Uber went all in to break the French taxi sector, all the while dodging taxes and keeping drivers in high levels of precarity, Mark MacGann, the Uber Files whistleblower, told EURACTIV France in an exclusive interview.
The EU Commission's recent proposal on short-term rentals (STRs), which hones in on transparency measures and streamlines registration processes, is a step in the right direction as comprehensive data is essential to better regulate the sector, Cláudia Monteiro de Aguiar MEP told EURACTIV.
Ministers failed to reach a deal last week over the platform workers’ directive, as concerns over the triggering of the legal presumption of employment and its derogations remain, Commissioner Nicolas Schmit told EURACTIV in an interview.
How can online platforms that seek to maximise profits be made compatible with or even foster consumer protection, democratic processes, and worker rights? For European lawmaker Tiemo Wölken, the short answer is regulation.
Following a difficult year that brought a new CEO at the helm, Uber is serious about listening to its drivers and policymakers, Pierre Dimitri Gore-Coty told EURACTIV. Now the company aims at becoming a multimodal mobility platform, integrating bike sharing services or public transports.
American tech giants like Google and Uber are facing backlash from regulators across Europe---and increasingly from city governments.
EU regulators have forced tech giants to comply with the bloc's strict data protection rules. But when Isabelle Falque-Pierrotin took over as top EU privacy watchdog in 2014, she said the mostly American companies were ignorant about Europe’s strict standards and thought "the world is uniform".
EU lawmakers should create a new, centralised data protection authority to oversee investigations of privacy breaches that affect more than member state in the bloc, Giovanni Buttarelli, the EU’s top privacy watchdog, said in an interview.
The car sector is keeping EU Commissioner Elżbieta Bieńkowska busy. In an exclusive interview with EURACTIV, the Polish official spoke frankly about carmaker responsibility following the Dieselgate scandal, how to deal with Uber and how Brussels-Warsaw relations might not improve.
Enterprises like Uber and Airbnb “basically suck value out of the local economy” by trying to work around social laws and other regulations, says Michel Bauwens. But simply banning them would be short-sighted, he told EURACTIV.com.
The insurance industry is adjusting its offers on health, cars, the sharing economy and other services because of the growing amount of personal data becoming available.
The EU should have just two sets of rules for telecoms: one for infrastructure, and one for services, argue Alexandre de Streel and Bruno Liebhaberg. When similar services are on offer, the same rules should apply regardless of the technology, they contend.
Don Tapscott, whose books have been used by Barack Obama, gave a TED-type inspirational speech to senior members of the in-house think tanks of the EU institutions on Thursday (12 November). In his view, either we share wealth, or it will be the end of capitalism.
