european union

Arkady Volozh, the billionaire cofounder of Russia's biggest internet company, was removed from the EU sanctions list today, clearing the way for his return to the world of international tech.On Tuesday a spokesperson for the European Council confirmed to WIRED that the Yandex cofounder was among three people whose sanctions were lifted this week.Volozh, 60, was initially included on the EU sanctions list in June 2023, following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. “Volozh is a leading businessperson…

Epic Games touted the European Union’s (EU) new tech regulations on Friday, after Apple agreed to reinstate the Fortnite maker’s developer account as it looks to launch a competing app store for iOS devices in Europe. “Apple has told us and committed to the European Commission that they will reinstate our developer account,” Epic said in an update. “This sends a strong signal to developers that the European Commission will act swiftly to enforce the Digital Markets Act and hold gatekeepers accountable.”…

For the ninth straight month, Earth has obliterated global heat records — with February, the winter as a whole and the world's oceans setting new high-temperature marks, according to the European Union climate agency Copernicus.The latest record-breaking in this climate change-fuelled global hot streak includes sea surface temperatures that weren't just the hottest for February, but eclipsed any month on record, soaring past August 2023's mark and still rising at the end of the month.And February, as well the previous two…

Under pressure from European regulators, Apple took a step back in its feud with Epic Games on Friday, clearing the way for Epic Games to put its own game store on iPhones and iPads in Europe. Earlier this week, Apple had taken steps to block Epic from starting up a store and bringing back the popular game Fortnite, which Apple removed from its App Store in 2020 after Epic broke the iPhone maker's in-app payment rules in protest.Apple's decision to open its door to Epic follows the European Union's Thursday deadline for…

Under pressure from European regulators, Apple took a step back in its feud with Epic Games on Friday, clearing the way for Epic to put its own game store on iPhones and iPads in Europe.Earlier this week, Apple had taken steps to block Epic from starting up a store and bringing back the popular game Fortnite, which Apple removed from its App Store in 2020 after Epic broke the iPhone maker's in-app payment rules in protest.Apple's decision to open its door to Epic follows the European Union's Thursday deadline for Big Tech…

Europe changed the rules of the internet this week when the Digital Markets Act took effect, holding the biggest tech companies to tough new standards. Now the world is waiting to see which giant will be first to fall foul of the law. One of the architects of the DMA says Apple is a strong candidate for the first formal investigation, describing the company as “low hanging fruit.”Apple has faced intensifying pressure in recent years from competitors, regulators, and courts in both Europe and the US, over the restrictions…

Apple is opening small cracks in the iPhone’s digital fortress as part of a regulatory clampdown in Europe that is striving to give consumers more choices—at the risk of creating new avenues for hackers to steal personal and financial information stored on the devices.The overhaul rolling out Thursday only in the European Union represents the biggest changes to the iPhone’s App Store since Apple introduced the concept in 2008. Among other things, people in Europe can download iPhone apps from stores that aren’t operated…

Europeans scrolling their phones and computers this week will get new choices for default browsers and search engines, where to download iPhone apps and how their personal online data is used.They’re part of changes required under the Digital Markets Act, a set of European Union regulations that six tech companies classed as “gatekeepers”—Amazon, Apple, Google parent Alphabet, Meta, Microsoft, and TikTok owner ByteDance—will have to start following by midnight Wednesday.The DMA is the latest in a series of regulations…

Google today is sharing more details about the fees that will accompany its plan to comply with Europe’s new Digital Markets Act (DMA), the new regulation aimed at increasing competition across the app store ecosystem. While Google yesterday pointed to ways it already complied with the DMA — by allowing sideloading of apps, for example — it hadn’t yet shared specifics about the fees that would apply to developers, noting that further details would come out this week. That time is now, as it turns out. Today, Google…

Spain has banned Worldcoin for up to three months, drawing a sharp rebuke from Sam Altman's company, amid perceived privacy risks from the venture which scans irises in exchange for a digital ID and free cryptocurrency.Spanish data protection regulator AEPD said on Wednesday it demanded Worldcoin immediately cease the collection of personal information and stop using data it has already gathered. Worldcoin said in response to the ban that the AEPD was "circumventing EU law" and "spreading inaccurate and misleading claims…