US to slap France with tariffs over ‘burdensome’ digital tax December 2, 2019 The US has vowed to slap tariffs of up to 100 per cent on $2.4bn (£1.6bn) of French goods, in retaliation over findings that a new digital services tax in the country would harm US tech companies. US trade representative (USTR) Robert Lighthizer said its investigation found that the French proposal was “inconsistent with prevailing [...]
Food delivery apps serve up extra £400m in restaurant revenue December 2, 2019 Food delivery apps such as Deliveroo, Just Eat and Uber Eats are serving up an extra £400m in revenue for European restaurants, according to a new report. Third-party platforms, that customers can use to order food from a variety of restaurants, have also increased profit across the Europe’s restaurant sector, with venues in London seeing [...]
EU Commission to open investigation into data usage by Google and Facebook December 2, 2019 The European Commission has begun a preliminary inquiry into Google and Facebook, and whether the two firm’s data usage complies with EU regulation. “The Commission has sent out questionnaires as part of a preliminary investigation into Google’s and Facebook’s data practices. These investigations concern the way data is gathered, processed, used and monetised, including for [...]
Tech giants set to spend £25bn on advertising this year December 2, 2019 Eight tech titans including Google, Facebook and Amazon dominate the global advertising industry and will spend £25bn on advertising this year, according to new research. Google parent company Alphabet, Facebook, Amazon, Ebay, Netflix, IAC, Uber and Booking.com spent over £20bn on advertising in 2018, and are set to account for five per cent of global [...]
Facebook launches new photo transfer tool to allow users to migrate between services more easily December 2, 2019 Facebook is set to launch a tool today that will finally enable its users to download all of their images from the platform at once. It is the latest step from the social media firm to ensure people can download and transfer all the data stored on Facebook. Read more: Google’s £2bn merger with Looker [...]
Google’s £2bn acquisition of Looker faces competition probe December 2, 2019 Google’s proposed acquisition of rival analytics firm Looker faces an investigation by the UK’s competition watchdog. Google agreed to buy Looker for $2.6bn (£2bn) in the summer as part of its efforts to expand the service’s cloud offerings. Read more: Price comparison rivals urge EU regulators to take action against Google However, the Competition and Markets [...]
How Thriva is putting its customers’ health to the test December 2, 2019 Standing in the middle of a street in Farringdon, it’s hard to know if I’m in the right place. After scanning the list of businesses by the side of the door, I finally spot the name Thriva, and enter a reception-less building where I’m meeting co-founder and chief executive Hamish Grierson. Thriva specialises in blood [...]
US seeks extradition of Autonomy founder Mike Lynch to face charges December 1, 2019 The US has formally requested that the UK extradites British tech billionaire Mike Lynch to stand trial on charges of securities fraud, wire fraud and conspiracy related to the sale of his company Autonomy to Hewlett Packard (HP). The US embassy submitted the request on 21 November for Lynch, who is currently embroiled in a [...]
Black Friday backlash: Amazon and GMB dispute protest numbers at UK warehouses November 29, 2019 Staff at Amazon warehouses are staging walkouts on Black Friday and Cyber Monday in a row over the “appalling” treatment of workers. The demonstrations are taking place today and on Monday at Amazon’s head office in Shoreditch, as well as seven other locations across the UK, the GMB union said, and involve “100, if not [...]
Natwest and RBS down: Outages hit online banking and mobile apps on Black Friday November 29, 2019 RBS and Natwest’s mobile apps and online banking services suffered intermittent problems today, with customers taking to Twitter to complain. “Our Online Banking, mobile app and Bankline are currently facing intermittent problems,” Natwest told customers on Twitter. “We’re working hard getting them back up and running smoothly for you. We’ll post an update when we [...]