Large companies with significant digital revenues in the European Union such as Google and Facebook could face a 3 percent tax on their turnover under a draft proposal by the European Commission seen by Reuters.
As European Union lawmakers in the Commission, Parliament and Council debate a new data protection law, the EU's data protection watchdog has chimed in, expressing some concerns and saying individuals' privacy rights should be at the core of the legislation.
Google is now requiring that publishers that carry its ads comply with a European Union directive and ask their site visitors' for permission before setting cookies on their computers.
Qualcomm is under investigation by the European Union's antitrust authority, which suspects the company of abusing its dominant position in the market for 3G and 4G chipsets used in smartphones and tablets.
A large majority of the European Parliament took a strong stance against geoblocking of online content in a report calling on the European Commission to reform E.U. copyright laws.
With the European Commission leveling antitrust charges against Google, the company should be bracing itself for a big and potentially costly fight over its dominant search business.
Google's agreement to end its three-year antitrust dispute with the European Union gives the company's search rivals a boost, but it's probably not enough to make a dent in Google's search engine dominance