European Commissioners in charge of developing the Digital Single Market have been discussing some of their plans this week, including taxing U.S. tech companies like Google.
Guenther Oettinger, the commissioner for digital economy and society, fears that Europe is currently the “loser” in the ICT field. He touted investment and research as a way to catch up, but did not rule out also taxing U.S. technology companies currently dominating services in Europe.
“Taxing is an option, but not the decided solution,” Oettinger told The Wall Street Journal. Google is a likely target of such a tax, since Europe – and Oettinger’s home country of Germany in particular – have been engaged in a long-standing battle with the search giant over copyright and privacy violations.
Oettinger is working with Andrus Ansip, the commissioner in charge of the Digital Single Market, and in a separate interview with Euroactiv, Ansip, the former prime minister of Estonia, also spoke about copyright as a key issue but as just one among several including data protection – another point of contention between Europe and the U.S. in the wake of the Edward Snowden revelations of NSA spying and data collection activities.
“Everyone needs to be at ease about problem-free accessing of services across borders, and as much at ease about doing this online as they are offline. In policy terms, this means moving further on consumer rights, data protection and cyber-security: a very wide range of cross-cutting issues,” Ansip said.
The commissioner expects the Digital Single Market strategy to be ready in May.
More telecom news from Europe, the Middle East and Africa:
• Safaricom launches LTE-Advanced network in Kenya. Partnering with Nokia Networks, Safaricom modernized and expanded its 2G and 3G network and launched the first LTE-A network in Kenya. Safaricom, which is partially owned by U.K.-based Vodafone, is Kenya’s largest operator.
• Hutchison is reportedly in talks to acquire O2. Hong Kong’s Hutchison Whampoa appears to be making good on its promise of more European acquisitions. The Sunday Times reported that Hutchison, which owns mobile operator Three, is discussing buying O2 in the U.K. from Telefónica for as much as $13.6 billion.
• Deutsche Telecom is investing $27.2 billion in its German network. CEO Timotheus Hoettges said the company is planning to spend $27.2 billion over the next five years on its network in its home market. The funds will go toward its landline and mobile networks, small cells and the digitization of infrastructure. Deutsche Telekom is facing increasing competition in Germany from rivals Vodafone and Telefónica, which acquired operator E-Plus in Germany from KPN last year.
• EE, Virgin, Vodafone sign “Open Internet Code,” backing net neutrality. By supporting the open Internet, the U.K. companies agree not to use management practices – often viewed as traffic throttling – that target or degrade a rival’s services. Other signers of the code include BT, BSkyB, O2 and Three.
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