A leaked copy of the EU Commission’s Digital Single Market Strategy, obtained by Politico, suggests that online platforms, including search engines, social media, ecommerce, app stores, price comparison sites, along with sharing economy players, will face much greater scrutiny and potentially “top-down” regulation in the coming years.
The document particularly refers to the fees charged by these platforms to commercial partners and consumer awareness of things like Google’s paid search, plus the over-the-top VoIP providers, services like Skype and WhatsApp, which look set to be regulated in order to level the playing field with traditional telcos.
Read more: EU’s Digital Single Market Strategy leak: sharing economy, OTT services and VAT
The European Union is setting its sights on online commerce, supposedly in a bid to help remove barriers to cross-border trade across the EU - just two months after introducing VAT rules that have widely discouraged small traders from selling outside their home geographies.
Competition commissioner Margrethe Vestager said that the investigation into online commerce, announced this week, would examine the barriers to the growth of e-commerce across the EU, and could lead to action against companies that deliberately block online sales, according to newswire Reuters.
Read more: EU to investigate barriers to e-commerce in Europe
In February 2015, the European Commission's Digital Economy and Society Index (DESI) ranked Denmark, Sweden and Finland at first, second and fourth place respectively in a list of the European Union's most digital nations, based on 2013 and 2014 data.
Only the Netherlands could foil a Nordic 1, 2, 3 atop the list – and, as Norway and Iceland are not in the European Union (EU), they didn't feature.
Read more: Nordic nations dominate Europe's digital league table
The European Commission has highlighted the three main areas of focus in its digital single market strategy, including improving EU digital networks and creating a European digital economy.
Barriers such as geo-blocking, lack of cross-border delivery initiatives and other technical issues currently prevent many citizens from using cross-border digital services, such as online shopping or sharing digital goods.
Read more: EU single digital market will boost networks and economic growth
Much has been written and spoken about smart cities, but as yet there are few real-world deployments in action.
This week at CeBIT, two European cities have taken the plunge to invest in smart city technologies, in an effort to provide better services, improving security and communication – all while saving money.
The City of Tilburg in the Netherlands signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Huawei for the development and deployment of a smart city.