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Gaz probe
- The European Commission on Monday (30 July) opened antitrust proceedings against Gaz de France and German energy group E.ON over claims of anti-competitive practices. The two companies are suspected of having agreed not to sell gas in each other’s home markets following liberalisation of EU gas markets in 2004. The case is based on information uncovered during raids at the two firms’ offices in France and Germany last year.
Roaming price cuts
- Mobile phone companies offered customers the option of switching to a regulated pricing structure with cheaper roaming fees on Tuesday (31 July). Users have two months to indicate whether they want to stick with existing contracts before being moved onto the new contract automatically. Information Society Commissioner Viviane Reding decided to impose the capped regime throughout the EU27 after finding that mobile firms made about €8.5 billion profit a year from roaming fees.
Unemployment down
- Eurozone and EU27 unemployment dropped to a new low of 6.9% in June, down from 7% in May, according to seasonally adjusted figures released by Eurostat, the Commission’s statistical office on Tuesday. Eurostat also reported, in its first estimate for the month, that inflation slowed in July to an annualised rate of 1.8%, from 1.9% in June. Business confidence, however, slipped in both the EU and the eurozone last month. Eurostat’s economic sentiment indicator suffered a drop of 1.7 points in the EU27 and 0.7 of a point in the eurozone, to 113.3 and 111.0 respectively.
Italian reserves sale
- The Italian government moved on Tuesday to sell part of the Bank of Italy’s gold and currency reserves to pay off some of the country’s national debt. The bank holds €38 billion worth of gold and €21bn in foreign currency. Under a deal with the European Central Bank, some of this must be retained to help prop up the euro if needed. France, the Netherlands and Germany have in recent years sold off some of the gold reserves of their central banks.
Murdoch wins battle
- On Tuesday, media tycoon Rupert Murdoch won his battle to take control of US media giant Dow Jones, publisher of the Wall Street Journal. His News Corporation firm, which owns more than 100 papers worldwide, as well as television stations and film studios, will buy Dow Jones for $5.6 billion (€4bn) or $60 (€44) a share. The deal has yet to be examined by EU and US antitrust regulators.
The European Commission has formally accused Intel, a US computer processor-maker, of anti-competitive practices to limit the market share of its largest rival AMD.
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