Even low import tariff rates have a significant compounding effect on the final retail price of medicines, which in turn impacts on affordability. While much of the "access to affordable medicines" debate is about intellectual property rights (IPRs) and business practices of pharmaceutical...

Old beliefs, new symbols, new faces. In 2013, a small group of German green and left-wing activists, professional campaign NGOs and well-established protectionist organisations set up deceptive communication campaigns against TTIP, the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership between the...

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...

In den letzten Jahren haben Anzahl und Bedeutung von NGOs zugenommen. Friedrich Kitschelt, Bundesministerium für wirtschaftliche Zusammenarbeit und Entwicklung (BMZ), sieht die Nichtregierungsorganisationen als unverzichtbare Partner im Politikdialog. NGOs seien einerseits Partner des BMZ und...

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...

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...