Landmark EU tech rules holding back innovation, Google says
The U.S. tech giant will also urge regulators to give more detailed guidance to help it comply with the rules, and ask its critics to provide evidence of costs and benefits to prove their case.
Google is under pressure to address charges under the EU's Digital Markets Act that it favours its own services such as Google Shopping, Google Hotels and Google Flights over rivals. The charges may result in fines of as much as 10% of its global annual revenue.
Earlier this month, Google proposed more changes to its search results to better showcase rival products, but critics say these still do not ensure a level playing field.
"We remain genuinely concerned about real world consequences of the DMA, which are leading to worse online products and experiences for Europeans," Google's lawyer Clare Kelly will tell a workshop organised by the European Commission to give Google critics the opportunity to seek clarifications.
She will say changes implemented by Google to date after discussions with the Commission and its critics have resulted in European users paying more for travel tickets as they cannot directly access airline sites, according to a copy of her speech seen by Reuters.
Kelly will also say European airlines, hotels and restaurants have reported up to a 30% loss in direct booking traffic, while users have complained about clunky workarounds.
Google's other lawyer, Oliver Bethell, will ask regulators to spell out in detail what the company needs to do, and critics to come up with hard evidence.
"If we can understand precisely what compliance looks like, not just in theory, but taking account of on the ground experience, we can launch compliant services quickly and confidently across the EEA," he will say.
The EEA is the 27 EU countries, Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway.
"We need help identifying the areas where we should focus. That means bringing real evidence of costs and benefits that we can take account of with the Commission," Bethell said.
The day-long workshop starts at 0700 GMT.
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Telegraph
37 minutes ago
- Telegraph
The M&S ‘Scattered Spider' hackers are coming for your holidays
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The issue is not isolated to North America. On Monday June 30, Qantas suffered a major cyber attack, reportedly compromising the personal data of up to six million customers. A spokesperson for the UK Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) told The Telegraph: 'We are aware of rumoured activity. We are in contact with the National Cyber Security Centre and have warned our industry contacts about this group and the techniques they use.' One of the things that the CAA would have told their industry contacts is that when Scattered Spider targets an industry, the attack tends to be sustained and relentless for a period. If aviation is next in line, how could a hack play out, and what can you do to protect your holiday? Worrying potential There are a few different avenues for the hackers. One would be to target airlines' corporate infrastructure. In 2018, 380,000 British Airways customers had their credit card details stolen in a major data breach. 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Earlier this year, several aircraft coming into land at Ronald Reagan National Airport in Washington DC received false mid-air collision warnings, even though there were no other planes in the area. The pilots receiving the alerts disconnected autopilot and climbed rapidly. It is unknown whether this was caused by the deliberate, malicious 'spoofing' of airline systems, or if it was due to an error or another cause. Regardless, it is an example of how hackers could potentially enter the cockpit in the future, putting pilots into compromised scenarios. This week's Qantas data breach suggests hackers are already targeting the databases of airlines. But given the nature of Scattered Spider's previous high-profile, high-impact attacks, scenarios two or three should not be ruled out. 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Daily Mail
39 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
Jaguar in crisis after woke rebrand that stunned fans crashes sales
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The Independent
42 minutes ago
- The Independent
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He said pandemic contingency plans, prepared by local authorities for adult social care, had been 'as good as useless' at the time, and described a 'hodge podge of accountability' between local councils and government departments. He claimed the situation has 'got worse not better' for care homes in the event of another pandemic hitting, and suggested a series of recommendations, including having isolation facilities in care homes and ensuring a stockpile of personal protective equipment (PPE). Hearings for module six of the inquiry, focused on the effect the pandemic had on both the publicly and privately funded adult social care sector across the UK, are expected to run until the end of July.
