EU Commission

The European Union agreed Tuesday on new rules allowing subscribers of online services, as Netflix or Amazon Prime, in one E.U. country access to them while traveling in another.

The new “portability” ruling is the first step of regulation under a drive by the European Commission to introduce a single digital market in Europe. Announced in May 2015 on the cusp of the Cannes Film Festival, the proposed Digital Single Market was met with full-throated opposition from Europe’s movie and TV industry, which viewed it as a threat to its territory-by-territory licensing of movies and TV shows.

The European Union reached a deal early Wednesday morning that should pave the way for consumers to use their mobile phones throughout the 28-country region without paying roaming fees.

Three-way negotiations between the European Parliament, Council and Commission ended just after midnight with a pact on the pace of slashing rates telecom companies charge each other, according to the office of Parliament’s rapporteur Miapetra Kumpula-Natri, a Finnish member of the Socialists & Democrats, who tweeted "Goodbye roaming,".

The European Commission is accusing Facebook of providing incorrect or misleading information during the Commission’s investigation into its merger with WhatsApp back in 2014, opening the company to a possible fine of 1% of its turnover. It centers around the fact that Facebook told the Commission that it would be unable to reliably automate matching between separate accounts on the messaging app and the social network.

"Companies are obliged to give the Commission accurate information during merger investigations. They must take this obligation seriously," Ms Vestager, the European Union’s Competition Commissioner, said.

EU countries have approved the European Commission’s proposal for fair-use limits on ‘roam like home’, the EC announced. The council of EU representatives, Cocom approved the rules at a meeting 12 December.
However, to avoid knock-on effects on domestic prices given big discrepancies across the bloc in prices and consumption patterns, the EU had to define "fair use" rules to ensure consumers did not abuse the end of roaming by buying cheap SIM cards in one EU country and using them permanently elsewhere.

This means the Commission can confirm the details ahead of its deadline of 15 December, and mobile operators will have six months to implement the changes, by the end of all roaming surcharges in June 2017.

The Eurogroup will have to wait and see what Italy’s next political steps are, what its government will do and what its president decides, President of the Eurogroup Jeroen Dijsselbloem said Monday.

Attending a Eurogroup ministers’ meeting in Brussels, Dijsselbloem’s remarks came after Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi said he would resign after losing Sunday’s constitutional referendum.

he Swiss Bankers Association intends to enter into more agreements for the automatic exchange of tax information in order to keep pace with the most advanced countries in the sector.

Switzerland signed less than 40 agreements, while other countries have already arrived to sign 60, said last night in Geneva, the new president of the SBA Herbert Scheidt.

"There is a certain expectation and we must act quickly," but we must also see how the other states apply the standards and hope that the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) does not grant exemptions from the US financial centers. Other points to watch are security and data protection. If these conditions are met, you will go "in the right direction."

The President of European Commission, Jean Claude Juncker, sends a strong and clear message to the Italian government: enough with the flexibility required because "in the Stability Pact, which must be an agreement of flexibility, have already introduced several elements of flexibility fighting against who you know "and without which elements"this year Italy could have spent 19 billion less".