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@europetech
France Plans to ban mobile phones in schools
The French government is to ban students from using mobile phones in the country’s primary, junior and middle schools.
Children will be allowed to bring their phones to school, but not allowed to get them out at any time until they leave, even during breaks.
Absurdity of VCs, Deliveroo food delivery service raise additional 385 million dollars.
The VCs are so absurd, and shallow, that they are now pumping $385 million in a food delivery service. That’s what you get when you have bankers with a short vision in charge of funding technology. The lead investors in the latest round are US fund giants Fidelity and T Rowe Price, which backed companies like Facebook and Snap before they went public. Previous investors DST Global, General Catalyst, Index Ventures, and Accel Partners are also making follow-on investments, increasing their positions in the company. Deliveroo is currently the UK’s most valuable tech companies, it operates across 12 countries, including Australia, Belgium, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Italy, Ireland, Netherlands, Singapore, Spain, United Arab Emirates, and the United Kingdom.
You Can no longer Uber in London
Transport for London announced that Uber would not be issued a private-hire operator's licence after its current one ends 30 September. Adding that the company was not "fit and proper" to hold a licence, due to it’s approach to reporting serious driver offenses, approach to driver medical and safety checks, and the use of its secret "Greyball" software to dodge transport officials, all contributed to its decision.
The firm has 21 days to appeal the decision and can continue operating in London until that process is exhausted.
StationF the World's biggest startup campus launches in Paris France.
The World's biggest startup campus have been launched in Paris, France. The telecom investor Xavier Niel, have been on a mission to change the startup ecosystem in France, by first launching a tech VC firm “Kima ventures“ then a programming school “42“, now the vision is complemented with a startup campus that could connect the VC, the school and the ecosystem and may usher a European silicon valley.
Station F is directed by Roxanne Varza, a silicon valley and tech veteran.
The European Commission fines Facebook 110 million Euros for misleading in WhatsApp takeover
The EU commission fined facebook, because they are linking facebook accounts with whatsapp accounts while pretending not to be able to do that. Now you know why Facebook asked for your phone number.
The European Commission has fined Facebook €110 million for providing incorrect or misleading information during the Commission's 2014 investigation under the EU Merger Regulation of Facebook's acquisition of WhatsApp.
Commissioner Margrethe Vestager, in charge of competition policy, said: "Today's decision sends a clear signal to companies that they must comply with all aspects of EU merger rules, including the obligation to provide correct information. And it imposes a proportionate and deterrent fine on Facebook. The Commission must be able to take decisions about mergers' effects on competition in full knowledge of accurate facts."
The EU Merger Regulation obliges companies in a merger investigation to provide correct information that is not misleading as this is essential for the Commission to review mergers and takeovers in a timely and effective manner. This obligation applies, regardless of whether the information has an impact on the ultimate outcome of the merger assessment.
When Facebook notified the acquisition of WhatsApp in 2014, it informed the Commission that it would be unable to establish reliable automated matching between Facebook users' accounts and WhatsApp users' accounts. It stated this both in the notification form and in a reply to a request of information from the Commission. However, in August 2016, WhatsApp announced updates to its terms of service and privacy policy, including the possibility of linking WhatsApp users' phone numbers with Facebook users' identities.
On 20 December 2016, the Commission addressed a Statement of Objections to Facebook detailing its concerns.
The Commission has found that, contrary to Facebook's statements in the 2014 merger review process, the technical possibility of automatically matching Facebook and WhatsApp users' identities already existed in 2014, and that Facebook staff were aware of such a possibility.
source http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_IP-17-1369_en.htm
The Europe Parliament voted in favor of WiFi4EU, Free WiFi in public spaces
The EU parliament approved the WiFi4EU scheme which will support the installation of state-of-the-art Wi-Fi equipment in the centers of public spaces.
The WiFi4EU scheme will be open to entities with a public mission – typically local municipalities, libraries, health centers, etc. It will fund the equipment and installation costs (internet access points), while the local entity will pay for the connectivity (internet subscription) and maintenance in good order of the equipment.
simple explainer video below explains the key points:
Germany will fine Twitter, Facebook EUR 50M if they lag in content moderation
Germany has a proposition of fines on social networking sites that fail to swiftly remove hate speech and fake news.
The fines proposed are up to 50 million euros ($53 million) .
Germany have previously considered fining Facebook half a million EUR for fake news.
more details: https://www.forbes.com/sites/emmawoollacott/2017/03/14/germany-proposes-massive-fines-for-social-media-hate-posts/
European GPS : Galileo, is UP and running!
17-years after the American GPS system, Galileo, the European version is finally here.
The Galileo network will offer a free service with an accuracy of one metre, and can pinpoint locations down to a few centimetres for paying customers. The service has 18 satellites in orbit, with 30 projected by 2020 at the latest.
more about this story:
http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Navigation/Galileo_begins_serving_the_globe
http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_IP-16-4366_en.htm
Germany will fine facebook for fake news.
The German government is planning to vote a law this coming year that would require Facebook other social media companies to pay a fine up to €500,000 for "publishing" fake news.
"Market dominating platforms like Facebook will be legally required to build a legal protection office in Germany that is available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year," parliamentary chair of the Social Democratic Party Thomas Oppermann told Der Spiegel,
Google response to EU antitrust with an Explainer Video
Google’s SVP and general counsel, Kent Walker, in a blog post rebuts the EU Android antitrust charges, arguing the Android OS has created a thriving and competitive mobile app ecosystem.
“The response we filed today shows how the Android ecosystem carefully balances the interests of users, developers, hardware makers, and mobile network operators. Android hasn’t hurt competition, it’s expanded it,”
“To ignore competition with Apple is to miss the defining feature of today’s competitive smartphone landscape,”
“The Commission’s proposal risks making fragmentation worse, hurting the Android platform and mobile phone competition,”
in UK , court rules Uber drivers should be treated as employees
A ruling by a London employment tribunal gave the uber drivers the right to be treated like employees, and thus be entitled to holiday pay, paid rest breaks and the national minimum wage.
The GMB union, which brought the case, described the decision as a "monumental victory" for some 40,000 drivers in England and Wales.
Uber , which have always classified drivers as self employed, said it would appeal against the ruling that it had acted unlawfully.
Other services like Deliveroo will be affected as well. It is worth noting that a French court fined Uber 800,000 euros ($900,000) this year, after accusing the company of running an illegal taxi service with non-professional drivers, and also fined two of uber executives.
in Paris Flying taxis, next spring
In collaboration with the city administration, a flee of on-river flying taxis will be tested next spring.
The “sea bubbles“ will fly on the Seine river in Paris, using their wings to hoover like a hovercraft. They will use renewable energy, solar & water hydro-power, and they are expected to operate autonomously.
The testing will take place this spring, on 5 prototypes.
Code Week Starts, coding events everywhere in Europe !
The Pan European coding initiative, code week is at it again, starting tomorrow hundreds of coding events will take place all around Europe and in some other countries as well.
Last year, more than 7600 events were organized in 46 countries, and more than 570000 people participated in these events.
The Polish Online Auction website, Allegro, sold for $3.3 billion
Naspers the South African media and internet holding company, which basically is the biggest player in the Polish Online Auction and classified listings, due to it’s ownership of Allegro.pl and OLX.pl have decided to sell Allegro.
In Poland Amazon and ebay are almost not existent, Allegro dominate the Online Auction in the country. Untill recently tablica dominated the classified ads, until tablica was bought by OLX.pl.
Naspers sold Allegro to a consortium of private equity firms that includes Cinven, Permira and Mid Europa for $3.253 billion.
Worth noting, Allegro is Naspers' largest e-commerce investment, and has been since its acquisition in 2008.
A French platform for hailing taxis, leTaxi, government solution to fight Uber.
The French transportation department launched Le.Taxi, a platform that allows people to electronically hail traditional French cabs via the Internet, very similar to the way people use Uber. The platform uses geolocation technology to determine the whereabouts of taxis, and lets people select the nearest ride.
LeTaxi, is not a single app though, it is a collection of differents apps by different taxi companies.
Technically any of the apps can get the users to hail the nearest app, and will also allow to leave a review. What is missing is uniting these apps under one roof!
Food delivery, Takeaway IPO ed at 1billion EUR valuation
Amsterdam-based food delivery company Takeaway.com IPO ed at a share price of €23, valuing the company at around €850 million and a market cap of around € 1 billion.
Other European rivals, like Just-Eat which ipoed in London in 2014 is currently valued at $4.6 billion, other big players on the european market, Deliver Hero, Deliveroo, and newly Uber Eats.
Related : Uber, Amazon and Google enter the food delivery business
EU helping refugees in turkey with direct money transfers to cards.
The EU came up with a solution to decrease the pressure on it’s southern border, all while helping refugees get the money for essentials in a fast and transparent way. The program basically provide refugee families in Turkey with an electronic card allowing them to withdraw a certain amount of cash every month, thus allowing these families to have access to basic needs and maybe dettering many from taking a journey to Europe.
The Emergency Social Safety Net (ESSN), financed with €348 million by the EU and its Member States under the 'Facility for Refugees in Turkey', is the first social assistance scheme of its kind, marrying international humanitarian know-how and government services to reach out to one million refugees across Turkey.
more details