Press releases

Members of the European Parliament and Council representatives reached an agreement last night about the maximum price telecom providers can charge each other when their customers use their phone abroad.

Ads praising unhealthy foods should be more restricted from the programmes that children watch on TV or video-sharing platforms. However the industry will still have a key role to decide what is healthy enough to be advertised to children. This is what the European Parliament’s Committee for health, food and environment has voted for in the context of the revision of the Audiovisual Media Services Directive.

The European Commission is presenting plans today to overhaul a law covering the confidentiality and security of electronic communications such as phone, e-mails or messaging services. According to these plans, services such as Skype or WhatsApp, also called over-the-top services (OTT), should respect similar rules to those for traditional phone and text messaging services. The Regulation will also set out when users’ consent is required for tracking online activities and for using customers’ communication and location data for purposes such as marketing. It should also protect consumers against unsolicited commercial communications.

In response to Member States’ decision to allow the European Commission to proceed with rules on roaming charges, Monique Goyens, Director General of The European Consumer Organisation (BEUC), commented: