EU Commission

Google has been fined a record €2.4 billion ($2.7 billion) after EU antitrust regulators concluded the first stage of their three-pronged probe into the world’s most popular search engine.

The fine, which targets the company’s shopping business, is the largest doled out by Brussels for a monopoly abuse case and came after a seven-year long investigation prompted by scores of complaints from rivals such as U.S. consumer review website Yelp, TripAdvisor, UK price comparison site Foundem, News Corp and lobbying group FairSearch.

European’s regulators are expected to hit Google with a minimum one billion euro fine this summer for anti-competitive practices that also means Google will also have to alter its business practices in Europe.

The repercussions pertain to allegations Google favors its own shopping service in search results, but it could have ramifications beyond the Google Shopping feature. Google already faces other outstanding antitrust cases in Europe.

Facebook has been fined €110m by the EU for providing misleading information about its 2014 takeover of WhatsApp. The Commission previously expressed concern that the social media giant had not correctly communicated planned changes to its privacy policy.

The European commission said it had imposed a “proportionate” fine on the technology company to send a clear signal that all firms must comply with EU competition rules.

The European Union plans to launch legal action against Italy for failing to properly police allegations of emissions-test cheating by Fiat Chrysler following the Volkswagen scandal, EU sources said.

EU regulators say Italy has failed to convince them that the so-called defeat devices used to modulate emissions on its vehicles outside of narrow testing conditions are justified. "The Commission decided today to send a letter of formal notice asking Italy to respond to concerns about insufficient action taken regarding the emission control strategies employed by Fiat Chrysler Automobiles group (FCA)," a statement said.

An advisor to Europe’s highest court has said that Uber should be regulated as a transportation company, subjecting it to local licensing regulations which could have been considered disproportionate under EU law had it been deemed an "information society service".

In a opinion handed down Thursday, Maciej Szpunar, the advocate general of the European Court of Justice (ECJ), said “Indirect control such as that exercised by Uber, based on financial incentives and decentralised passenger-led ratings, with a scale effect, makes it possible to manage in a way that is just as – if not more – effective than management based on formal orders given by an employer to his employees and direct control over the carrying out of such orders.” The decision handed down today is non-binding, though ECJ rulings have historically followed the advice of the advocate general. A final ruling is expected later this year.

Last week a team of civil society organisations, included swiss Pro Specie Rara, Swissaid and Public Eye, started a public appeal to politicians and demand that effective prohibitions are put in place to stop the granting of patents on plants and animals derived from conventional breeding.

The protest is targeted at patents granted by the European Patent Office (EPO) in 2016 to the brewing companies Carlsberg and Heineken. The patents claim barley derived from conventional breeding, its usage in brewing beer and the beer produced thereof. However, the patents are simply based on random mutations in the plant’s genome.

A report released by the Maltese Presidency and the European Commission on Wednesday says that childhood obesity should be tackled at an early stage and that schools can play a positive role in encouraging healthy eating habits.

“Considering the amount of time that children spend at school, as well as the fact that in many European countries students consume at least one daily main meal there, schools are an ideal environment for supporting healthy behaviours,” the report states.

Childhood obesity in Europe is increasing: in 2010, about one in three European children between the ages of six and nine were overweight or obese, while 2008 estimates were only about one in four.

The EU is “very disappointed” in the Swiss people’s rejection of the government’s corporate tax reform plan, the EU’s tax commissioner MOscovici said on Monday.

Voters on Sunday blocked the tax system revamp, sending the Swiss government back to the drawing board as it tries to abolish ultra-low tax rates for multinationals without triggering a mass exodus by those companies. "The Commission is very disappointed by the results of a referendum in Switzerland," Moscovici told a news conference.

"The rejection of the reform and referendum means we need to redouble our efforts when it comes to taxation. The Commission plans to consult the member states so we can decide together how to proceed," he said.