine for money-laundering failings tells a familiar sorry tale of an under-resourced & stretched financial-crime department.

A mammoth fine dished out to Commerzbank by the UK financial services regulator is a taste of things to come, as fraud is driven by Covid-19.

Investigations of the App Store and Apple Pay are latest enforcement initiatives designed to tackle digital platform operators

Facebook is likely to argue that its completed acquisition of Giphy is a straightforward case of vertical integration and doesn’t give rise to competition issues.

Google's eight-figure fine from French data regulator CNIL for breaching EU privacy rules is proportionate and should be upheld.

Sabre faces an uphill battle to get the UK antitrust regulator’s block of its Farelogix buyout quashed.

Chinese companies acquiring control or at least 35 percent of shares in EU companies might face a new bloc-level review.

Companies backed by significant Chinese subsidies could be subject to a new kind of EU investigation that would correct distortions & restrict behavior inside Europe's internal market.

Google, Facebook & other Big Tech companies can expect increased EU scrutiny & a set of new regulations targeting their businesses in the bloc.

Companies using algorithms to set prices & manage suppliers, as well as concentrated sectors such as mobile telephony or air transport, could be some of the surprise victims of new proposal for new EU powers.

Facebook, Amazon.com and other tech giants could see a new watchdog emerge from EU plans to curb the power of “gatekeeper” online services.

A planned mass damages claim against UK train operators over fares won’t be derailed.

As the EU marks the second anniversary of GDPR, large US tech companies should prepare for regulatory enforcement in the months ahead.

As the Irish privacy watchdog sends its Twitter probe off to EU counterparts for review today, it will doubtless hope for quick, constructive feedback.

The EU steel, transport and construction industries should be at the forefront of an “acceleration” of initiatives aimed at curbing emissions.

PrivatBank has cases in play around the world in its long-running bid to claw back billions of dollars that it claims were spirited away by two former owners.

Insurer Hiscox is being sued by a group of EU businesses for failing to pay out for a coronavirus hit to business.

Digital "gatekeepers" such as Apple, Facebook & Amazon could face a new EU law curbing them from exploiting combined data sets.

EU asset managers should have to reveal holdings in all kinds of fossil-fuel companies, not just in coal producers, under planned sustainability disclosure rules.

Retailers exploiting the coronavirus outbreak with price hikes could soon see tougher enforcement by the UK CMA

While there have been scores of national support measures approved under the EU's temporary coronavirus state aid framework, strikingly only Denmark has made extensive use of an alternative mechanism.

Deliveroo demonstrated the impact the coronavirus is having on antitrust priorities with news that Amazon's investment in the outfit has provisionally cleared.

Contact-tracing apps will benefit from a “pan-European & coordinated approach” to regulation after European data-protection authorities endorsed the EC’s draft guidance.

A landmark UK ruling freed Wm Morrison Supermarkets from indirect liability for a rogue employee's data leak — but still leaves the door open for future litigation targeting companies over accidental data disclosures by employees.

The European Commission is planning to temporarily suspend tariffs and value-added tax on imported protective medical equipment in response to the worsening Covid-19 crisis, MLex has learned.

Dominant digital platforms would need to meet strict — and still undefined — criteria to be classified as “essential facilities,” EU antitrust chief Margrethe Vestager has said.

Climate change looks set to become a point of contention in post-Brexit trade talks, with the EU pushing for stricter commitments.

Europe’s airlines, struck down by the Covid-19 pandemic, shouldn’t expect a free rein from the European Commission on receiving emergency bailouts from national governments.

Facebook, Twitter and other online platforms will find it tough to escape increasing regulatory scrutiny in the UK to ensure they curb harmful and illegal content as much as possible, as the country’s various watchdogs are starting to present a united front to plug the gaps in regulating Big Tech.

EU banks and other entities at high risk for money laundering might face on-site visits from the bloc's inspectors under plans being drawn up by the European Commission, MLex has learned.

European consumers suing Facebook in coordinated class actions in Belgium, Italy, Portugal and Spain over the Cambridge Analytica scandal are facing an uphill battle that suggests that litigation over privacy rights might not, as previously hoped, be quicker and more successful than regulatory probes.

Amazon.com & the European Commission sparred over whether the regulator was time-barred from probing a 2003 tax ruling.

Banks’ operations, exposures and potentially their capital rules could all be affected by the worldwide spread of the Covid-19 virus, even as global regulators insist the fundamentals of financial stability remain sound.

A UK push for enhanced EU equivalence conditions that would offer London financiers greater certainty after Brexit seems likely to be achievable, given the narrow distance between negotiating mandates published by both sides this week.

EU manufacturers will see mandatory "sustainability rules applicable to all products" proposed by the EC

A former prosecutor fired by the UK's Serious Fraud Office for gross misconduct won't face any action by the country's Solicitors Regulation Authority, a body governing lawyers, MLex has learned.

Forthcoming Irish decisions over Facebook, Twitter and other Big Tech companies for violations of EU privacy rules may well spark disagreement and "reasoned" demands for reappraisal from other regulators in the bloc, Ireland's top privacy watchdog expects.

Google has been asked by EU data-protection authorities to conduct a privacy-impact assessment of its proposed $2.1 billion acquisition of health-tracking company Fitbit before notifying the proposed deal to the European Commission for competition approval, MLex has learned.

Big Tech companies operating in the UK will get an early sense of what lies ahead for them.

Don't be fooled by the latest eruption of fire and brimstone from big EU countries pushing for a loosening of the bloc's merger rules to allow the creation of "European champions."

Google is "overwhelmingly dominant" and its algorithms "consigned rival services to the darkness that lies beyond Page 2" of its search results, the European Commission told EU judges today.

Smaller businesses such as fitness studios, translation services and car-rental services operating in the central German state of Hesse should face modest fines for failing to comply with EU privacy rules, a senior official from the state's privacy regulator told MLex.

Google's privacy investigation in Ireland risks being less thorough than activists had hoped for, as a result of the data-protection authority's decision to frame its probe as an own-initiative action rather than a response to widespread complaints against the Internet giant.

Is the bark of the UK's Serious Fraud Office worse than its bite? Observers might be forgiven for thinking so, given the trifling fine handed to a billionaire's daughter for refusing to hand the SFO evidence in a corruption probe.

IT businesses in Europe are set to face new rules on energy efficiency and device repairability.

Amazon.com and Deliveroo have a challenge ahead to defend their stake-purchase agreement by convincing the UK's competition regulator that they don't compete with each other — a finding that would require it to diverge from its established approach.

UK efforts to prosecute individuals on corruption charges linked to Airbus are likely to avoid French "blocking" laws but could be hindered by France's own efforts to prosecute wrongdoing.

Companies' direct-marketing practices have come under scrutiny in Finland to check their compliance with the EU's General Data Protection Regulation, the country's deputy data-protection ombudsman has told MLex.

Barclays, Citibank and Royal Bank of Scotland are among six banks at risk from a planned UK mass lawsuit against them over foreign-exchange rate-rigging because thousands of market participants have been "wronged," the man heading up the claim has said.

Article 50 of the Treaty of Lisbon is an instrument of destruction. Courtesy of the EU's exit clause, the UK's membership of the bloc will end at 23:00 GMT today, and the laws underpinning supply chains, diplomatic clout and individual rights accumulated over years will be scythed clean through.

Companies charged with breaking EU merger procedures may get fine reductions if they agree to cooperate with investigators.

If an increasing number of financial companies choose to set up offices in the UK post-Brexit — as new data from the London-based Financial Conduct Authority suggest — the country might be able to go its own way on rules without fears the EU will shut off access to customers in the bloc.

The UK government bailout of Flybe, which has drawn a state aid complaint to the European Commission from rival IAG, comes just as the EU digs in its heels on keeping the UK tied to the bloc's "level playing field" rules in future.

When the latest update of EU rules to fight money laundering took effect last week, they were accompanied in the UK by a flurry of regulatory reminders and warnings that a new era was beginning.

EU telecom operators and tech companies expect the new European Commission, which took office in December, to put forward some of its digital plans in coming weeks, including rules on artificial intelligence.

For drugmakers Pfizer and Flynn Pharma as well as the UK's antitrust authority, the holiday season may offer a brief diversion from a landmark UK court dispute that will dog them well into next year.

Multinational companies keen to adopt EU-wide codes of conduct to show they respect data-privacy rules should get clearer guidance next year on what's needed in particular sectors — but other roadblocks to progress remain.

World leaders' failure to agree on international commitments at the recent UN climate summit in Madrid may encourage the EU to beef up its policies and take a harder stance with its trade partners.

On Oct. 22, in yet another day of Brexit high drama in the House of Commons, UK lawmakers torpedoed Boris Johnson's plan to ratify the exit deal sealed in Brussels the previous week. They blew the Conservative leader's "do or die" Oct. 31 deadline out of the water, and set the course for a general election.

The UK won't be pushed into softening its Brexit plans and will seek a "Canada-style" free-trade agreement with no obligation to follow EU rulemaking, a spokesman for Prime Minister Boris Johnson insisted on Monday, 16 December.

Scotland's principal arts funding agency is breaking antitrust rules with a key grant program and must be stopped, a Scottish publisher has urged judges in the latest test of fast-track procedures designed to give individuals and small businesses with competition-law grievances quick access to justice.

Facebook, Google and other Big Tech companies should be subject to bank-like restrictions on capital requirements, hiring practices and misselling when they venture into financial services, a group of advisers to the European Commission said in a report published on 13 December 2019.

Will leaving the EU’s single market turn the UK into a light-touch entrepôt or a protectionist backwater? For more than three years, the rhetorical debate has raged, but now the thesis that Brexit will herald an experiment in deregulation can be tested against a body of evidence.

Google’s data collection has attracted the scrutiny of EU antitrust regulators, MLex understands, opening a new front against the search-engine company.

After five years at the helm of the European Commission’s powerful antitrust watchdog, Margrethe Vestager still has unfinished business.

Starbucks’ successful challenge before an EU court against a European Commission decision ordering it to pay millions in extra taxes to the Netherlands will not be appealed, the bloc’s competition boss Margrethe Vestager has told MLex.

Problems that multinational companies have faced in EU privacy probes will be picked over at a closed-door meeting in Brussels next month as part of the runup to a review of the General Data Protection Regulation next May, MLex has learned.

Google risks losing its secret “crown jewels." That was its stark message as it waits for a UK court ruling on whether it must hand over confidential information on key technology underpinning its search engine.

EU antitrust chief Margrethe Vestager is facing her first major policy test in her double role as competition commissioner and digital regulator as she weighs whether to start a formal investigation into Nokia’s licensing of mobile technology used in Internet-connected cars.

As London's financial sector faces an uncertain future post-Brexit, the UK government has called on regulators to ensure it retains its attractiveness — and that means enforcers might think twice before using their toughest weapons.

UK businesses have begun a nervous wait for a final verdict in the data-breach court battle that has pitted Wm Morrison Supermarkets against an army of its employees — and that threatens far-reaching implications for any organizations handling quantities of personal data.

Proposals for EU clearinghouses to come under tougher capital rules — a move the world's biggest banks have been calling for — will be discussed this week by member states, MLex has learned.

Major finance, retail and media companies in Ireland are facing scrutiny from the country's data-privacy regulator over whether their use of cookies complies with data-protection laws.

Boris Johnson’s big win in his revised Brexit deal was shifting the UK-wide “level playing field” commitments — covering labor, environmental, tax and competition law — from the binding withdrawal treaty into the aspirational political declaration.

Illumina and Pacific Biosciences’ internal documents “shed light” on the UK competition regulator’s in-depth probe and allowed it to discern a “clear and consistent picture” of the competitive impact, the authority has said in provisional findings.

Northern Ireland could lose out on parts of future UK trade deals, including a planned agreement with the US, should Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s Brexit deal win approval from lawmakers.

The UK government’s approval of Heathrow Airport’s planned expansion was wrongly cleared by judges of breaching state-aid and antitrust rules, project bidder Heathrow Hub will tell the UK's appeal court on Wednesday 23 October.

Facebook’s access to data through interfaces such as Login and Social Plugins is in the sights of EU antitrust enforcers in fresh questionnaires probing the impact of the company’s “Marketplace” on classified ad businesses, MLex has learned.

The scrutiny signals the European Commission’s growing interest in the new digital frontiers of payment technologies after it started taking a closer look at Facebook’s Libra cryptocurrency earlier this year.

Carmakers’ incentives to keep vehicle data to themselves and not share them fairly with repairers and companies offering new services such as navigation should prompt scrutiny from EU antitrust authorities, a consumer group has said.

Ecolab and Holchem's merger block by the UK competition regulator has exposed frictions over its use of customer surveys.

Icelandic political parties’ use of personal data from social-media platforms such as Facebook has come under scrutiny by the country’s data-protection authority, the agency’s head said in an interview.

Google's recent defeat in the "Safari workaround" case is unlikely to open the floodgates for a rush of similar mass UK damages lawsuits, but should still provide a roadmap for claimants — something companies accused of breaching privacy rules would do well to note.

Was British Airways' cybersecurity so lax that it should be held responsible for its big data breach last year? That's the fundamental case that lawyers for the swelling class of thousands of victims must make to win compensation for them.

The case of an Airbus unit embroiled in a UK corruption probe for seven years is to be raised by a global antibribery standards body pressing for it to be resolved, MLex has learned.

EU's Google Shopping decision taught lessons and influenced behavior, says company lawyer

Boris Johnson came to power after convincing Conservative Party members that, Houdini-like, he could slip off the shackles that bound his predecessor and leap free from the EU on Oct. 31, deal or no deal.

While the UK prime minister's comprehensive Supreme Court defeat over Parliament's suspension is occupying today's headlines, it is worth looking beyond them at the unflattering light the case shines on the drive to ready legislation needed for Brexit.

Google has scored two major victories at the EU’s highest court as judges narrowed the scope of Internet users’ right to be forgotten, rejecting calls to impose the right globally and to make the delisting of sensitive personal data automatic.

GSK, Generics UK, Alpharma and others have appeared at the EU’s top court to ask judges to clarify a number of legal questions around "pay-for-delay" cases in the pharmaceutical sector, after they were collectively fined 45 million pounds ($56 million) in 2016 by the UK’s antitrust watchdog.

Apple's obligation to pay 13 billion euros ($14.3 billion) in Irish taxes was based on an EU "distortion" of national tax law and defied "common sense," lawyers for the iPhone maker and Ireland told judges today.

Brexit has devoured two British prime ministers and is chewing up a third. The two main political parties have been sent into meltdown, relations between the UK's constituent countries strained, and the conventions of parliament bent to breaking point.

News that Facebook’s virtual-currency project Libra will have to be regulated like a bank in its home town of Geneva looks like just the tip of the iceberg.

EU competition commissioners have traditionally stood alone, maintaining a healthy distance from the business of policymaking as they wield the sweeping quasi-judicial powers that set them apart from their peers.

A last-minute change to UK government plans will make the UK's antitrust watchdog responsible for post-Brexit oversight of merger commitments made by companies in a clutch of multibillion-dollar deals, under legislation meant to plug an "enforcement gap" in a "no deal" scenario.

Former UK Prime Minister Theresa May’s attempts to disband the Serious Fraud Office undermined the agency and led to resources being diverted from fighting financial crime, its former head has said.

The UK review of Sabre’s merger with Farelogix has raised questions about whether the country’s antitrust regulator has jurisdiction for an in-depth probe of the deal, MLex has learned.

UK consumers could be sold counterfeit goods and the government could lose out on millions of pounds’ worth of tariffs due to an increase in smuggling after Brexit, a top EU official has said.

Companies could be offered fine discounts of up to 75 percent to incentivize them to self-report corruption issues, the former head of the UK’s Serious Fraud Office said today.

The UK government insists it’s ramping up advice for businesses to get them through a no-deal Brexit at the end of October. But companies looking for financial support to cushion the blow have little guidance to go on, as the post-exit rulebook on state aid remains in limbo.

Aspen Pharmacare's unprecedented offer of a payout to the UK's public healthcare system to resolve competition concerns shows that disputes between drugmakers and the UK antitrust regulator need not always end in a legal quagmire.

Baowu Steel, Posco, Tata Steel and other global steelmakers will be able to export less steel to Europe tariff-free than previously expected under the European Commission’s revised safeguard measure due out today, MLex has learned.

Investment banks alerted to antitrust litigation risk after UK class lawsuit

Tackling the likes of Google, Facebook and other tech giants may be helped by a new generation of start-ups helping users reclaim their data, the co-author of an influential report has said, serving up an alternative to intervention by antitrust regulators.

Just about every adult in the UK has a reason to tune in when Mastercard’s bid to halt a planned mass lawsuit over its card fees reaches the UK's highest court.

UK farmers and fishermen exposed to a no-deal Brexit face heightened uncertainty after Boris Johnson’s office said he would push ahead with the planned Oct. 31 departure without key domestic legislation in place.

Google’s speech-assistance system's compliance with the EU’s data-protection rules is the subject of an investigation initiated today by Hamburg's data protection authority.

Starbucks and Fiat Chrysler Finance will both find out on Sept. 24 if they have been successful in their respective court appeals against two landmark EU state aid tax decisions, MLex has learned.

E.On has warned the UK's antitrust regulator that a price-cap mechanism for customers who pay upfront for their energy is harming competition among the country’s suppliers.

Boris Johnson’s government has inherited a deep in-tray of reforms to UK competition and consumer law. But with a gridlocked parliament, and an administration zeroed in on Brexit, there’s no guarantee of progress soon.

Eurasian Resources Group's UK unit “knew” that its former lawyer disclosed suspected criminality at the Kazakh miner to the Serious Fraud Office, the agency said in its defense against a 70 million-pound civil claim ($86 million).

A fight between E.Leclerc and the French government over the supermarket chain’s buyer alliance with a German peer has breathed new life into a debate about whether such agreements are in breach of EU competition law.

Qualcomm's 242 million-euro fine ($272 million) sees the European Commission dusting off its enforcement tools on predatory pricing, which have lain dormant for some 16 years.

Amazon.com’s use of data has raised concerns with EU competition regulators, who today said they were opening a formal investigation into the e-commerce giant.

When British Airways and Marriott International heard that the UK's privacy watchdog planned to hit them with fines totting up to 282 million pounds ($350 million), they got a taste of its ambition to punish companies for poor security practices and breaches that led to the exposure of customers' data.

Listen as MLex Chief Correspondent, Nicholas Hirst, interviews Tommaso Valletti about his time as the EU’s Chief Economist for Competition.

Airlines risk facing new barriers to operate on routes to and from the UK as the government seeks to draw up post-Brexit air-transport agreements, the country's competition regulator has warned.

The UK antitrust regulator rattled investors last month when it said an Illumina-Pacific Biosciences merger could lead to higher prices and lower quality for UK customers — a conclusion that was governed by broad interpretation of their market.

Companies in the UK look unlikely to get new economic-crime prevention requirements soon, as the government is considering shifting pursuit of the reforms to the Law Commission, MLex has learned.

Facebook is facing the prospect of EU antitrust scrutiny after investigators issued questionnaires to other online operators targeting the social network, MLex has learned.

Facebook, Microsoft, Twitter and Coca-Cola will be closely watching arguments at an EU court this month in a case that could lead to sweeping changes in how companies transfer personal data — from pay slips to health data — to countries outside the EU.

Online lenders and payday lenders may face tighter rules as the European Commission aims to level the playing field in a review of the 11-year-old consumer-credit directive due later this year.

Developers of artificial intelligence could build greater transparency into their products, but their public-sector clients aren't putting them under pressure to do so, the head of a UK review into the technology has said.

Regulators world-wide should consider subjecting asset managers to stress tests, a top Bank of Italy official said, adding to the chorus of bank authorities flagging nonbank risks.

Unaoil has seen UK fraud investigators call a halt to a three-year bribery probe, MLex has learned.

Salesforce.com, a serial acquirer, has purchased dozens of companies with hardly a regulatory hiccup. That may be about to change

The Serious Fraud Office still sees prosecuting corruption as a “very big priority,” its head Lisa Osofsky told MLex, despite the dearth in new bribery cases since she took the top job.

Telia’s buyout of Bonnier Broadcasting is drawing close scrutiny in Brussels, where EU case handlers worry that the deal could raise prices or reduce choice for television viewers in Finland and Sweden.

All would-be British prime ministers need a backstory. They don’t often involve antitrust reform.

F.H. Bertling’s million-dollar fine for bribery offenses in Angola marks the close of a chapter for the logistics company. But doubts about whether the money can be recouped from the insolvent company, and the dropping of a parallel case, raise questions about how successful prosecutors have been.

The recent prosecution of three former Tesco executives collapsed because the Serious Fraud Office didn’t set its evidence bar high enough, a senior agency executive has told MLex in an interview, adding that it must learn lessons from the fiasco.

The EU’s trade partners may face more stringent demands from the European Parliament in its coming five-year term when it comes to striking trade deals, after green and liberal candidates made gains at the expense of the traditional center-right and center-left groupings.

Tech giants such as Amazon, Facebook and Google should be subject to updated competition rules that force them to share data and allow EU authorities to investigate their market dominant position, Mona Keijzer, the Dutch state secretary for economic affairs, told MLex.

Listen to MLex Senior Energy Correspondent Laurel Henning talk with MLex Brussels Senior Managing Editor James Panichi about her November 2016 analysis "Trump's plans to abandon UN climate deal puts EU projects in doubt" and related new developments.

Are Nokia’s patent-licensing practices holding up research and development investment among makers of automotive components?

Short-haul airlines including Ryanair, EasyJet and Wizz Air could see regulatory risk emerge over the next year from an unusual place: a group of European students with no formal power but big climate ambitions.

AB InBev's 200 million-euro settlement with the European Commission will be closely studied by antitrust enforcers across Europe, who will see the upside of lowering the cost of citizens' weekly shop.

European telecom executives want to know if CK Hutchison’s court challenge to an EU veto of its O2 UK buyout will make it easier to do mobile mergers.

Insurers’ use of Big Data tools is posing a headache for the sector’s regulators, as a new study shows more than half of companies are already using artificial intelligence or plan to do so.

Companies conveying a false impression of scarcity to consumers could face more regulation in the Netherlands, as the Authority for Consumers and Markets is investigating such behavior, the watchdog’s president has said.

Google defends consent practice in Swedish data-location GDPR probe

Drugmaker Leadiant Biosciences faces questions over whether it is restricting the supply of raw materials for a rare-disease drug as part of a broader Dutch probe into excessive pricing for that treatment.

How can antitrust enforcers stop tech companies from moving fast and breaking things?

This MLex special report covers the impact, influence and uncertainties of the EU rules of GDPR and how it's reshaping data privacy around the world.

As cars integrate ever more technology, a legal fight is brewing over whether the holders of connectivity-related patents should offer licenses to the makers of the relevant car parts, or of the cars as a whole.

A trader accused of profiting from illicit deal tips regularly spent thousands of pounds at a high-end nightclub with a UBS compliance officer who supplied the information, a London court heard today .

Mastercard plans to take its fight against a proposed mass lawsuit over its card fees to the UK’s highest court.

JetBlue’s planned foray across the Atlantic is breathing new life into a debate about whether joint-venture agreements between legacy airlines are anticompetitive — and positioning the US budget carrier to take advantage of any regulatory crackdown.

A large German healthcare-services company will this month be fined for breaches of EU privacy rules, the data-protection commissioner for the state of Rhineland-Palatinate has told MLex.

With its new Apple probe, the Dutch antitrust regulator has carved out a niche in a crowded field as competition officials across Europe train their focus on smartphone app stores.

E.On's merger with Innogy has drawn criticism from rival LichtBlick, which has said the deal will create “the leading Big Data conglomerate in the German energy market,” comparing it unfavorably to tech giants such as Google and Amazon.

Vodafone has passed up an opportunity to defend its four-country Liberty Global acquisition at a closed-door hearing in Brussels, MLex has learned.

ThyssenKrupp and Tata Steel finally offered concessions this week in their bid to win EU approval to merge their European steel operations. But have they coughed up enough to satisfy the EU antitrust watchdog? There are some real doubts.

Printeos suffered discrimination when the European Commission imposed price-fixing fines worth 19 million euros ($21 million) on five envelope-makers, a lawyer for the Spanish company told EU judges today.

Vodafone has received formal EU objections to its plan to buy a swath of Liberty Global’s businesses in Europe, MLex has learned.

Automotive manufacturers should license patents at the level of the final car, not the makers of individual components, to ensure the end product runs all the necessary technology, a senior lawyer at Nokia said.

Telecom operators and car makers in favor of cellular technology for Internet-connected vehicles have received last-minute hope after some EU lawmakers objected to draft legislation specifying WiFi-based technical communication standards, MLex has learned.

A former Barclays trader faces additional jail time after failing to pay thousands of pounds to a London court following his conviction for manipulating a key global benchmark interest rate, MLex has learned.

Forcing the likes of Google, Facebook and Amazon to sell off business units to curb their clout isn't necessary to inject more competition into tech markets, Philip Marsden, a co-author of a UK report on the tech industry, told MLex.

In vetoing Siemens' buyout of Alstom's rail business, the European Commission unleashed a political thunderstorm that continues to rumble across the EU. But the prohibition also offers down-to-earth lessons for executives contemplating mergers that need clearance in Brussels.

ENRC lodges multi-million-pound court claim against SFO

Merging companies seeking to determine whether they need to file their deal for EU review after a no-deal Brexit should include their UK revenues under the EU umbrella if their tieup was announced before exit day, the European Commission said today.

Brand owners can’t use intellectual property rights to restrict cross-border sales of goods in the EU, the European Commission indicated today in its decision to fine Nike, in a case that is likely to set a precedent for ongoing and future merchandising investigations.

EU laws governing mergers, antitrust and state aid must take account of the challenges of a globalized economy and new technologies, the European Council said today after France and Germany pushed for changes to a summit communiqué.

A UK drive to replicate hundreds of EU sanctions listings on foreign states, warlords and terrorist groups ahead of Brexit will be fertile territory for judicial review in the British courts, opening the potential for divergence with the rest of the bloc.

Fertilizer producers from Russia, Trinidad & Tobago and the US might face provisional dumping duties ranging from 16.3 percent to 39.3 percent, after EU investigators found that their exports into the bloc are unfairly priced, MLex has learned.

Uber Technologies has two weeks to hand over location and log data to a group of four drivers in the UK, or face legal action or data-protection complaints for breaching the EU's privacy rules.

EU leaders aren’t bluffing about withholding a Brexit extension, judging by recent comments from continental business leaders who fear a delay could be more harmful to them than a no-deal exit in nine days' time.

Unfair competition from China has got the European Commission scrambling to come up with a solution that doesn’t involve loosening its merger laws.

No-deal Brexit contingency plans will temporarily maintain basic air and road traffic with the UK, citizens’ rights protections and legal certainty for ship operators, EU lawmakers decided in Strasbourg today.

The UK’s plan not to introduce any customs checks on the Irish border in the event of a no-deal Brexit ‘raises concerns’ for the EU, which will check it against World Trade Organization rules, the bloc’s top spokesperson has said.

EU-based companies that send personal data to partners in the UK and haven't prepared for a no-deal Brexit scenario on March 29 risk attracting enforcement action from their local privacy regulators.

Cartel offenders will have to meet fraud or public-harm criteria to merit prosecution by the Serious Fraud Office, the UK's white-collar crime agency said today in response to a Competition and Markets Authority proposal to transfer over cases involving "hardcore" offenses.

Theresa May and EU leaders have discussed the “legal and procedural context” of a possible Brexit delay, European Council President Donald Tusk has said.

Green bonds shouldn’t be shackled by too-tight standards, the financial industry has warned the European Commission, as the EU executive seeks to boost financial instruments that could help fight against climate change.

Reconfiguring the global economy to tackle climate change is headline news as youth activists lecture world leaders on the need for “panic” and Democrat lawmakers in the US push for a “Green New Deal” in an echo of spending splurges of the 1930s.

UK asset managers got their first taste of competition-law enforcement under the Financial Conduct Authority yesterday.

If Britons wake up to a no-deal Brexit on Saturday March 30, the UK government risks being engulfed by twin crises that both sides’ contingency planning has failed to cover.

Vodafone's plan to buy Liberty Global's cable business in Germany and three other countries has drawn detailed questions from EU regulators, who are seeking information about how the deal would affect the German market, MLex has learned.

For more than two years, Theresa May has governed by euphemism. She’s told one half of her party that the UK intends to leave the EU’s customs union, while asking the EU to replicate its main features for the sake of manufacturers that rely on cross-border supply chains.

Eurasian Resources Group's UK unit has filed a US court claim, seeking documents from former British lawmaker Nick Clegg as part of its ongoing negligence dispute with law firm Dechert.

A merger of Siemens' and Alstom’s railway businesses would have been a “bad deal for British passengers, freight companies and taxpayers,” the UK rail regulator has said following the EU block on the deal yesterday.

Siemens and Alstom’s frustrated plan to merge their railway businesses shows the steely independence of the European Commission’s competition regulators, who blocked the deal in the face of intense political pressure from France and Germany.

As Google nears a deadline to respond to a Swedish probe into whether its collection of users' location data complies with EU rules, doubts have surfaced over which regulator should handle the cross-border investigation.

BlackRock, the world’s biggest asset manager, has amassed hard data casting doubt on an academic paper central to the now-popular hypothesis that index funds may be harming competition by owning stakes in rival companies.

Shipbuilders Fincantieri and Chantiers de l’Atlantique have all the hallmarks of a “European champion” in the making, but that may not help get their deal past the EU merger regulator.

While the UK considers what to do about Brexit, EU legislators are set to move ahead on the top priority in financial legislation before Britain’s departure.

Do econometric modeling, do it rigorously and share your work with the companies before you, Europe's top court told the European Commission's merger-review authority today, as it confirmed that a 2013 veto of UPS's takeover of TNT Express was void.

​Delaying the Brexit deadline isn’t an option that the UK government should take for granted.

Three former Barclays traders were part of an “elite” group who conspired to “cheat” the global financial system to get an edge over rivals, a London court heard today.

Could UK supermarkets and the food industry cope with the likely chaos and supply blockages at seaports and the Channel Tunnel in the event of a no-deal Brexit?

Italian state-backed energy giant Eni has been fined 5 million euros ($5.6 million) by the national antitrust regulator for a misleading marketing campaign for its "Diesel+" fuel, the watchdog said today, in the country's first-ever ruling against "greenwashing."

The rights of British citizens living in the EU after a no-deal Brexit could be decided by the European Commission rather than by national governments, MLex has learned.

La Gaitana Farms, a Colombian flower-importer, today told a UK appeal court judge that a lower court was wrong to cut back the scope of its long-running antitrust damages claim against air-cargo cartelists.

Lithuanian government officials linked to a bribery-tainted Alstom deal are subject to a corruption probe, Lithuanian prosecutors have told MLex.

Siemens and Alstom, as well as their political backers in France and Germany, appear not to have convinced Margrethe Vestager that they need to club together to fend off competition from outside the EU.

Four more steel products could fall under the scope of EU safeguard measures that will come into effect next month under proposed definitive measures by the European Commission.

Google, big banks, aspiring industry champions and major drugmakers can expect run-ins with EU competition enforcers this year as Commissioner Margrethe Vestager enters the twilight of her mandate.

The facts underpinning cartel conduct and its assumed impact on customers are set to emerge as a more prominent battleground in German litigation in the wake of a ruling by the country's top court last month.

The negotiations over the UK’s withdrawal treaty are all but over. But in Brussels, a second Brexit negotiation is continuing at pace.

New EU investment-vetting rules are expected to take effect at the end of 2020 to allow enough time for national governments to update their rulebooks, MLex has learned.

UK airlines could be controlled by foreign investors after Brexit, under government plans to scrap EU rules that restrict the ownership and control of carriers by nationality.

Sustainable finance and financial technology are getting their own unit in the European Commission, raising the profile of those policies as the EU executive body prepares for its next mandate.

The UK’s proposal to split its import quotas from those of the EU after Brexit has drawn an official objection from Russia at the World Trade Organization, MLex has learned.

American battery manufacturer Energizer’s $2 billion purchase of Spectrum Brands’ global battery and flashlights business might encounter more regulatory trouble in Europe than it did in the United States.

Starbucks and the Dutch government today attacked a 2015 EU decision that branded the coffee company’s EU tax arrangement illegal, and resulted in it having to pay back 25.7 million euros in unpaid taxes.

British refurbishment company Skansen Interiors was charged with failure to prevent bribery despite reporting the illegal conduct to UK police, the former chief executive of its parent company told MLex. Ian Pidgen-Bennett warned the decision could send the wrong signal to companies that want to report wrongdoing.

Bitcoin’s gyrations have become a concern fast enough for the European Commission to call a roundtable on cryptocurrencies — but not enough to spark immediate EU initiatives. The approach outlined by financial-services chief Valdis Dombrovskis today points to no major legislation coming until at least 2020.

A no-deal Brexit won’t bring the freedoms that some UK lawmakers imagine.

Listen in as MLex Chief Correspondent Telecoms Magnus Franklin and Senior Editor James Panichi discuss regulatory questions companies face as they gear up to invest millions in the technology for EU's "inflight WiFi."

Supermarket chains in France and Belgium are under EU investigation for potential collusion in the way they buy everyday consumer goods including foods and cleaning products. The European Commission is investigating the supermarkets' commercial strategies and the conditions they impose when they buy products through alliances.

Whether at Google or Gazprom, leaders of companies under scrutiny in Brussels have learned that EU antitrust chief Margrethe Vestager wears her values on her sleeve.

In an interview with MLex, Romano Pisciotti talks of his experience at the hands of the US justice system and his time behind bars for financial crime charges.

In an exclusive interview with MLex, Margrethe Vestager talks of her political past in Denmark and of her plans as EU Commissioner for Competition.

Match Group, which operates dating apps like Tinder, Hinge & OKCupid, has been fined 50,000 euros in Belgium for breaching the EU's data-protection rules.