http://www.cnet.com/news/europe-laun...ine-dominance/
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The European Union has unveiled a 16-point plan to ensure Europe's tech industry can compete with established US online giants.
President Jean-Claude Juncker and Vice-President Andrus Ansip of the European Commission, the EU's executive branch, announced the Digital Single Market Strategy in Brussels today. The document, which Ansip describes as a "starting point", argues, "Europe has the capabilities to lead in the global digital economy but we are currently not making the most of them. Fragmentation and barriers that do not exist in the physical Single Market are holding the EU back."
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"A Digital Single Market is one in which the free movement of goods, persons, services and capital is ensured," says the strategy document, "where individuals and businesses can seamlessly access and exercise online activities under conditions of fair competition, and a high level of consumer and personal data protection, irrespective of their nationality or place of residence."
To that end, the Digital Single Market Strategy seeks to reform copyright rules; remove geographic barriers across different member states for both online geo-blocking and real-world parcel delivery; and standardise complex VAT regimes across different countries.
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Although the competition inquiry could challenge the dominance of big US companies, other provisions of the Digital Single Market Strategy could actually benefit them. "Running through the Commission's agenda is a distaste of the market strength and practices of certain big US tech companies," notes Adam Rendle, Senior Associate at law firm Taylor Wessing, but "it is ironic, then, that the big US tech companies are in a strong position at present to benefit from prohibitions on geo-blocking given they have the scale, resources and market penetration to provide the pan-EU offerings that the Digital Single Market Strategy allows.
"Of course, what the Commission hopes is that the Strategy will create the conditions for EU versions of the big US tech companies to develop, because they would suddenly have a huge, pan-EU potential market for their services."
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More at the source and pdf here:
http://ec.europa.eu/priorities/digit...ication_en.pdf