Reuters (July 8)
“Europe’s data police have new fangs that are turning out to be pretty sharp. British Airways was told on Monday it faced a 183 million pound penalty for the theft of customer information from its website last year.” The record hacking fine did reward BA for coming forward and owning up to the breech. Under the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) the penalty could have been up to “4% of global revenue. Yet the fine announced by the ICO amounts to 1.5% of British Airways’ 2017 sales.”
Tags: BA, Customer information, Data, EU, GDPR, Hacking fine, Penalty, Record, Revenue, Theft, Website
The Economist (June 29)
The “metropolis of money, known as the City, generates £120bn ($152bn) of output a year—as much as Germany’s car industry.” Increasingly, Brexit appears to threaten an outcome that “would make the eu poorer and damage London’s position.” In addition, the end result could “change the workings of the global financial system.”
Tags: Brexit, Car industry, Damage, EU, Financial system, Germany, London, Metropolis, Money, Outcome, Output, Poorer, The City
New York Times (June 9)
“Americans have been far too vulnerable for far too long when they venture online. Companies are free today to monitor Americans’ behavior and collect information about them from across the web and the real world.” U.S. lawmakers have fallen behind their European peers. In fact, widespread compliance with the EU’s GDPR means that “technocrats in Brussels are doing more for Americans’ digital privacy rights than their own Congress.” Finally, however, “there finally seems to be enough momentum to pass a federal law.”
Tags: Behavior, Brussels, Collect Web, Compliance, Congress, DPR, EU, GDPR, Lawmakers, Online, Technocrats, U.S., Vulnerable
EU Politico (May 27)
“Phew. Turns out the bark of Europe’s far right is worse than its bite. Yes, illiberal parties did well in France and Italy, Poland, Hungary and beyond. But overall no better than expected, and in some cases worse so…. That’s good news for Europe’s democratic parties and even better news for the European Union.”
Tags: Democratic parties, EU, Europe, Expected, France, Hungary, Illiberal parties, Italy, Poland
Financial Times (May 16)
By delaying any decision to impose car tariffs by 6 months, “President Donald Trump has dodged an immediate collision with the EU and Japan on trade.” While expected, “the move means that the US has avoided blowing up trade relations with the EU and Japan amid an escalation of its dispute with China.”
Tags: Car tariffs, China, Collision, Delay, Dispute, Escalation, EU, Japan, Trade, Trump
Washington Post (May 9)
“It’s anyone guess what will come of the current meetings” to resolve the U.S./China trade dispute. “What should not be in doubt, however, is that throughout the entire bargaining process with Beijing, the administration has undercut its position by attempting to wage simultaneous tariff battles with other countries.” In addition to China, Mr. Trump’s tariffs now cover…7.3 percent of imports from Canada, 2.5 percent of imports from the European Union, 9.6 percent of imports from South Korea and 3.8 percent of imports from Japan,” undercutting support from natural allies in his dispute with China.
Tags: Allies, Canada, China, EU, Imports, Japan, South Korea, Tariffs, Trade dispute, Trump, U.S., Undercut
Guardian (May 4)
“Thursday’s results mean there’s only one way forward: ask the people…. Both Labour and the Tories saw votes that have previously been cast for them move elsewhere, above all to the parties that want us to stay in the EU. Parties that have advocated some form of deal that involves leaving the EU–the Tories and Labour–were punished across the country. They lost seats and they lost votes.”
Foreign Policy (April 24)
“Britain can’t afford to keep talking about Brexit. The never-ending conversation about leaving the EU has stalled all other progress on economic policy…. We need a resolution to this phase of Brexit, not just to resolve the short-term issue but so that we can start to think about the long term again.”
BBC (March 29)
“It is certainly the case that not all of our MPs, still less our citizens, would have been reaching eagerly for the bell ropes, had this been Brexit day, as scheduled. Particularly in Scotland.” Instead, “on this non-Brexit day, we might consider the more fundamental issues which have brought us to this impasse,” especially the UK Government’s miscalculation that “the EU would back down at the last moment, as is customarily the case.” Though “the EU has capitulated in the past to dissenting member states, “the UK is on the way out” and “its clout, consequently, is reduced.”
Tags: Capitulated, Citizens, EU, Government, Impasse, Miscalculation, MPs, Non-Brexit day, Scotland, UK
Bloomberg (March 13)
“Whatever happens on March 29—a no-deal Brexit, a delay to the departure or some kind of agreement—the U.K. faces a slow but steady erosion to its position as the European center of looking after other people’s money….. However Brexit plays out, the U.K. fund management industry will be a long-term loser from the fallout.”
