Inline Insights

Governments and regulators are actively considering how competition policy should respond to the growth of the digital economy. A forthcoming report from the European Parliament provides an insight into the state of the debate in Brussels.

While discussions continue on the European Commission’s proposals for a harmonised Digital Services Tax, a number of different approaches to taxing online service providers and platforms is emerging across Europe.  With the UK the latest EU country to consider going it alone, we look at who is proposing what when it comes to digital services taxes.

This week's top 3 stories: BMW and Daimler get the greem light, Bird launches trial in London, new rise hailing rules in Portugal.

This week's top 3 stories: Report highlights licensing problems for UK taxi and private hire drivers, VW and Intel working on autonomous ride-hailing in Israel, electric scooters to be legalised in Germany. 

Last week the European Commission presented its latest Work Programme, which laid out its main priorities for 2019. A number of significant regulatory issues for the tech sector still need to be finalised before May 2019’s European elections. These include all remaining Digital Single Market (DSM) initiatives and several other legislative initiatives that fall outside of the DSM umbrella.

1. Going green in London

This week has seen a number of green initiatives in London's competitive ride-hailing market. With CEO Dara Khosrowshahi in town and on a charm offensive, Uber made a number of announcements, including that it will be adding £0.15 per mile to the price of every ride in London to create a fund to to help drivers switch to electric vehicles. With an aim of all Ubers in London being fully electric by 2025, the company also announced a number of measures to support the roll out of more charging points in London.

TechCrunch estimates the immersive tech industry will be worth $108 billion in 2021. Citi estimate $569 billion by 2025. But despite these staggering projections, many people’s understanding of the technologies fails to extend beyond the viral sensation of Pokemon Go.

Drone regulation is at a crossroads. All over Europe, and of course other parts of the world, policymakers are trying to figure out how best to deal with this emerging technology that barely mattered ten years ago but now promises to create a multibillion-Euro market.