24 Marketing Trends found for Regulation / Mainland Europe

...  General Data Protection Regulation [GDPR] which will take effect in May 2018.

It’s fair to say that legislation has failed to keep pace with the speed at which technology and big data has advanced – particularly the ability of a company to gather, store and analyse data.

GDPR is specifically intended to enhance data protection and the right of EU citizens to privacy, giving them greater control over their personal data and its use by marketers.

The new Act represents a complete overhaul of the legal requirements that must be met by any company handling EU citizens’ personal data – and that also includes employees’ personal data.

The implications of GDPR are not to be sneezed at. Companies who fall foul of the regulation and are found to be misusing personal information face stiff fines of up to €20m or 4% of annual worldwide turnover, whichever is the greater of the two.

Read the original unabridged Forbes.com article.

All data sources are attributed with links to the original insight. The insight is then summarised and, where appropriate, enhanced with additional information.

... alleged tax-evasive excesses of American tech giants.

The EU's move is just the first shot in what is expected to be a busy autumn for European officials, who are pushing forward a raft of regulations and investigations aimed at altering the behavior of a cadre of US-based internet superpowers. The moves are supported by a host of players—from EU regulators in Brussels to a bevy of national authorities across the continent. They are targeting areas ranging from personal privacy to anti-competition issues.

In coming weeks, EU bodies plan to debate new telecom rules that could expand to cover services like WhatsApp, proposed legislation to push news aggregators to pay newspapers for showing snippets of content, and potential audiovisual rules that would force companies like Netflix Inc to finance European movies.

At the same time, authorities in capitals like Brussels, Paris and Berlin are pursuing investigations involving big companies like Google, Amazon and Facebook, concerning alleged tax avoidance, anticompetitive behavior and privacy concerns.

“It’s an avalanche coming,” says James Waterworth, vice president for Europe at the US-based Computer & Communications Industry Association, a lobby group that represents Amazon, Facebook, Google and Netflix. “There’s a political sense from some camps that these big, extraterritorial companies are getting away with things that need to be addressed.”

Read the original unabridged WSJ.com article.

All data sources are attributed with links to the original insight. The insight is then summarised and, where appropriate, enhanced with additional information.

... used their influence and power in the European market.

The outcome of the probe will determine whether these companies have to be regulated more tightly. 

The inquiry will focus on the transparency of search results and pricing policies, how online platforms use the data they obain, their relationships with other businesses and how they promote their own services to the potential disadvantage of competitors.

The investigation was announced as part of the EU's Digital Single Markets Strategy, unveiled earlier this week by Commission Vice President Andrus Ansip.

According to Mr Ansip, the strategy will "prepare Europe to reap the benefits of a digital future" and "give people and companies the online freedoms to profit fully from Europe's huge internal market."

The proposals were welcomed by European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker.

Read the original unabridged DeutscheWelle.com article. 

All data sources are attributed with links to the original insight. The insight is then summarised and, where appropriate, enhanced with additional information.

... favouring, to the detriment of rivals, of Google's own web properties in search results .

Another of Google's current practices under investigation by the EU is the delivery of instant product reviews, thereby diverting traffic away from rivals such as Yelp.

According to an article by Garrett Sloane in today's AdWeek.com, punitive action by the EU could force Google to change its search tactics. Additionally, the probe could also veer into other aspects of its business that impact upon advertising.

Back in 2013, when the US Federal Trade Commission conducted a full investigation into Google's alleged business practices, the commissioners declined to label Google a search monopoly whilst, nevertheless, continuing to maintain a close watch on the company's commercial behaviour. 

Said FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz: “The changes Google has agreed to make will ensure that consumers continue to reap the benefits of competition in the online marketplace and in the market for innovative wireless devices they enjoy.”

It appears that the EU is now adopting a similar stance.

Read the original unabridged AdWeek.com article.

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... intensify counter-terrorism efforts within the EU.

For example this might require the creation of an EU-wide system for storing all airline passenger data.

This would require a careful balancing act, as the EU Home Affairs Commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos notes: "On the one hand, the fundamental role that telecommunications records could play in the fight against terrorism and, on the other, the importance of adopting a cautious and measured approach".

According to the minutes of the Commission's meeting, Mr Avramopoulos intends to launch a consultation on the issue to determine whether a new law on data retention that respects privacy rights could be prepared over the coming year.

Following the proposed law's initial rejection by the European Court in 2014, Britain rushed through emergency legislation requiring UK-based telecoms firms to retain customer data for one year thereby prompting criticism from privacy campaigners.

Read the original unabridged Reuters.com article.

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... route traffic to or from certain sites faster than others.

Mr Ansip's move is timely, given that the bloc’s telecoms ministers will today discuss dropping the definition of the concept from upcoming new legislation.

In a speech delivered to the European Parliament in Strasbourg, commissioner Ansip declared: “The net neutrality concept has to be solid and should be clearly defined.”

“Our citizens want the best the internet can offer, they want an internet that is safe and accessible to everybody ... this is not a reality in Europe today.”

He continued: “One particular area to address will involve putting a stop to blocking of online consumers based on their location or residence.

“This will be about reforming and modernizing copyright rules and getting rid of unjustified curbs on transfer and access to digital assets."

Read the original unabridged WSJ.com article.

All data sources are attributed with links to the original insight. The insight is then summarised and, where appropriate, enhanced with additional information.

... furiously lobbying ahead of the vote in the hope of negotiating a lighter-touch regime that takes into account the interests of business. 

Argues Malte Lohan, director of public affairs at the WFA: "The European Parliament wants to make the toughest privacy law the world has ever seen. The EU is championing the rights of citizens, but it's not that straightforward - this could undermine the digital economy."

The first crucial issue is around the definition of personal data.

The Data Protection Regulation could include not only personal information like names, bank details and passport numbers, but all sorts of identifiers that marketers routinely use – and consider to be anonymous -- in the world of big data.

The second - and equally crucial - bill centres on the definition of consent.

It seeks explicit, prior, opt-in consent at every turn, asking consumers to negotiate a cookie wall before they can engage in such routine activities as checking the weather or viewing the news.

Posits Mr Lohan: "From a marketer point of view it's totally disproportionate."

The proposals were first outlined last year. Since then, Jan-Philipp Albrecht, a Member of the European Parliament who represents the German Green Party, has been working on refining the complex document.

Reports AdAge: "Mr Albrecht specializes in civil liberties and is tough on privacy issues."

Read the original unabridged AdAge.com article.

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 ... the deal would lock Europe into a single connective technology and has fewer benefits for the industry that will have to execute the strategy - the house builders.

Wall Street Journal blogger Anna Leach reports that the proposals draw on good practice from all over Europe, though the only country with mandatory broadband in new builds is Spain.

The new regulations will initially be submitted to the European Parliament, then to the twenty-seven individual member states — a process that normally takes around two years.

Telcos are predictably enthusiatic about the proposals. Says Tom Ruhan, chairman of the European Competitive Telecommunications Association: “The proposals to reduce the costs of deployment of fibre networks are very welcome.”

While a Vodafone spokesman said: “We welcome the Commission’s proposals which are pragmatic and urgently needed.”

The benefit to telcos is estimated by the EC to be €40-60 billion – the amount the Commission expects them to save as the new regulation reduces their civil engineering costs by 30%.

As a secondary benefit, European telcos will also efforlessly acquire hundreds of thousands of new customers.

Read the original unabridged WSJ.com article.

All data sources are attributed with links to the original insight. The insight is then summarised and, where appropriate, enhanced with additional information.

... unite the USA, the world's largest economy, with four other 'top ten' nations: Germany, the UK, France and Italy.

It would also help defuse the long running rift between the US and EU over the free flow of information across borders.

This is an increasingly important priority for US multinational mammoths like Google, Facebook and Amazon but could be hard for EU members France and Germany to accept because of privacy concerns.

The USA and European Union already enjoy the largest economic relationship in the world - albeit (according to Reuters) "one of the most complicated".

Acknowledging that negotiations will be tough, Representative Dave Camp, the Republican chairman of the House of Representatives Ways and Means Committee, welcomed President Obama's initiative. "A strong, comprehensive trade and investment agreement with the EU has the potential to create significant good-paying jobs for Americans," said Camp.

Mr Camp and the Senate Finance Committee leaders also said they planned to push this year for renewal of "trade promotion authority," a law that expired in 2007 that allowed the White House to submit trade deals to Congress for a straight yes-or-no vote without any amendments.

Such legislation has long been considered essential in persuading other countries to put their best offers on the table in trade talks with the United States.

Read the original unabridged Reuters article.

All data sources are attributed with links to the original insight. The insight is then summarised and, where appropriate, enhanced with additional information.

... EU citizens' data stored on US servers is not protected from access by a third party.

According to a report commissioned by the EU and carried out by the Centre for European Policy Studies, America's so-called Patriot Act gives US authorities the legal right to access foreign citizens' data stored within US borders.

Commenting on the report, European Parliament member Jan Philipp Albrecht insists that "this study is absolutely not about generating panic." 

According to Mr Albrecht, most users don't even know where their data is stored. 

"It's a simple fact that the US data protection law only applies to US citizens." "But there are special laws that target the surveillance of non-US citizens", he added.

"This happens when sensitive data from big companies, like Microsoft, Amazon, Twitter and Facebook, are made available to US authorities for investigations." 

Thilo Weichert, data protection commissioner for the northern German state of Schleswig-Holstein is also concerned at the power wielded by the US over EU citizens' data.

Mr Weichert has been following the implications of this development closely for more than two years, while pushing Facebook to allow its users to remain anonymous.

"The long arm of US law stretches as far as Europe," he said.

Read the original unabridged Deutche Welle article.

All data sources are attributed with links to the original insight. The insight is then summarised and, where appropriate, enhanced with additional information.