City have fallen foul of Uefa’s curiously subjective FFP structures and now the roof is falling in, writes Simon Curtis.

Facebook boss Mark Zuckerberg will meet the EU’s digital and industry commissioners next week, days before the EU presents proposals to rein in US tech giants and Chinese rivals.

The European Commission has officially approved Ireland’s controversial National Broadband Plan (NBP) under EU state aid rules, at a value of €2.6 billion.

The commission announced that in its opinion the potential benefits to competition in the Irish broadband sector outweigh the negatives represented by the intervention of the State.

Legislators across Europe have struggled to keep up with protecting minimum employment rights as ‘self-employed’ jobs proliferate, writes Kyran Fitzgerald

Mobile payments services such as Apple Pay are in EU competition chief Margrethe Vestager’s crosshairs, weeks after her team sought industry feedback about Facebook’s planned Libra digital currency project.

Sinn Féin have called on the government to withdraw its appeal against an EU order for tech giant Apple to pay Ireland some €13bn in back taxes.

Apple’s and the Government’s €13bn battle with the EU reaches the European courts next month at the start of a process set to throw light on Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager’s crackdown on tax deals doled out to big companies.

Google’s fast-growing tool for searching job listings has been a boon for employers and job boards starving for candidates, but several rival job-finding services contend anti-competitive behaviour has fuelled its rise and cost them users and profits.

Away from the dangerous Brexit soap opera, the EU has been reshuffling its pack of cards.

Amazon faces a full-blown EU probe as the region’s competition chief Margrethe Vestager prepares for a summer finale to her five-year crackdown on US technology giants.

Amazon faces a full-blown EU probe as the region’s competition chief Margrethe Vestager prepares for a summer finale to her five-year crackdown on US technology giants.

Only a fool would trust Facebook with his or her financial wellbeing. Maybe that’s the point. Facebook knows how many fools are born every minute, writes Joseph E Stiglitz Only a fool would trust Facebook with his or her financial wellbeing. Maybe that’s the point. Facebook knows how many fools are born every minute, writes Joseph E Stiglitz.

Ireland must do all it can to prevent being caught in Europe’s political slow lane as the leading contenders line up to run the EU and European Cental Bank, writes Kyran Fitzgerald.

The start of any European Commission brings with it a sense of hope, a sense of new beginnings and new possibilities and a feeling curiosity in the face of the unknown personalities taking up the lead roles for the 27 countries of Europe.

Hungary has won a court fight with EU regulators over a tax on advertising, in another setback for Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager’s crusade against countries she says are taking advantage of state aid-rules to give select companies an unfair advantage over rivals.

Who’d be a politician? Despite being dubbed the most powerful woman in Brussels, Margrethe Vestager may soon be out of a job.

The European Commission has put down an early marker as Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe plans his autumn budget, recommending the Government cut back on tax reliefs, introduce more taxes such as carbon and reduce fossil fuel subsidies, and to continue reforms of the country’s corporate tax regime that has led to the exchequer tapping huge windfalls from multinationals.

French President Emmanuel Macron’s progressive-versus-populist narrative helped to re-mobilise France’s — and perhaps Europe’s — pro-European electorate, says Zaki Laïdi.

More than 200m of the 400m people entitled to vote in last week’s European elections did so. This marks a substantial

Not so very long ago any suggestion that all our governments, led by whichever half of the duopoly that has always run this state, are too close to business would have been dismissed with a shrug.

The European Commission is formally investigating whether Insurance Ireland is reducing drivers’ choice of insurance policies by preventing companies from being included in a pool of firms offering cover.

The Taoiseach has defended the State’s €7m legal bill in the €14bn Apple tax case insisting Ireland must defend its international reputation from suggestions it’s a tax haven.

Europe needs to decide on a digital tax and should lead the way if there is insufficient consensus globally, the EU competition commissioner Margrethe Vestager, has said.

The EU ordered the UK to claw back illegal tax breaks designed to lure multinationals — in a timely reminder the EU still calls the shots on competition rules until Britain leaves the bloc.

US sportswear maker Nike has been hit with a €12.5m fine for blocking cross-border sales of soccer merchandise of some of Europe’s best-known clubs, the latest EU sanction against such restrictions.

In some jurisdictions, courts impose standard fines for standard offences. In other jurisdictions, fines are directly linked to a person’s income.

The wider aim of the EU crackdown on Google is to give more space to startups or competitors to offer the same kinds of services on a more level playing field, writes Lionel Laurent.

Google was fined €1.49bn by the EU for thwarting advertising rivals, a penalty that may be EU competition chief Margrethe Vestager’s third and final ruling on the US tech giant.

Google has been issued a €1.49 billion fine by the European Commission for alleged illegal practices in search advertising.

The consumer watchdog claims it is unable to put a timeline on its investigation into anti-competitive practices in the motor insurance market.

Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe says he has “no doubt at all” a number of countries will lay claim to parts of the €14bn Ireland collected in back taxes from Apple if the Government were to lose the legal appeal it launched against the EU almost three years ago.

The dark side of internet technology in general and Facebook — which now owns WhatsApp and Instagram — in particular have been among the many problems governments have wrestled with throughout 2018. They remain unresolved as we welcome the new year. Like the hydrogen bomb, the technology cannot be uninvented, yet legislatures around the free world struggle to find ways to curtail its destructive power.