European regulators have written to Google asking them to halt the introduction of their new privacy policy. The European regulators said that they need to investigate whether the proposals are sufficiently protecting the personal data of their users.

The European Commission has launched an investigation into the Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) iBookstore. They are checking to see whether Apple and a group of international publishers are fixing e-book prices. They are checking to see if Apple and the book publishers are violating antitrust rules. The 5 publishers include Livre, Harper Collins, Simon & Schuster, Penguin, and Verlagsgruppe Georg von Holtzbrinck.

The European Commission is starting an investigation about the way that Facebook gathers information from users such as political opinions and religious beliefs and sends it to advertisers. Supposedly a new European Commission Directive will be introduced in January and will ban targeted advertising unless users specifically allow it. This seems unreasonable to me because targeted advertising seems to be the way that every Internet company makes their money.

The European Commission is hitting six LCD companies with a fine that adds up to $857 million for price-fixing. The 6 companies being hit with the fines are Samsung, LG, AU Optronics, Chunghwa Picture Tubes, Chimei InnoLux, and HannStar Display. These companies operated a cartel between October 2001 and February 2006.

Google Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) is being investigated by The European Commission as part of an anti-trust inquiry.  Three companies alleged that Google’s search functions were penalizing their own businesses.  The European Commission sent Google a set of questions about how their search functions work and they are also being asked how their ad business works.  The three websites Foundem, Ciao, and ejustice.fr complained about Google to the Commission.  Ciao is owned by Microsoft.

“Google has always used various penalty filters to remove certain sites entirely from its search results or place them so far down the rankings that they will never be found,” stated Foundem in a blog post last August.  “Whereas these penalties used to be reserved for spam, or sites caught attempting to cheat Google’s algorithms, they are now increasingly targeted at perfectly legitimate vertical search and directory services.” [Telegraph via Techmeme]

In less than a few days after Intel was fined for having unfair prices and for giving rebates to PC makers by the European Union, Nvidia decided to give their opinion on the chip maker company.  The European Union decided to investigate Intel after AMD filed a report against them.

Jen-Hsun Huang, the CEO of Nvidia said that Intel chip pricing was unfair but said that they are not planning to file an antitrust action lawsuit against Intel for now.  Intel sells Atom chips for $45 for a single unit, but sells three-chip sets for $25.  The extremely discounted price for bulk units lures customers away from AMD.  “That seems pretty unfair,” stated Huang. “We ought to be able to compete and serve that market.”

“We compete fairly. We do not force bundles on any computer makers and customers can purchase Atom individually or as part of the bundle,” responded Intel spokesman Bill Calder. “If you want to purchase the chip set, obviously there is better pricing.”

[via Reuters]

The European government may impose a massive fine on chipmaker Intel Corporation.  The size of the penalty will be discussed amongst 27 government agencies in Europe.  The European governments began their investigation when Advanced Micro Devices filed a complaint against Intel.

The European commission charged Intel with abusing its dominant position by giving large rebates to computer makers to stay with them, even beyond the actual cost of chips.

One of the most largest fines paid due to a ruling by the European commission is Microsoft.  Microsoft was forced to pay $663 million for abusing dominance in a market as well.  According to the New York Times, the fine imposed on Intel may even reach $1.3 billion.

Microsoft’s favorite government agency the European Union is no longer watching over the software giant full-time.  The European Commission stated that they no longer need a full-time trustee to make sure Microsoft is obeying the EU’s antitrust orders.  Microsoft has been sharing technical information with rivals that helps make their products compatible with Microsoft servers.

Neil Barrett, a computer science professor was appointed by the EU to assess Microsoft data.  Microsoft lost a legal battle in 2007 to the EU.  Microsoft had to give I.P. to rivals as a result.  Microsoft stated that they will remain committed to complying with the EU’s antitrust orders.

[via AP]