European stock markets closed mostly lower in Wednesday trading as the Stoxx Europe 600 was off 0.02%, Germany's DAX was down 0.36%, the FTSE 100 fell 0.19%, the Swiss Market Index declined 0.52%, while France's CAC gained 0.15%
The European Commission will consider possible restrictions on social media for children under 16 years of age, Bloomberg News reported Wednesday. Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said she will establish a panel to advise on how to make social media safer for children in Europe by the end of the year.
A Meta Platforms spokesperson said that the company is not commenting directly on von der Leyen's speech but continues to support proposals to establish a common digital majority age across the EU, whereby parents must approve their younger teens' access to digital services.
Google and Snap did not immediately respond to MT Newswires' request for comment on the matter.
TikTok and Meta Platforms Wednesday won a legal challenge against the European Commission over how supervisory fees were calculated under the Digital Services Act, but the companies will not receive refunds for fees already paid. In its rulings, the EU's General Court annulled the Commission's implementing decisions that established the fee calculation methodology.
EU regulators have been given 12 months to revise the methodology using the appropriate legal procedure, it added.
In corporate news, Alphabet's Google said on Wednesday it has eliminated data transfer fees for organizations running workloads across multiple cloud platforms in the EU and UK, ahead of the EU Data Act taking effect. The company said the move, part of Google's Data Transfer Essentials program, exceeds legal requirements by offering transfers at no cost, while the law only mandates that fees be charged at cost.
Astrazeneca has received the US Food and Drug Administration's approval for selumetinib granules and capsules as treatment for pediatric patients of at least 1 year old with neurofibromatosis type 1, who have symptomatic, inoperable plexiform neurofibromas, according to an FDA statement Wednesday.