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EC to probe T-Mobile, Tele2 Dutch deal; Yahoo fined £250,000 in UK over hack

TOP NEWS

* The European Commission launched an in-depth investigation into the proposed acquisition of Tele2 Netherlands by T-Mobile Netherlands, and has until Oct. 17 to make a decision. The commission is concerned that the merger could lead to higher prices and reduce choice and innovation for customers in the Netherlands.

* The U.K. Information Commissioner's Office slapped a £250,000 fine on Yahoo! UK Ltd. over a November 2014 cyberattack that compromised the personal data of about 515,121 Yahoo account holders in Britain. The watchdog said Yahoo! UK failed to "take appropriate technical and organizational measures" to secure the data of its users.

PAN-EUROPEAN

* The European Parliament's civil liberties committee has urged the European Commission to suspend its implementation of the EU-U.S. Privacy Shield agreement, arguing that the pact fails to provide enough data protection for EU citizens. The lawmakers want to suspend the agreement until Sept. 1, when the U.S. has fully complied with the agreement's provisions.

UK AND IRELAND

* Shutterstock Inc. opened an office in Dublin. The company said it initially plans to fill 40 positions, including engineering roles, and to potentially grow the team further over the coming years.

* British public broadcaster Channel 4 (UK) has teamed up with Alphabet Inc. unit Google Inc. to enable playing of its content from video-on-demand service All 4 via voice control using Google Assistant. The feature will be enabled on the Chromecast, Google Home and Google Mini devices.

* British Broadcasting Corp. Director General Tony Hall and Channel 4 CEO Alex Mahon have called for new laws that will secure the prominence of output from the digital services of British public broadcasters amid changes in the media landscape, Digital TV Europe reports. In response, the Commercial Broadcasters Association warned that such changes should not involve traditional linear TV since it could harm investments in children's programming, according to a separate report by Digital TV Europe.

GERMANY, SWITZERLAND AND AUSTRIA

* Deutsche Telekom AG plans to expand its offering of established TV shows including in-house productions, DWDL reports, quoting German actor Christoph Maria Herbst at industry event ANGA COM.

* Ulrich Wilhelm, chairman of German public broadcaster ARD, has pleaded for a common platform for audiovisual content from European broadcasters and publishers, Heise reports.

* ProSiebenSat.1 Media SE plans to axe 141 jobs as part of its restructuring program, according to information obtained by DWDL.

* Vodafone Group PLC unit Vodafone Deutschland GmbH and Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. announced the launch of joint smart home services at the Cebit in Hanover, Handelsblatt reports.

* German private radio association VAUNET has commented on an upcoming meeting between the German Rundfunkkommission and minister presidents. VAUNET demands that public broadcasters ARD and ZDF (DE) should be prevented from purchasing mass-market, European-licensed content that can be retrieved from their media libraries for up to 30 days.

FRANCE

* Thales Group and Microsoft Corp. have partnered to develop a joint defense cloud solution for the military. Based on Microsoft's Azure Stack platform, the partnership will support the digital transformation of the armed forces.

* TF1 Group, the official French broadcaster of the FIFA World Cup 2018, will broadcast the 28 best matches in 4K on Iliad SA's Freebox mini 4K device. TF1 4K will also be broadcasting three Formula 1 Grand Prix races in 4K.

* New options are now available for car buyers in France via Facebook Inc.'s Marketplace, which has extended its features by introducing new options in France to facilitate the purchase of used cars.

NETHERLANDS, BELGIUM AND LUXEMBOURG

* Belgian Telecom Minister Alexander De Croo plans to open up the Belgian telecom market for a new player to increase competition, De Morgen reports. The three main providers, Proximus, Telenet and Orange Belgium, will reportedly be excluded from a minor part of a 4G and 5G spectrum auction in 2019.

* De Croo also said a joint project of operators and local governments launched in 2016 has eliminated 23 out of 39 "white zones" in Belgium. A white zone is defined as a region in which 30 Mbps internet speed coverage is lower than 60% and where 4G coverage is not complete either.

* Orange Belgium said it has expanded its 4G coverage to more than 99% of Belgium's Walloon region, following an investment of more than €13 million for the project.

NORDIC COUNTRIES

* The Swedish government has no plans to interfere in Telia Co. AB's possible acquisition of Bonnier AB unit Bonnier Broadcasting, Affärsvärlden reports, citing news agency TT. The Swedish Ministry of Industry told TT that the decision is entirely up to Telia's board. The government holds a 37% stake in Telia, which has confirmed that it is in talks about a possible acquisition in a deal rumored to be between 10 billion Swedish kronor and 12 billion kronor.

* Telia said it is acquiring a majority stake in Finnish digital culture event company Assembly Organizing Oy for an undisclosed sum. The acquisition is in keeping with Telia's strategy to expand its e-sports and gaming business.

* Nokia Corp. said it has completed a 5G New Radio data call with dual 4G and 5G connectivity in China, as part of a technology trial by the Chinese Ministry of Industry and IT. Dual connectivity will allow 4G operators to create 5G coverage and services more rapidly.

* Nokia announced the launch of new services to help operators bring 5G services faster to market. The Digital Design concept uses artificial intelligence to simulate 5G use cases, and Nokia said it will help deliver lower the total cost of ownership and speed up time-to-market by months.

SOUTHERN EUROPE

* Telefónica SA announced the launch of the O2 brand in Spain, which will focus on providing communication-only services as well as "simple offer with a premium service." O2 services will be made available in beta mode shortly.

* Spanish soccer league La Liga admitted that its smartphone app has features that would enable it to detect pirate broadcasts of its games, London's The Daily Telegraph reports, citing a statement. The La Liga app is able to detect the location of users and has an algorithm to identify whether a user is watching a soccer game based on audio recordings.

* Telecom Italia SpA has reached a deal with trade unions Slc Cgil, Fistel-Cisl, Uilcom-UIL and UGL Telecomunicazioni for the defensive solidarity contracts of its about 30,000 employees in Italy. The agreement enables a vertical reduction in the working hours of affected employees, totaling 26 days over the year beginning June 19.

EASTERN EUROPE

* The United States has sanctioned five Russian firms, including two California-based tech companies, and three Russian citizens for working for the KGB's successor to improve Russia's ability to infiltrate infrastructure networks and telecommunications. The U.S. Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control announced the sanctions against companies and individuals for allegedly providing technical and material support to, or being owned or controlled by, entities working for the Russian foreign intelligence agency, the Federal Security Service, or FSB.

* Tele2 Russia is continuing efforts to expand the reach of its LTE and 3G networks in Russia's Krasnoyarsk region, with more than 100 new base stations built until April, Telecompaper reports.

* Slovakia's Regulatory Authority for Electronic Communications and Postal Services, or RU, launched a tender for frequencies in the 10 GHz band, with applications to be accepted until July 25, Telecompaper reports.

FEATURED NEWS

Tech Time: AT&T, Nokia ink global IoT deal; Vision Fund pours $2.25B in GM unit: AT&T and Nokia teamed up for internet of things deployments around the world, while SoftBank Vision Fund is investing $2.25 billion in General Motors' self-driving unit GM Cruise Holdings.

Mediapro clinches deals with Ligue 1, Google; Telefónica, Netflix ink tie-up: In this monthly feature, S&P Global Market Intelligence provides a roundup of news related to over-the-top, video-on-demand and other online video initiatives in Spain, Italy, Portugal, Greece and Turkey.

FEATURED RESEARCH

Economics of Internet: Profile: Tencent Video (China): One of the leading over-the-top players in China, Tencent Video is part of a portfolio of internet services that make up Tencent Holdings Ltd.

Anne Freier, Amanda Kelly, Koen Pijnappels and Esben Svendsen contributed to this report.

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