March 1, 2019
The Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market (the “Directive”) is back. The issues with the Directive were described in our September 2018 briefing The Copyright Directive – The EU Battles the Internet.
- All
- Agriculture Publications
- Blog
- Briefings
- Digital Briefings
- Digital Publications
- Energy & Environment Briefings
- Energy & Environment Publications
- Finance Briefings
- Finance Publications
- Fiscal & Taxation Briefings
- Fiscal & Taxation Publications
- Foreign Policy Briefings
- Foreign Policy Publications
- Health & Lifestyle Briefings
- Health & Lifestyle Publications
- Media
- Publications
- Regulation Briefings
- Regulation Publications
- Rule of Law Briefings
- Rule of Law Publications
- Trade Briefings
- Trade Publications
January 1, 2019
On 20th December, the European Commission launched a (relatively brief) consultation on moving from unanimity to qualified majority voting (QMV) in the Council on certain tax issues. The public consultation closes on the 17th January, with “indicative planning” to be carried out this quarter.
January 1, 2019
The Employment Flexibility Index of LFMI quantifies a great divergence in employment regulations between EU countries. Of the 41 countries included in the index (EU and OECD countries), Denmark and the United States were ranked as having the most flexible labour regulations, while France and Luxembourg were ranked last.
December 1, 2018
13 December marks Credit Day across the European Union. This is the day when, on average, European countries’ central governments exhaust their annual tax revenue and start relying on borrowed money to fulfil their functions – 18 days before the end of the year. According to a study by the Institut Économique Molinari, this is 7 days later than last year, which is a substantial improvement.
December 1, 2018
The Commission’s decision to fine Google for unfair practice was based on a misunderstanding of the Android ecosystem and a mistaken definition of the relevant market. This allowed Google’s activities to be wrongly cast as those of a monopoly abusing its position.
October 1, 2018
The new media economy operates differently from other industries when it comes to regulation. The marginal costs of technological giants mean that their interactions are distinct from other industries where governments try to prevent cartels from occurring.
September 1, 2018
The European Commission has proposed a tax on revenues raised from certain digital activities. However, this is essentially a political gesture with only weak economic foundations.
July 1, 2018
Instead of comprehensive re-examination of the Energy Taxation Directive, the European Commission is examining whether ETD should continue the exemptions and lower tariffs for specific products.
January 1, 2018
As a general rule, local governments are exempt from VAT in the EU. Thus, VAT is not payable on the tax-financed consumption of municipalities and other local governments, at least when the services are produced in-house.