Forced data localisation measures are on the rise around the world, fragmenting the Internet and increasing costs for businesses and consumers. Until the year 2000, only 15 measures were imposed globally. By 2007, the number of measures doubled and it more than doubled again until today. The...

A recent study by Capaldo suggests that TTIP would have seriously negative consequences for trade, growth, income and employment in Europe. It has been given a surprising amount of attention, despite the fact that errs on the extreme side of trade estimates. Such serious flaws, however, beset...

Covid-19 and its broader implications have highlighted the importance of Europe's digital transformation to ensure Europeans' social and economic well-being. It provides important new learnings about Europe's quest for "technology sovereignty". While the debate about technology sovereignty is...

The European Commission is reviewing the use of supplementary protection certificates (SPCs), a patent term extension motivated by the increasing length of market approvals for pharmaceuticals. The initiative is driven by EU Health Ministers thinking that changes in patent exclusivity rights...

Some (large) EU governments are making the case for digital companies to pay "their fair share of tax". The key underlying assumption is that companies in the digital space are not doing so right now. Governments also assume that there is a substantial source of untaxed profits that is waiting...

The European Commission has recently proposed to upend decades of international tax cooperation and introduce a new three percent tax on corporate turnover from digital advertising and online intermediation services. The proposal is not just remarkable for the actual design of the tax; it is...

Online platforms create "more perfect" markets. Online platforms are a market-driven cure to the imperfections of the EU's incomplete Single Market. Platforms provide well-functioning technical infrastructures that allow users to easily deal with country-specific legislation in the EU, e.g. VAT...

From a retrospective perspective, effective future fiscal cooperation in Europe is not likely to stand a chance. Focusing on the Stability and Growth Pact (SGP, the Pact), this paper studies the determinants of national policymakers' changing commitment to a multilateral fiscal rule, referred to...