European Commission

The European Commission released the results of its consultations regarding the future of the electronic communications sector and its infrastructure.

The European Commission adopted its adequacy decision for the EU-US Data Privacy Framework. The decision concludes that the US ensures an adequate level of protection – comparable to that of the EU– for personal data transferred from the EU to US companies under the new framework.

The European Commission has informed Google of its preliminary view that the company breached EU antitrust rules by distorting competition in the advertising technology industry (‘adtech'). The European Commission takes issue with Google favouring its own online display advertising technology services to the detriment of competing providers of advertising technology services, advertisers and online publishers. The European Commission preliminarily finds that, since at least 2014, Google abused its dominant positions by:

The European Commission has approved unconditionally, under the EU Merger Regulation, the proposed acquisition of Inmarsat by Viasat. The European  Commission concluded that the merger would not raise competition concerns in the European Economic Area (‘EEA') or any substantial part of it. The decision follows an in-depth investigation of the proposed acquisition of Inmarsat by Viasat. Both companies are providers of ‘two-way' satellite-based communication services.

The European Commission adopted the first designation decisions under the Digital Services Act (DSA), designating 17 Very Large Online Platforms (VLOPs) and 2 Very Large Online Search Engines (VLOSEs) that reach at least 45 million monthly active users. The countdown has started for them to fully comply with the special obligations that the Digital Services Act imposes on them (August, 25 2023).

The European Commission has launched an exploratory consultation to gather views on the potential developments of the connectivity sector and its infrastructure. The aim is to gather views on the changing technological and market landscape and how it may affect the sector for electronic communications. It also touches upon the types of infrastructure and amount of investments that Europe needs to lead the digital transformation in the coming years. Digital markets and in particular connectivity markets are facing transformative technological and market developments.