Day: March 24, 2022

Negotiators from the European Parliament and EU member states agreed Thursday on a landmark law to curb the market dominance of U.S. big tech giants such as Google, Meta, Amazon and Apple.

Meeting in Brussels, the lawmakers nailed down a long list of do’s and don’ts that will single out the world’s most iconic web giants as internet “gatekeepers” subject to special rules.

The Digital Markets Act (DMA) has sped through the bloc’s legislative procedures and is designed to protect consumers and give rivals a better chance to survive against the world’s powerful tech juggernauts.

“The agreement ushers in a new era of tech regulation worldwide,” said German MEP Andreas Schwab, who led the negotiations for the European Parliament.

“The Digital Markets Act puts an end to the ever-increasing dominance of Big Tech companies,” he added.

The main point of the law is to avert the years of procedures and court battles needed to punish Big Tech’s monopolistic behavior in which cases can end with huge fines but little change in how the giants do business.

Once implemented, the law will give Brussels unprecedented authority to keep an eye on decisions by the giants, especially when they pull out the checkbook to buy up promising startups.

“The gatekeepers – they now have to take responsibility,” said the EU’s competition supremo Margrethe Vestager.

“A number of things they can do, a number of things they can’t do, and that of course gives everyone a fair chance,” she added.

‘Concrete impacts’

The law contains about 20 rules that in many cases target practices by Big Tech that have gone against the bloc’s rules on competition, but which Brussels has struggled to enforce.

The DMA imposes myriad obligations on Big Tech, including forcing Apple to open up its App Store to alternative payment systems, a demand that the iPhone maker has opposed fiercely, most notably in its feud with Epic games, the maker of Fortnite.

Google will be asked to clearly offer users of Android-run smartphones alternatives to its search engine, the Google Maps app or its Chrome browser.

A Google spokesperson told AFP that the US internet giant will “take time to study the final text and work with regulators to implement it.”

“While we support many of the DMA’s ambitions around consumer choice and interoperability, we remain concerned that some of the rules could reduce innovation and the choice available to Europeans,” the spokesperson said.

Apple would also be forced to loosen its grip on the iPhone, with users allowed to uninstall its Safari web browser and other company-imposed apps that users cannot currently delete.

In a statement, Apple swiftly expressed regret over the law, saying it was “concerned that some provisions of the DMA will create unnecessary privacy and security vulnerabilities for our users.”

After a furious campaign by influential MEPs, the law also forces messaging services such as Meta-owned WhatsApp to make themselves available to users on other services such as Signal or Apple’s iMessage, and vice versa.

France, which holds the EU presidency and negotiated on behalf of the bloc’s 27 member states, said the law would deliver “concrete impacts on the lives of European citizens.”

“We are talking about the goods you buy online, the smartphone you use every day, and the services you use every day,” said France’s digital affairs minister, Cedric O.

Stiff fines

Violation of the rules could lead to fines as high as 10% of a company’s annual global sales and even 20% for repeat offenders.

The DMA “will have a profound impact on the way some gatekeepers’ operations are currently conducted,” said lawyer Katrin Schallenberg, a partner at Clifford Chance.

“Clearly, companies affected … are already working on ways to comply with or even challenge the regulation,” she added.

The Big Tech companies have lobbied hard against the new rules and the firms have been defended in Washington, where it is alleged that the new law unfairly targets U.S. companies.

With the deal now reached by negotiators, the DMA now faces final votes in a full session of the European Parliament as well as by ministers from the EU’s 27 member states.

The rules could come into place starting Jan. 1, 2023, though tech companies are asking for more time to implement the law.

Source: Voice of America

Luanda – The bilateral cooperation between Angola and the United States of America (USA) in the social area marked the meeting held today between the Minister of State for Social Affairs, Carolina Cerqueira, and the US ambassador, Tulinado Mushingi.

During the audience, the two entities discussed issues related to the implementation degree of programmes in favour of vulnerable populations, support to the health crisis caused by Covid-19, post-pandemic economic recovery, the fight against drought in the south of the country and support to refugees from DR Congo, located in Luvo, province of Lunda Norte, and the preparation of the next elections in Angola.

The State minister stressed the need to strengthen the support to fight drought in the south of the country, to reinforce the structuring projects and social and resilience programmes underway, to serve millions of people, particularly children, women and the elderly in areas affected by a severe drought that has lasted for years and has affected families and livestock and caused great food shortages.

The fight against Covid-19, under the COVAX programme, malaria and other contagious diseases such as Guinea worm that have been receiving direct US support were pointed out by the Minister of State, Carolina Cerqueira.

Source: Angola Press News Agency

Cameroon’s public health ministry says a cholera outbreak is sweeping across the towns of Limbe, Buea and Tiko, near the border with Nigeria.

The government says 12 of the 600 patients rushed to hospitals in those towns died within the past 72 hours.

Nyenti Annereke, director of the Limbe government hospital, said the facility, which has a capacity of 200 beds, has received more than 240 cholera patients.

“We built three tents in Limbe hospital yesterday because patients were at the veranda, in the corridors of the wards,” he said. “All the beds were full. The Tiko district hospital, the capacity also is overpowered. The hospital in Bota is another crisis zone.”

To cope with the overflow, humanitarian workers are helping to erect tents at the hospitals in Limbe and Buea.

Still, The government says many families are rushing their sick relatives to surrounding towns, including Mutengene and Douala, a commercial hub on the Atlantic coast.

Bernard Okalia Bilai, governor of the South West region where Limbe, Tiko and Buea are located, chaired at least three crisis meetings on Wednesday.

Bilai said the cholera outbreak is caused by a shortage of clean drinking water in western towns and villages provoked by the long dry season and civilians should desist from drinking open stream water. He said the disease is spreading fast because cattle and civilians defecate in the open and in rivers.

“Our structures, the hospitals are overloaded, but thank God that the medical officers in charge of those hospitals have been proactive and they have taken measures to receive various patients,” he said. “All the patients are under treatment.”

Bilai said the government will provide water to arid towns like Limbe, Buea and Tiko and surrounding villages but did not say when.

Meanwhile, health officials are moving from door to door encouraging civilians to boil water from wells and streams before drinking it.

The government says people should also eat only properly cooked food and wash their hands before and after meals, and after using the bathroom.

Another cholera outbreak in Cameroon in February affected 1,300 people and killed about three dozen.

Source: Voice of America

Luanda – At least four hundred exhibitors are due to take part from 11 to 15 May in the municipality of Viana, in Luanda, in the first edition of trade fair of products manufactured and produced in the country.

The event will take place in an area of 25,000 square meters, with three pavilions, under the slogan, “Developing and boosting national production.

This information was released Thursday at a press conference by the Calas Angola CEO, Carlos Calas, the organizer of the event.

He said that 300 people would be directly employed and over 200 indirectly.

On his turn, the Viana Industrial Hub (PIV) CEO, Miguel Luís, noted that the aim of the trade fair was to promote the potential of Portuguese industry.

It will also serve to encourage the consumption of products made in the country, as well as the creation of mechanisms and forms of support for producing companies through policies that facilitate and allow the continuity of the production process.

He also said that at this moment in the PIV 262 industries are operating out of the 503 registered, of which produce civil construction materials, food stuff, a fertilizer factory with a production capacity of 250.000 tons per year.

He appealed, meanwhile, to the population to visit the fair to keep in touch with the products manufactured in the national territory.

The event is an initiative of the Viana Industrial Hub (PIV), in partnership with INAPEM and the organization, Calas Angola, with the support of the Ministries of Economy and Planning, Industry and Trade, and PRODESI, amongst others.

Source: Angola Press News Agency

Luanda – Businessman Carlos São Vicente was sentenced Thursday to nine years in jail and payment of US$4.5 million in damages and a fine of 200 days, by the District Court of Luanda.

According to Rádio Nacional de Angola, Carlos de São Vicente was sentenced for the crimes of money embezzlement, laundering and tax fraud.

According to the court ruling, during the 16 years that he ran the insurance and reinsurance business for the oil industry in Angola, Carlos São Vicente, “played the role of referee and player,” putting at risk and dissipating legal assets that were in his sphere, but representing the Angolan state.

In the reading of the Sentence, the Judge of the case considered the argument of the businessman, about the origin of his assets, as illogical.

The trial of the former chairman of the board of AAA Seguros, Carlos São Vicente, began on 11 February at the District Court of Luanda, as part of the so-called “USD 900 million” case, which led to the seizure, by the judicial authorities, of several buildings of the AAA group, belonging to the businessman.

Between 2000 and 2016, Carlos São Vicente was the director of risk management at Sonangol and chairman of the board of directors of the “AAA Seguros” company, in which the Angolan oil company was initially the sole shareholder.

São Vicente was accused of having carried out, at the time, “a scheme of illegal appropriation of social participations” in the insurance company and of “income and profits produced by the system” of insurance and reinsurance in the Angolan oil sector, thanks to the company’s monopoly.

He was arrested on 22 September, 2020, after being charged with suspicion of crimes of embezzlement and money laundering.

Source: Angola Press News Agency