The European Parliament and Council have reached a provisional agreement on new rules to ban misleading advertisements and provide consumers with better product information. The agreement updates the existing EU list of banned commercial practices. Thus, generic environmental claims such as “environmentally friendly”, “natural”, “biodegradable”, “climate neutral” or “eco”, without proof of recognised excellent environmental performance and other misleading marketing tricks will be banned. Only sustainability labels based on approved certification schemes or established by public authorities will be allowed. Guarantee information will be more visible and a new guarantee extension label will be introduced. The aim of the new rules is to protect consumers from misleading practices and help them make better purchasing choices

Following preliminary objections over Google’s data terms, set out back in January by Germany’s Federal Cartel Office, the tech giant has agreed to make changes that will give users a better choice over its use of their information, the country’s Federal Cartel Office (FCO) declared. The commitments cover situations where Google would like to combine personal data from one Google service with personal data from other Google or non-Google sources or cross-use these data in Google services that are provided separately, per the authority. “In the future Google will have to provide its users with the possibility to give free, specific, informed and unambiguous consent to the processing of their data across services. For this purpose Google has to offer corresponding choice options for the combination of data,” the FCO said, adding that the design of the new “selection dialogues” must not seek to manipulative users towards cross-service data processing (aka, no dark patterns).

While developments in occupational health and safety and environmental social governance are continuing, a strikingly high number of occupational and environmental accidents are occurring at the Tesla factory in Germany, according to media reports. According to German media reports, ambulances and rescue helicopters were called around 250 times last year to Tesla's Grünheide factory, which produces cars. This frequency means on average at least one ambulance is called for each working day. Workers at the Tesla factory in Germany have reportedly suffered burns and injuries some requiring amputation, and there are fears that fatal accidents on the production line could occur in the future. "This frequency of work accidents is not normal," and "This is several times more than is common in other car companies," said a spokesman for workers union.  

The European Commission has prohibited, under the EU Merger Regulation, the proposed acquisition of Flugo Group Holdings AB (‘eTraveli') by Booking Holdings (‘Booking'). The acquisition would have allowed Booking to strengthen its dominant position on the market for hotel online travel agencies (‘OTAs') in the European Economic Area (‘EEA'). Booking did not offer remedies that were sufficient to address these concerns. The transaction would have combined Booking and eTraveli, two leading providers of OTA services in a concentrated industry. Booking is the leading hotel OTA while eTraveli is one of the main providers of flight OTA services in Europe. In the EEA only, OTAs handle transactions worth more than €100 billion annually. Hotel OTA services are the largest and most profitable segment of the OTA market and are worth approximately €40 billion annually.

As it is published on 28.9.2023 from the Official Journal of the European Union, Cameroon and Vietnam added to the high-risk countries for European Anti Money Laundering jurisdiction. It has been declared that, since the latest amendments to Delegated Regulation (EU) 2016/1675, the Financial Action Task Force (“FATF”) on Money Laundering has updated its list of “Jurisdictions under Increased Monitoring” (Grey List). At its plenary meeting between 21-23 June 2023, the FATF has updated its list of ‘Jurisdictions under Increased Monitoring’ by adding Cameroon and Vietnam to the Grey List. Given those changes, the Commission has conducted an assessment to identify high-risk third countries and added Cameroon and Vietnam to those high-risk countries in accordance with Article 9 of Directive (EU) 2015/849.