The European Union's top court has ruled that documents containing details of trade negotiations can remain secret, a decision that comes as a blow to those seeking more transparency in the negotiation of the treaties that are increasingly affecting e-commerce, online privacy, Internet copyright and other uses of IT.
German telecom and Internet operators could once again be forced to store customer traffic and location metadata for police investigation purposes, five years after a previous data retention law was declared unconstitutional.
E-books must be subject to the full rate of value-added tax (VAT), and European Union countries may not extend tax exemptions for books to include e-books, the EU's highest court ruled Thursday, adding that it considers downloadable e-books to be services.
It's last call for last-minute flight booking charges in Europe: Websites must show the total price for a flight right from the outset, and not wait till the last screen before booking to display additional charges, the European Union's top court ruled on Thursday.
Here's one flight delay that European Union citizens might appreciate: The European Parliament has grounded an agreement that would have sent more passenger data winging its way to Canadian law enforcers. And like other flight delays, it could have huge repercussions -- in this case for similar data exchange deals with the U.S. and Australia.