Sanofi was the target of a raid by European Union antitrust regulators over suspected “anticompetitive disparagement,” in the latest crackdown on firms allegedly bad-mouthing their rivals: www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

New: ADNOC's nearly €12 billion takeover of Covestro is edging closer to European Union approval after talks with regulators paved the way for a package of commitments to be submitted as soon as next week, according to people familiar with the matter: www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

New: Google will meet the EU’s deadline to propose changes to its advertising technology business after a near-€3 billion fine — but won’t include the full breakup the EU and industry rivals have previously pushed for: www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

❗ Google fined almost €3 billion by the EU and ordered to stop favoring its own advertising technology services, in a move that risks further inflaming tensions with US President Donald Trump at a critical time in trade talks: www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

EU Commission ironing out the kinks in its Google Adtech decision: - Decision still due within days / weeks - Cease & desist order rather than a full-blown breakup - Expected to be smallest-ever EU Google antitrust fine But the 'kink' in question is a biggun'... www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

New: Italy has pushed back against EU criticism of Rome’s power to block or limit deals, which Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni recently used in UniCredit's now-failed attempt to acquire Banco BPM. w/ Alessandra Migliaccio & Sonia Sirletti www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

But...'should' the #Pfizergate saga end? The Commission has forensic IT experts under its employ who are often tasked with identifying 'deleted' records. For example...

A stone plaque marks the house where the radical French artist lived from 1815 until his death in 1825.

New: Broadcom’s $61 billion acquisition of VMware faces scrutiny from EU judges, after a cloud computing group contested the European Commission’s approval of one of the world’s biggest tech deals: www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

❗ NEW: The European Union is set to rebuke the Italian government for imposing harsh conditions on UniCredit’s takeover of Banco BPM, setting up a power struggle between Brussels and Rome over the fate of the deal: www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

The European Union’s crackdown on Apple, Meta Google and others isn’t a bargaining chip in trade negotiations with US President Donald Trump, according to Teresa Ribera, the EU’s competition chief: www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

Apple is poised to offer further App Store changes to appease European Union antitrust watchdogs who issued an ultimatum after doling out a €500 million ($580 million) fine: www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

❗️ TikTok gets €530 million EU privacy fine for illegally sending user data to China, with the Irish data protection regulator warning the firm didn’t do enough to keep information out of reach from Chinese state services: www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

❗ Malta’s “golden passports” program violates EU law, the bloc’s top court ruled in a case that could have transformed the EU into a haven for affluent foreigners at a time when US President Donald Trump wants to entice them across the Atlantic: www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

Apple and Meta were hit by EU fines totaling €700 million for violating the bloc's Digital Markets Act following warnings of harsh retaliation from US President Donald Trump. @gmvolpi.bsky.social @bloomberg.com www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

New: Procter & Gamble, the maker of Pampers diapers and Oral-B toothbrushes, was the unidentified target of an informal antitrust probe by European Union watchdogs, according to people familiar with the case.

BREAKING: France's President Macron urges companies to pause investments in the US after Trump's tariff onslaught

👉Everything you need to know about Trump’s trade/econ tsunami and how the world (and the markets) are reacting coming in an hour here- —-with Ros, Shawn, Carmen and me. www.bloomberg.com/sessions/202...

Atlantic Council - Join me as I discuss how Europe is shaping a resilient, fair, and sustainable future. From competition policy to the green transition, strong cooperation is key to tackling global challenges. 🎥 Tune in now! www.atlanticcouncil.org/event/europe...

❗ Scoop: TikTok owner ByteDance is set to be hit by a privacy fine of more than €500 million for illegally shipping European users’ data to China, adding to the growing global backlash over the video-sharing app:

The EU pressed Meta to create a separate version of Facebook Marketplace or offer users a way to access rival services in order to fix antitrust concerns, when it fined the firm €798 million last year. The decision was today made public in full:

UBS, Nomura, and UniCredit failed to overturn European Union antitrust fines totaling hundreds of millions of euros levied over allegations they colluded on government bond trading during the region’s sovereign debt crisis.

Scoop: Coca-Cola's business in Europe was one of the unidentified targets of European Union antitrust raids earlier this month, according to people familiar with the probe:

The EU's antitrust chief Teresa Ribera said the bloc won’t shy away from taking on Silicon Valley firms for fear of retaliation from the White House, telling a Bloomberg audience that the bloc won't "remain in a corner.”

Google was warned to step in line with the EU’s Big Tech rules or risk fines as part of a two-pronged escalation against Silicon Valley that risks inflaming tensions with US President Donald Trump. Apple was told it must loosen the shackles on its prized iPhone:

Meta is out of the track first in this year's Digital Markets Act #DMA compliance reports. But it's not all roses. One graph accuses the commission of going beyond the limits of the law in its investigation into Meta's “pay or consent” ad model.

Spotify’s Chief Executive Officer Daniel Ek has accused long-time adversary Apple of flouting the EU’s Big Tech rules and urged regulators not to cave in to White House threats of retaliation for fines. Exclusive interview with Bloomberg here:

As we edge closer to a key March milestone in the EU's Digital Markets Act, @teresaribera.ec.europa.eu remains intent on pursuing potentially incendiary cases into Apple and Meta -- a move that could provoke the ire of Trump and his trigger-happy tariff policy...

Newsletter | Brussels Edition Europe Fights for Relevance in Future of Ukraine www.bloomberg.com/news/newslet... via @bloomberg.com @samuelstolton.bsky.social

scoop from @samuelstolton.bsky.social. Microsoft under French antitrust scrutiny over its syndication of Bing to rival search companies www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

Microsoft is under investigation from the French antitrust authority amid concerns the US tech giant is degrading the quality of results when smaller rivals pay to use Bing technology in their own search-engine products @bloomberg.com: www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

Brussels' moves against Shein / Temu today seem to fall flat when compared to stateside, as the US Postal Service temporarily suspends inbound international packages from China and Hong Kong Posts: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-02-05/us-postal-service-suspends-inbound-parcels-from-ch…

Shein is set to be hit by a full-scale EU investigation under the bloc's consumer protection laws, with regulators probing whether the Chinese-founded platform is doing enough to combat illegal sales: www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

I sat down with Bloomberg’s @samuelstolton.bsky.social and Joshua Sisco to discuss what DeepSeek tells us on competition in the AI space. It’s good news that the LLM market is open, but let’s stay alert: we know that such markets are prone to tipping.

Google accused European Union antitrust watchdogs of blundering their way through a probe that culminated in a record €4.3 billion fine for allegedly abusing the market power of its Android mobile-phone ecosystem. More @bloomberg.com https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-01-28/google-rages-…

Spotted at the European Court of Auditors: the accounts of the Acropolis...

A young Marcel Marceau in the making…

"Answer the questions using just facial expressions and gestures" In 2007, President von der Leyen participated in a SZ-Magazin interview series called "Don't say anything now". No words, many topics. Questions in the captions. Photos by A.Steffen. More www.linkedin.com/posts/pablop...

It just took a matter of days. US President Donald Trump blasted EU regulators for targeting Apple, Google and Meta, describing their cases against American companies as “a form of taxation.” https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-01-23/trump-blasts-eu-regulators-for-targeting-apple-googl…

From Elon Musk to Mark Zuckerberg, these were the tech CEOs who attended Trump’s second inauguration bloom.bg/TrumpInaugur...

Executive actions can instantly change the course of American governance without any involvement from lawmakers in Congress. Some critics worry they can be overused, even abused, by the inhabitant of the White House

As Donald Trump prepares to be sworn in as president today, Europe’s leaders are bracing for the first batch of executive orders and their potential impact on the region...

TikTok started restoring service in the US on Sunday after President-elect Donald Trump announced he would give its owners another three months to find a buyer.

Hi there. Just created a list of European Journos worth following to understand Brussels, the EU and our continent. Missing someone? Reply to this post ;) bsky.app/profile/did:...

From the ‘Brussels Effect’ to the ‘Trump Effect.’

1/ This goes beyond a criticism of the EU Digital Services Act (on the grounds that the US First Amendment should apply worldwide). It argues the EU should not apply its *competition* law to US tech companies on the EU market either. A rejection of the very idea of the EU regulation of its market.

Well there you have it. In his Rogan Interview Zuck argues that the “billions of EU fines” against US companies “basically amount to tariffs”, and “you’d expect the USG to defend its companies” abroad moving forward. www.youtube.com/watch?v=7k1e...

Books you can find on Ursula von der Leyen's library: -Harry Potter -Stephen King's "Ur" -a book on Catharism heretical movement -Dürckheim's "Hara, the vital center of man" -"Die Rose des kleinen Prinzen" an Antoine de Saint-Exupéry's memoir by his wife -a Charlemagne biography

Answering a question on the alleged 150 EU staff members watching the Musk-Weidel livestream on X in just two words: Simply wrong. We have been very clear over the last few days: The EU has around 150 staff members working on all aspects of the enforcement of the Digital Services Act.