Good to see Margrethe Vestager push back against the prevailing narrative that telecoms companies should be allowed to merge and create EU champions. More mergers would be bad for competition and bad for consumers. Consumers want competition preserved in #telecoms !

Yes! And deregulation and telco market consolidation would work against consumers ! Thanks for clear words 👏👏👏Margrethe Vestager

Via POLITICOEurope / Clothilde Goujard: #GDPR #BREAKING :

EDPB takes the view that 'large online platforms' like Meta cannot rely on a 'pay or okay' system to get 'freely given' consent. [Details to follow]

First noyb statement: noyb.eu/en/statement-e…

In a study conducted by Amnesty International of fresh TikTok US accounts pretending to be 13yo children, the platform was found to be pushing potentially harmful content (such as self-harm or suicide) to them. Children are vulnerable consumers & need more protection. beuc.eu/blog/children-…

Tonight Ursula Pachl is at Renew Europe's Digital Day to welcome improvements the EU Parliament made to major laws like #DMA #DSA or #CRA . Now the Parliament needs to:
1⃣ ensure enforcement of these laws
2⃣ protect competition in telecoms
3⃣ push for ban on intra-EU call surcharges.

2 Jahren und 7 Monaten vor der #Datenschutzbehörde (gesetzliche Frist ist 6 Monate): Der ORF gibt nun 'freiwillig' nach und wird einen 'Ablehnen'-Button auf ORF.at einführen.. 🥳

Manchmal schon absurd dicke (und teure) Bretter die wir (@noybeu) bohren.. 🙄

Hopped on a night train last week as I was wrapping up our policy recommendations on rail for the next EU Commission. Give it a read!

The European Parliament must reject rushed proposals amending the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). Roll-back of environmental measures without a proper impact assessment raises serious concerns and is at odds with societal demands. Our letter to MEPs: beuc.eu/sites/default/…

Truth 1: Meta’s services have never been ‘free’.
With Meta unwavering efforts to justify how its pay-or-consent model serves consumers’ best interests, Frithjof Michaelsen from our 🇫🇷 member UFC-Que Choisir, looks at 5 of Meta’s myths on the subject. beuc.eu/blog/five-meta…

The 🇮🇹 Autorità Antitrust has fined TikTok for inadequately protecting young people on its platform❗️❗️
This problem is something we had warned authorities about with our #TikTokWithoutFilters action in 2021.
➡️beuc.eu/enforcement/ti…
twitter.com/antitrust_it/s…

A must-read op-ed by Jan Bertoft 👇
“Politicians usually recoil in horror: 'We shouldn't get involved in what people have on their plates'. They 'forget' that they are already doing it, with various subsidies and targeted support' 💯
#FoodEnvironments

Want to know more about Meta's parctices around pay-or-consent? Or simply how we think it breaches EU law? This 🎙️ from our colleague Frithjof Michaelsen has you covered
#ChooseToLoseWithMeta
#MetaSmokescreen
ourcuriousamalgam.com/episode/265-ta…

😡A price drop doesn’t cut it. Meta is not tackling the elephant in the room, which is the need to comply with EU data protection and consumer law. Our complaints:
1) based on consumer law beuc.eu/choose-to-Lose…
2) based on data protection rules beuc.eu/enforcement/me…

The position of the consumer in digital markets is weakening. A new report we publish today identifies how this is happening & what regulatory solutions are now needed.
In a nutshell: we need fairness by default and by design.💪
➡️beuc.eu/reports/digita…

🔎 Despite a 30-year-old Single Market, enforcement remains a key EU weakness. Ensuring that the recent regulatory push will successfully reshape our societies will be vital for the EU’s future.

🗣️ This is why our fifth idea for the #CEPSlab2024 , presented by Ursula Pachl,…

For months, Meta has asked Facebook & Instagram users to pay or consent to seeing ads. But this obscures the real problem: massive, illegal data processing either way. We are filing complaints against what lies behind this #MetaSmokescreen .
➡️beuc.eu/enforcement/me…

Here in Bloomberg
'Meta’s unfair ‘pay-or-consent’ choice is the company’s latest effort to legalize its business model, Ursula Pachl, deputy director general of EU-wide consumer group BEUC said👇
twitter.com/technology/sta…

📢Meta’s pay-or-consent choice these past months is a smokescreen. Behind it lies massive, illegal data processing. 8 consumer groups from the BEUC network are today filing complaints to stop Meta and better protect your data. 📢
#MetaSmokescreen
➡️ beuc.eu/enforcement/me…

28 NGOs and Consumer Rights Organizations urge the EDPB to reject #PayOrOkay , as this would be the death of 'freely given' consent under #GDPR .

The GDPR did not foresee that users have to 'buy back' their fundamental rights from hundreds of companies per day.. 😐

Child Rights Intergroup European Parliament Catharina Rinzema L. Barrington-Leach European Commission OECD ➡️ Better Policies for Better Lives Sonia Livingstone LSE Media & Communications Eurochild_org Prabhat Agarwal Coimisiún na Meán 🗣️'We need... high levels of security, safety, privacy, and data protection... [but these] high-level principles... need to... [be fleshed out] through guidance... and standardisation'

Ursula Pachl affirms that we cannot expect 'profit-thinking' bodies to manage fundamental rights