Welcome to EURACTIV’s Tech Brief, your weekly update on all things digital in the EU. You can subscribe to the newsletter here.
“Unauthorised data scraping is unacceptable and against our rules, and we will continue working with our peers on this industry challenge.”
-A Meta spokesperson
Story of the week: Meta was hit with the second-ever largest fine under the GDPR, a €265 million sanction that brings the total close to €1 billion. The decision regards Facebook and Instagram’s tools to search for friends and acquaintances in the platforms by importing contacts. For the Irish DPA, these practices consisted of illegal data scraping. Interestingly (or worrying), one of Meta’s lines of argument is that this is an industry practice. The probe started last year when the phone number and other personal data of half a billion Facebook users, including 86 million Europeans, was leaked online. Read more.
But Meta’s data protection troubles are far from over. The EDPB will discuss the Irish DPA’s draft decisions on Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp at the plenary session next Monday. The inquiries steam from Max Schrems’ complaints in 2018 that the platforms use a ‘consent bypass’, so they do not have a sound legal basis for processing EU personal data. Following the EDPB deliberation, the Irish authority will have one month to finalise the decisions. The financial statements of Meta’s European subsidiary earmarked €3 billion for data protection fines for 2022-2023.
Don’t miss: The mandate of ETSI’s controversial working group on IPv6+ will not be renewed following a heated board discussion on Thursday. The working group, initiated by Huawei but comprising over 100 members, was accused of legitimising a technology that would change the internet architecture in a more centralised way, with significant implications regarding privacy and censorship. The blocking of the renewal was coordinated by the European Commission, which managed to mobilise large EU countries, the UK and a good part of the industry against it. Read more.
Also this week:
- The EU Council reached a general approach to the Chips Act.
- A trilogue agreement was reached on the General Product Safety Regulation and e-Evidence Regulation.
- The scope of the political ads regulation is the subject of intense lobbying in the Parliament as the Council prepares for a general approach.
- The Commission will scrutinise Vivendi’s takeover of publisher Lagardère.
- The next Trade and Technology Council meeting is coming at a tense moment for EU-US relations.
- Experts warn that Europe is ill-equipped to face Chinese academic infiltrations.
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Artificial Intelligence
Military AI. The Hague is set to host a February summit on Responsible AI in the Military Domain, with registrations opening this week. The event, which will be hosted in collaboration with South Korea, will aim to increase the prioritisation of responsible military AI use in the political agenda and bring a wider array of stakeholders into the discussion. Read more.
EP discussions. This week, the technical work in the Parliament focused on the scope, general provisions, remedies, and obligations of high-risk system. In particular, lawmakers are working to build a consensus on letting national authorities adopt stronger safeguards for worker rights, excluding R&I from the scope, and putting internationally recognised tests for conformity assessment in place.
Industry concerns. BusinessEurope expressed its outstanding concerns on the AI Act’s general approach due to being adopted by the Council on Tuesday. The trade association asked for further alignment on the AI definition with the OECD, a more nuanced approach to high-risk classification and, of course, General Purpose AI. On GPAI, the industry organisation says that strict obligations would defeat the regulation’s risk-based approach and might lead to Europe being cut off from their usage.
Ethical recommendations. The role of recommendation systems in our everyday lives has greatly increased recently, but they pose potential risks when applied in contexts geared towards the public. In a new report, the Ada Lovelace Institute examines the ethics of using these tools within public service media organisations.
Competition
Not settled. Meta unsuccessfully contacted EU competition officials to settle their investigations into the company’s use of customer data and ad services. Brussels launched one inquiry earlier this year into whether the platform unfairly used advertisers’ data to compete with them in its online classified ads service and another into whether Facebook’s classified ads marketplace is tied to its network, giving it an advantage over rivals.
See you in court (again). Google will appeal the Commission’s Android decision from 2018 before the EU’s top court, the company confirmed on Thursday. The antitrust probe into allegedly unlawful restrictions the tech companies posed to device manufacturers and mobile network operators led to a hefty fine that the EU’s General Court only slightly trimmed to €4.125 billion.
Prepare to concede. Microsoft will likely offer remedies to EU competition authorities investigating its acquisition of gaming company Activision Blizzard. The tech giant faces scrutiny from Brussels and several other watchdogs over the deal but will reportedly table concessions ahead of the January deadline for the Commission to set out its competition concerns formally.
Revolving doors. Andrea Coscelli, who led the UK’s CMA between 2016 and 2022, will join Keystone Strategies as co-head of Europe with Cristina Caffarra.
Data & Privacy
Another ePR halt. Despite a recent attempt to push the ePrivacy Regulation out of the deadlock, it seems clear that the file will stall again in the foreseeable future. No political trilogue is planned under the Czech presidency, and little progress has been made at the technical level, with both sides accusing each other of stubbornness over the data retention issue.
No cross-border telemedicine. The Czech Presidency looks set to reach a common position on the first two chapters of the European Health Data Space proposal, with the Council poised to scrap the Commission’s proposed measures on cross-border telemedicine. These provisions – which have been entirely crossed out of the text, as seen by EURACTIV – have been opposed by member states due to the degree of revision that would be required to harmonise their vastly different national legal frameworks. Read more.
Digital Markets Act
ECON working group. If the IMCO working group was not enough, the ECON committee’s competition working group also put the DMA on the agenda this week, with DG COMP giving a presentation on what would have changed in recent competition cases if the Big Tech law was already in place. The group will meet again early next year but are unlikely to return to the DMA, given the list of other topics to be dealt with.
IMCO’s DMA discussions. This week, Andreas Schwab reported on the last DMA working group meeting, where Alberto Bacchiega (DG COMP) and Rita Wezenberg (DG CNECT) explained their common approach to the implementation and reassured MEPs that there is enough manpower and expertise to move ahead. The DMA rapporteur also mentioned that he was in touch with the JRC, which is expected to provide the latest findings for the next meeting on interoperability.
Digital Services Act
The bird, the spin and the gullible. Commissioner Breton found another way to hit (some) headlines this week by meeting with Elon Musk to warn him that the platform has “huge work ahead” in complying with the upcoming DSA’s content moderation rules. The Commissioner agreed to conduct a stress test at Twitter’s headquarters early next year. Once again, our editorial line focuses on policy development and discards stunts from attention-seeking politicians. When the PR dust settles, the hard truth remains that Musk’s messy takeover of Twitter has offered the flank to European regulators eager for easy wins against Big Tech.
VLOP or not VLOP. For those questioning whether Twitter will be classified as a very large online platform under the DSA when Twitter still had people in Brussels, EURACTIV was told that their work on the DSA always assumed the platform would fall under the scope of the stricter obligations. This does not mean the new management will try to slip out of the VLOP classification. After all, the Commission refused to guide how active users should be measured, and it might as well pay the cost for that.
Disinformation
Anti-disinfo network. The Commission announced on Thursday the creation of six new anti-disinformation hubs that will become part of the European Digital Media Observatory (EDMO), a platform gathering researchers, fact-checkers and other stakeholders. The new hubs will start running at the beginning of next year and, together with the eight existing ones, will complete the coverage of the EU27.
e-Commerce
GPSR deal. The EU’s General Product Safety Regulation was agreed upon on Tuesday, introducing due diligence obligations for manufacturers, vendors and online marketplaces in the EU. The regulation, which updates a 2001 directive on EU product safety rules, builds on the DSA and is due to come into force in 2024. EURACTIV breaks down the initiative’s implications for businesses, consumers, online marketplaces and market surveillance authorities. Read more.
Gig economy
Strike two. It took some more finetuning to please the ambassadors: the Czech Presidency was asked last week to share another draft compromise over the platform workers’ directive in the hope of securing a majority in COREPER on Wednesday. Tweaks were made mainly to the derogations of the legal presumption of employment, and the extent to which social partners can sway from the Directive’s provisions in a new version of the text EURACTIV saw on Monday. The text again did not receive enough support from EU ambassadors, and a general approach on 8 December seems ever less likely.
Meanwhile, in the EP. A deal seems to be approached in the EMPL committee. It’s only political yet, and legal text remains to be seen. The general structure of the deal would stay the same: no criteria to motivate the legal presumption, but a long list of criteria platforms ought to meet to rebut the presumption. But “we’ve added many more references to national competence and national law”, an EP official told EURACTIV – to tame centre-right and liberals’ most pressing concerns. Renew Europe’s shadow rapporteur Lucia Duris Nicholsonova has agreed to the deal but needs final support from her group. “Everyone had to give up a lot,” another official said.
Industrial strategy
Chips Act general approach. A common position on the Chips Act was reached during the Telecom Council meeting held this week, paving the way for interinstitutional negotiations to begin. Diplomats agreed on Thursday to approve the text, which, under the Czech Presidency, has introduced several fundamental changes to the Commission’s original proposal in areas such as mega fabs, funding and crisis management. For an overview, see here.
Is it worth it? The costs of EU Strategic Autonomy are high and unevenly distributed, with larger countries reaping more significant rewards, a study commissioned by the European Centre for Political Economy has found. Factoring in both long- and short-term costs, researchers concluded that the EU’s size is insufficient to offset the costs of the kind of inward orientation required for the pursuit of such a scheme and argue that public objectives can instead be worked towards without this inwards turn.
Sovereign cloud by AWS. Amazon Web Services has committed to offering expanded sovereignty controls as part of its Digital Sovereignty Pledge, made this week. The expansion, the company says, will allow for greater control over the location of personal data, verifiable control over data access, expansive encryption capabilities, and bolstered cloud resilience.
Musk wants your brain. According to Elon Musk, human clinical trials on Neuralink’s wireless brain chips could begin in six months. The chip, which Neuralink says could restore vision and motor function to those without them, has been conducting tests on animals for some years and has repeatedly missed deadlines for government approval to begin trials. Speaking this week, Musk theorised “exponential” progress following the “agonisingly slow” stage of human testing. Read more.
Law enforcement
e-Evidence deal. An inter-institutional political agreement has been reached on the e-Evidence regulation, paving the way for law enforcement agencies to directly request electronic evidence from service providers based in other EU countries. The final agreement was uneasy on topics like the residence criterion, grounds for refusal and suspensive effect, and the endorsement by the member states is not a given. While the final text will still be subject to fine-tuning at the technical level, one to watch will be whether the authorities of the enforcing EU country will be obliged to raise the grounds for refusing an order or not. Read more.
Media
Vivendi’s merger under scrutiny. The Commission has launched an in-depth antitrust investigation into a media sector merger in France over its potential implications for the French-language book and magazine sectors. The deal would see media group Vivendi, owned by controversial billionaire Vincent Bolloré who has been described as a “threat” to press and media freedom for his alleged harassment of journalists, acquire Lagardère, making it the most significant player in the French-language book publishing market. Read more.
Mind our independence. The European Regulators Group for Audio-visual Media Services (ERGA) has released their position paper on the MFA, which is set to replace the body with a new regulator, the European Board for Media Services, comprised of national media regulators. ERGA raised concerns about the Board’s institutional design and calls, particularly for efforts to ensure its independence.
MFA in review. Economic sustainability, enforcement and geopolitical implications are all areas of the Media Freedom Act seen as needing attention, according to a soon-to-be-published study by think-tank network PromethEUs. Stefano da Empoli, one of the report’s authors, spoke to EURACTIV this week, to explain the results and discuss the issues facing the media sector that the regulation could help to address. Read more.
IMCO opinion rapporteur. EPP MEP Geffroy Didier, a French lawmaker close to the publishers, was this week appointed IMCO rapporteur for the Media Freedom Act.
Platforms
Shaky scope. Big tech companies have been lobbying lawmakers to narrow the scope of the political advertising regulation, which aims to protect online freedom of expression. The organisations have aligned themselves with civil society organisations, but both these groups and the MEPs supporting them insist that they are pursuing different goals, clarifying that where they are pushing for the regulation to hinge on service provision, the tech companies are aiming for it to instead rest on remuneration. Read more.
LIBE’s opinion report. The LIBE committee this week adopted its opinion on the political advertising regulation. Amongst the proposals included were much greater detail in areas such as trusted flaggers, provisions that would allow the use of personal data for targeting only when subjects had expressly provided it, and prohibitions on using minors’ data for this purpose. Rapporteur Anna Donáth said the report heralded a move towards stricter limits on targeted advertising and the introduction of an effective enforcement mechanism to guarantee the universal regulation’s application.
Political ads COREPER approval. The Czech presidency’s version of the regulation on political advertising was approved in COREPER II on Thursday, with only minor changes before a general approach is formally adopted at the General Affairs Council on 13 December. The most difficult areas to reach an agreement were those linked to targeting and amplification. A compromise was reached by splitting the original article in two and providing different measures on consent for processing special categories of personal data. The text also includes a separate consent for sensitive personal data for political ads.
Research & Innovation
Espionage Made in China. China is providing funding to EU scientists in exchange for research outcomes, experts have warned, cautioning that this could make it easy for Chinese authorities to obtain sensitive data and technologies which could have military applications. A new study by the Association for International Affairs has also warned that the EU lacks a coherent approach to protecting science and research from potential Chinese espionage. Read more.
COMPET Council. The Competitiveness Council on research and space discussed today the draft conclusions on Research Infrastructures focused on pan-European research networks, set for approval at Friday’s meeting. R&I Commissioner Mariya Gabriel, however, noted that there was still work to be done on improving synergies and cohesion in the field, saying, “we have a lot of riches in our research system, but it’s still a fragmented one.”
Horizon Canada. This week, the Commission and Canadian government launched formal negotiations for Canada to join Horizon Europe. This position would allow Canadian researchers to participate in the programme on equal footing with European counterparts. The two sides aim to reach an agreement by the spring, to enact a formal association next year.
Telecom
Don’t mind the noise. There are plenty of contradicting whispers, tweets and gossip around the timing of the proposal of the sender-pays (aka fair share). To avoid confusion, EURACTIV understands that revision of the Broadband Cost Reduction Directive, rebranded Connectivity Infrastructure Act, will be published before Christmas, whereas the public consultation on sender pays will open in January.
Question time. MEP Tiemo Wölken has formally asked the Commission how the sender-pays principle could be done without jeopardising net neutrality. In written questions this week, the lawmaker pointedly enquired whether the EU executive would disregard warnings from stakeholders about the negative ramifications of a decision, including higher consumer prices.
RSPP consultation. A call for evidence on the Commission’s new radio spectrum policy programme was opened this week. The RSPP will lead to more efficient radio spectrum management to foster the twin traditions and strategic autonomy. In practice, the fracture points are well known. Member states will try to retain their national competencies. The telcos complain about the expensive and time-limited license system and call for the US model of tradable licenses. Then there is a free for all kinds of niche interests like emergency or mobility services, TVs, and satellite scrambling for spectrum space. The policy is expected to drop in the year’s second half, meaning it will unlikely make the cut before the end of the mandate.
Transatlantic ties
EU-US trade tensions. Monday’s TTC meeting could hardly come at a worse moment regarding EU-US relations. Several EU countries asked for the joint conclusions to better reflect the European concerns on the US Inflation Reduction Act. A new draft of the conclusions was circulated in the Council on Thursday with some cosmetic changes mentioning vague mutual support on the green transition. Other changes regard the removal of the reference to the ‘Tech for Good’ initiative and the addition of a paragraph on health data for research, committing to cross-border transfers to facilitate cooperation in this area.
La chaise vide. Europeans are far from united in their response to US protectionist policies, and the Commission is no exception. The more pragmatist front led by Vestager recognises that Europe does not have the financial capacity to outspend Washington in a trade war. On the other side, Breton embodies those pushing for a more assertive confrontation with the United States and cancelled his participation in the TTC meeting right after Macron’s visit to the White House, somewhat replicating the Gaullist politique de la chaise vide.
Who did you call a protectionist? Meanwhile, the US administration seems ready to push back on the protectionist argument pointing to Europe’s digital sovereignty agenda, notably regarding the controversial cybersecurity cloud certification scheme (EUCS). ENISA presented the scheme to national representatives last week. Still, no draft was circulated to avoid a political discussion either at the TTC or in the Telecom Council on Tuesday. A plan that the US hyperscalers are trying to wreak.
Meanwhile, in Asia. This week, a new digital partnership between the EU and the Republic of Korea was launched. The project, the Commission says, will initiate joint work in various areas, including semiconductors, AI, quantum computing and cybersecurity, centring shared democratic values.
What else we’re reading this week:
Great Wall of porn obscures China protest news on Twitter (Tech Crunch)
Zuckerberg says Apple’s policies not “sustainable” (Axios)
Call for new institute modelled on CERN to research and interpret the online world (Science Business)
Theo Bourgery-Gonse contributed to the reporting.
[Edited by Alice Taylor]