Topic / European Union

EU: Google has until July to fix anti-trust concerns

By on June 8, 2012

Image: Dimitar Nikolov/Flickr (Creative Commons) The European Commission’s Vice President for Competition Policy, Joaquin Almunia has given Google until July to resolve concerns of antitrust practices after finding the company in breach of its laws in four areas in May. “On May 21, I sent a letter to Google underlining our concerns in its business practices that we identified in our preliminary investigations that started in November 2010,” Almunia said […]

EU finds Google in potential breach of antitrust laws, cites four concerns

By on May 21, 2012

Image: Dimitar Nikolov/Flickr (Creative Commons) Back in November 2010, the European Commission launched an antitrust investigation into Google after two websites complained. Now, the results are in – and Google could face a suit on its hands, after it found four areas where it may be considered an abuse of its market dominance. The four areas include: Linking of its own ‘vertical’ search services – or search engines that focus […]

Google/Motorola tie-up approved by US Department of Justice, European Commission

By on February 14, 2012

Both the European Commission and the Department of Justice in the United States have cleared a deal that will see Google and Motorola finally tie the knot, after the US$12.5 billion deal was announced last August. In Europe, the European Commission approved the deal with no conditions after evaluating that the deal will not “significantly impede effective competition” in the Eurozone. . However, it will continue to monitor the situation […]

EU announces new, unified privacy and data protection laws

By on January 26, 2012

Image: Dimitar Nikolov/Flickr (Creative Commons) The European Commission has announced sweeping reforms in privacy and data protection laws within the union – including a single legal framework, and stronger penalties to make sure companies abide by these new rules. The EU Justice Commissioner Viviane Reding announced the new reforms, claiming that businesses will also save €2.3 billion a year because of the reduction of unnecessary administrative procedures and paperwork. EU […]

TECHGEEK Podcast 21: We dropped the cable

By on December 5, 2010

Okay, we get it. We fail at comedy. Don’t get your knickers in a twist. We discuss the Wikileaks saga, the fact that Porn aims to be the next Google in stealing your private data and that Apple tries to push a dead social network with a dead celebrity. Yep, and while I’m so going to get angry emails from Michael Jackson fans, Tom is going to get emails from […]

Google Handcuffs

European Union announes antitrust probe on Google

By on November 30, 2010

Microsoft and Intel had face them. Now it’s Google’s turn. The search engine will be investigated by the European Union for antitrust violations, with the European Commission accusing that Google had abused its dominant position in the search engine market. The matter, according to the European Commission, is “a matter of priority”.

EU to investigate IBM over abuse in mainframe computer market

By on July 26, 2010

The European Commission, which is the antitrust regulator of the entire 27-nation European Union (similar to our ACCC), has launched an investigation into IBM on allegations that the company abused its dominant position in the mainframe computer market. “IBM is alleged to have engaged in illegal tying of its mainframe hardware products to its dominant mainframe operating system,” the European Commission said.

Document leak shows EU pushing for jail time for copyright infringement

By on June 25, 2010

A leaked document from the President of the European Union has revealed the European Union’s secret push for criminal prosecution in the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA), an agreement that has been negotiated in secret. The document, leaked by French citizen advocacy group La Quadrature du Net (similar to Get Up! in Australia), reveals that the President wants criminal sanctions in one of the tougher parts of the treaty, Article 2.14 […]

EU clears Oracle/Sun deal

EU clears Oracle/Sun deal

By on January 22, 2010

The European Union has given its approval to Orcale’s purchase of Sun Microsystems, the owners of several technologies like MySQL and Java, after finalising its investigation that was opened in September of last year. The investigation was launched to see if it would be an impediment of “effective competition” within the European Economic Area (EEA), a free-trade agreement within the European Union and three other states – Iceland, Liechtenstein and […]

Licence required to upload videos in Italy under new law

By on January 17, 2010

A new law proposed by the Italian Government could see the citizens of Italy requiring a licence to upload videos to the Internet from the Communications Ministry, which could reduce the freedom of communications, according to lawmakers opposed to the new law. If the law passes, this would make Italy the only country in Europe and the Western world to require government approval to upload videos — even as simple […]

EU opens antitrust investigations into Oracle-Sun deal

EU opens antitrust investigations into Oracle-Sun deal

By on September 3, 2009

The European Commission has opened an antitrust investigation into software maker Oracle and its planned purchase of Sun Microsystems, as the commission says it has serious worries about the deal that could see higher prices and limited choice for database software. Oracle, the second-largest software maker, announced on April 21 of this year that it would buy Sun Microsystems and would see the combined company having both Sun’s popular technology […]

Pirate Bay anonymous network launches quietly

By on July 2, 2009

In what has been a turbulent week for The Pirate Bay, they have launched quietly their anonymous virtual private network, IPREDator, to the public. The new network, like we reported before, hopes to give you anonymous access to the internet, so the ISPs won’t be able to trace your steps.

Pirate Party headed to European Parliament

By on June 8, 2009

The Swedish Pirate Party (Piratpartiet), which is not affiliated with the Pirate Bay (according to WIkipedia) has managed to secure at least one seat in the European Parliament out of a possible 18 seats (or 20, once the Lisbon Treaty is ratified) – winning 7.1 percent of the vote, above the 4 percent needed to win a seat.

EU wants to bring more browsers in Windows

EU wants to bring more browsers in Windows

By on June 1, 2009

The European Union may force Microsoft to put more browsers into the operating system after being “frustrated with past efforts”, as put by the Wall Street Journal, with their previous responses over previous sanctions made by the European Commission. The new action could be a sharp blow to Microsoft by competition commissioner Neelie Kroes, after a recent record fine of US$1.48 billion against Intel after being found to have made […]