Inline Insights

 In the latest sign of ramping up political interest in immersive technologies, the House of Common's Digital Culture Media and Sport (DCMS) Select Committee has announced an inquiry dedicated to finding out more about the sector, and determining possible avenues for future regulation.

This week's top 3 stories: New UK regulations for taxis, private hire and ride hailing, new restrictions on app-based ride hailing in Poland, and over 8,000 electric scooters are coming to the streets of Madrid.

This week's top 3 stories: UK review of regulation of micromobility "within weeks", another week/another regulation for ride hailing in Spain, and a crackdown on the gig economy is promised in Geneva. 

The coming year is set to be an important period for online platforms in Europe. Having previously paid little regard to online platforms, EU policymakers are now laying the foundations for a more definitive approach to regulating this growing sector of the economy.

After all the talk about GDPR implementation last year, we are starting to come to the crunch point where companies' data practices are being tested by the regulators. The results could create continued regulatory headaches for data-intensive businesses.

The many and varied ways in which drones have already been deployed to aid the public sector are often overlooked. Some of the most significant examples include emergency services, environmental monitoring and protection, and infrastructure maintenance and inspection. 

Today’s Financial Times reports on the developing conflict between UK electric vehicle charging market leader Ecotricity and its competitors. This points to a significant challenge for the Government’s efforts to establish a reliable national network of charging points that can underpin consumer confidence to switch away from petrol and diesel.

This week's top 3 stories: New ride-hailing laws in the Czech and Slovak Republics, Uber's latest employment status headache, and the EU imposes tariffs on Chinese e-bikes.

This week's top 3 stories: Lime's electric bikes hit London, Berlin data protection authorities investigate Mobike, Bird's lobbying probed by newspaper.

The EU’s Member States have failed to agree on the introduction of a tax on revenues from digital services. But pressure from the European Commission, European Parliament and EU citizens indicate that this is not an issue that is going to disappear any time soon.

This week's top 3 stories: electric scooter trials in Germany, mytaxi launches Hive in Lisbon, Taxify runs into trouble in Prague.