Europe needs better connectivity to compete globally, speakers said Wednesday at a discussion on the bloc's digital future. They cited former European Central Bank President Mario Draghi's Sept. 9 competitiveness report, which, among other things, urged the EU to "profoundly refocus its collective efforts on closing the innovation gap with the US and China, especially in advanced technologies."
Dugie Standeford
Dugie Standeford, European Correspondent, Communications Daily and Privacy Daily, is a former lawyer. She joined Warren Communications News in 2000 to report on internet policy and regulation. In 2003 she moved to the U.K. and since then has covered European telecommunications issues. She previously covered the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration and intellectual property law matters. She has a degree in psychology from Duke University and a law degree from the University of Tulsa College of Law.
Google abused its dominant position in several European online search markets and must pay a fine of about $2.7 billion (2.4 billion euros), the European Court of Justice (ECJ) ruled Tuesday. The decision is a "pivotal shift" in how digital companies are regulated, said EC Executive Vice President Margrethe Vestager at a briefing. It highlights the power of EU competition law, some observers said. Google termed the ruling disappointing. The European Commission determined the amount of the fine.
European Commission proposals for addressing the continent's digital infrastructure needs include some worrying aspects and have kept alive the long-running "fair share" dispute, some commenters said. While no plan forces content providers to pay telcos for use of their networks, most U.S. entities that responded to an EU white paper focused on that issue, telecom consultant Innocenzo Genna said in an email. The white paper, which prompted more than 350 responses (available at the link), also unnerved EU telecom and spectrum regulators.
A new European Parliament and European Commission could spark changes in digital and telecom policies. The make-up of the new EC, and who will lead its digital and competition agendas, will play a larger role than parliament members, stakeholders said. Key concerns include keeping the telecom sector competitive and making correct choices about digital policy.
AI regulation leaped forward Tuesday following EU governments' approval of the AI Act and Friday's adoption of the Council of Europe (CoE) framework convention on AI. The EU measure is "the first of its kind in the world and can set a global standard for AI regulation," the European Council said. The CoE document is the first international treaty "aimed at ensuring the respect of human rights, the rule of law and democracy legal standards in the use of artificial intelligence (AI) systems," the CoE said in an email.
Agreement on updated broadcast copyright protections eluded the World Intellectual Property Organization's Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights (SCCR) during its April 14-19 meeting in Geneva. "Some progress was made in negotiating solutions for a number of topics on which there are still different positions," WIPO Copyright Law Director Michele Woods said in an email. That should be reflected in the chair's next draft treaty, posted before the SCCR meets again, sometime in 2025, she added.
The EU's connectivity infrastructure isn't ready for the challenges of the digital society and needs revamping, the European Commission said in a white paper published Wednesday. Among other problems, it said, is that some electronic communications rules aren't working well, making completion of the digital single market difficult. The digital single market seeks to end national barriers to online transactions, building on the EU internal market. A long-running dispute over whether content providers should pay telcos a "fair share" to use their networks will apparently extend into the next EC, stakeholders and observers said.
Smaller online platforms operating in the EU must comply with the Digital Services Act (DSA) starting Feb. 17, the European Commission said during a virtual briefing. Smaller platforms are defined as those with fewer than 45 million users per month. National digital services coordinators (DSCs) will oversee compliance. Consumers cheered the expansion of the measure but urged proper enforcement.
With digital legislation proliferating, a key question is how different regulatory approaches can work together, speakers said during an Atlantic Council webcast Monday. They strongly agreed that regulation is necessary in privacy/data protection, digital competition and online content moderation, but the issue is how best to coordinate regulatory regimes, said Mark MacCarthy, Brookings Institution, Center for Technology Innovation nonresident senior fellow. Approaches include a single agency or voluntary cooperation among relevant authorities, as in the U.K., panelists said.
EU privacy law will change to address the challenges of AI and other technologies, European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS) Wojciech Wiewiorowski told Communications Daily in a wide-ranging interview. He is urging governments not to wait for global privacy solutions to emerge before regulating AI but to use existing tools.