BRUSSELS — Lawmakers in the European Parliament’s legal affairs committee have voted to go ahead and sue the European Commission for axing a proposal to regulate patent licensing. The JURI committee on Tuesday voted in favor of referring the Commission to the Court of Justice of the European Union for breaching EU law by withdrawing a proposal to regulate standard essential patents. The patents, for 4G and 5G networks used in mobile phones and connected cars, have been at the center of a long-running battle between the companies that own them and those that use them. European lawmakers have supported efforts to resolve the fight — and some accuse the EU executive of attacking democracy by killing off the initiative. President Roberta Metsola now needs to mandate the Parliament’s legal service to draft and file a case by Nov. 14, a Parliament official said, citing rules of procedure. If she intends to depart from JURI’s conclusions, she could also bring it to the Conference of Presidents or, in an unlikely scenario, submit it to a plenary vote, they added. Fourteen MEPs voted in favor of the action, against eight who opposed it, the official said. The vote was held behind closed doors.  The motion was spearheaded by German Social Democrat René Repasi, coordinator for the Committee on Legal Affairs and standing rapporteur for disputes involving the Parliament. “With today’s vote, we send a clear message: we will not stand by when the Commission oversteps its mandate,” Repasi said in an emailed statement following the vote. “The Commission’s right to withdraw a proposal, as was conducted with the Standard-Essential Patents (SEP) proposal, cannot be used as a political instrument to short-circuit Parliament’s work or to enforce a deregulation agenda from above. This is not in line with how the democratic processes in the European Union are meant to function.” Members of the European People’s Party, the center-right party allied to Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, were instructed to vote against taking legal action. “Today’s vote reflects Parliament’s concern about the balance of powers between EU institutions, but we must be clear: This legal action will not bring back the withdrawn legislative proposal,” Adrián Vázquez Lázara, the EPP’s lead on the issue, told POLITICO.  While he acknowledged that the withdrawal of the SEP bill raised some question marks, Vázquez Lázara said that legal action was not the right solution. “What can be questioned, however, is the wording and justification used in this specific withdrawal, which raises legitimate concerns about institutional transparency and communication,” Vázquez Lázara said. “Those Members who wish to see the proposal revived should seek political and legislative avenues to achieve that goal, rather than resorting to institutional confrontation.” Patent implementers, which historically supported the regulation and range from carmakers to Big Tech companies and SMEs, cheered the move. “There is still hope for democracy and fairness in the EU legislature,” said Evelina Kurgonaite of the Fair Standards Alliance, which represents the patent users. “We thank MEP [Marion] Walsmann and other JURI members for their leadership in fighting for a fair chance at innovation for  businesses in Europe, especially SMEs.” The Commission declined to comment.

PARIS — French authorities demanded Tesla stop advertising its cars as fully self-driving and threatened the American automaker with €50,000-a-day fines if it continues to engage in such “deceptive marketing practices.” The order from France’s consumer watchdog on Tuesday follows an investigation conducted in 2023 and 2024 after numerous complaints were filed. Tesla was found to have broken French law over several of its business practices, like failing to reimburse orders on time or provide receipts of cash payments. The Elon Musk-owned company has four months to comply before the fines kick in. This is not the first time Tesla has faced legal scrutiny over its vehicles’ autonomous capabilities. Germany’s competition watchdog sued Tesla in 2020 over its marketing claims, saying Tesla promises more in the advertisements than it can deliver. The automaker successfully appealed, however, and is still advertising its cars as self-driving in Germany. In the United States, the company has faced numerous wrongful death lawsuits over accidents involving its Autopilot feature, which allows the vehicle to steer, brake and accelerate on its own. Once a desirable brand, Tesla is now facing numerous headwinds in France thanks to Musk’s politics. Ten owners are collectively suing the automaker over Musk’s role in the White House and the subsequent decline in value of the cars. They also argue Musks’ politics have made their cars targets for acts of vandalism. Tesla’s sales dropped 67 percent in May in France compared with the same month in 2024, according to data from the country’s PFA registrar.

BARCELONA — When it comes to 5G, your smartphone is fooling you. Many Europeans today might see a 5G icon when unlocking their phone, but are most likely still riding on a lower-grade connection of boosted 4G. Europe is lagging behind China and the United States on rolling out top-level mobile internet known as 5G standalone (SA), so much so that some research suggests only 2 percent of Europeans are connecting to it. The lack of full-fledged 5G threatens to stall European innovation, keeping the bloc’s industry stuck in the slow lane while other parts of the world speed ahead. Industry officials warn the lag is aggravating Europe’s competitive decline and the bloc’s ability to attract investment. “At the start of the 5G cycle, vendors and operators put up huge promises about how it is going to enable robotic surgeries, autonomous cars, all this different stuff,” but none of that can be delivered until standalone architecture is in place, said Luke Kehoe, an industry analyst at connectivity intelligence firm Ookla. European companies are missing out on faster speeds and game-changing capabilities that were supposed to take the industry to the next level — making factories smarter and more automated. Ultra-connected, robot-packed plants are still a work in progress, partly because operators haven’t fully upgraded networks, especially right down to the core parts, to the full 5G standard. Trade association Connect Europe estimated that only 40 percent of the European population was covered by 5G standalone by the end of last year, behind North America (91 percent) and Asia-Pacific (45 percent). But Ookla, which is behind the online tool Speedtest, crunched the data and found that fewer than 2 percent of Europeans are actually connecting to it today. “We did see very, very clearly that Europe is markedly behind,” Kehoe said. SIGNAL FOR INVESTMENTS IS WEAK 5G non-standalone (NSA) — which Europeans mostly have today — is like putting a turbo engine in an old car. It boosts the speed but still relies on the previous 4G infrastructure. 5G standalone, on the other hand, is like building a new high-speed train system from scratch. It requires time and money to optimize and upgrade the full network. If anything, the sluggish roll-out “is an indication that we do not have the investment environment to compete,” according to John Giusti, the chief regulatory officer for GSMA, the global association of mobile operators. The bloc’s biggest telcos have warned for years that the regulatory landscape, market fragmentation and restrictive merger policy in Europe have been squeezing profits and stretching their wallets thin. “We don’t have the return on capital coming in to the sector to further invest and strengthen our networks. That is the core issue,” Giusti claimed. Meanwhile, China — with more than twice as many robots in its factories as the EU — has made 5G standalone a policy priority, Kehoe said. The country has a “huge base of enterprises that are using 5G SA in a manufacturing context for very, very low latency,” the critical time that data takes to travel to a server and back. “That’s where I think Europe would miss out now.” India is also thriving, driven by its largest operator Reliance Jio, which leapfrogged the non-standalone phase and rolled out standalone infrastructure from day one. But all hope is not lost for the old continent, as Ookla’s Kehoe underscored. “Fiber is particularly important in terms of competitiveness and, on that matter, Europe is doing very, very well.” CHICKEN AND EGG It’s not just about the money, or lack thereof, going into next-gen infrastructure. “What you see in Europe is actually very rational investors’ behavior,” said Robert Mourik, chair of the BEREC group of European telecom regulators. It’s a classic “chicken-and-egg” problem, he argued. “We are not investing too far ahead of the demand” — noting the industry’s timid appetite for something new — while also recognizing that struggling operators need to focus on clear revenue opportunities. Connect Europe reported nine new commercial launches of 5G SA networks last year. It acknowledged that slow adoption “is largely due to operator concerns that the return on investment is unclear, the technology is immature and the migration from 5G to 5G SA is disruptive.” For manufacturers selling the 5G kits, Europe needs to step on the gas. “I think the risk is we fall even further behind on both the existing industries but also missing out” on the ones “we don’t see yet,” said Jenny Lindqvist, Ericsson’s head of market for Europe. Europe needs to play catch-up, she emphasised. “We have other markets outside of Europe where the infrastructure is there and we start seeing the new use cases.”

BRUSSELS — Slowly, surely, the European Union is tinkering with its own blocks on Chinese connected-car technology like those proposed in the United States this week. After the U.S. government on Monday announced it wanted to ban Chinese tech linking cars to the internet from American roads, European officials have echoed Washington’s concerns about the spying, surveillance and sabotage risks posed by what EU digital czar Margrethe Vestager described as “computers on wheels.”   A connected car “can register everything where it is, and it can also transmit that data to those who have access to the data,” Vestager told reporters on a U.S. visit Tuesday. The EU’s services “are looking at this, also with our economic security experts,” she said, adding “it’s legitimate to look into whether or not that kind of technology can be misused when it comes to security issues.” The focus on Chinese car technology opens up another front in an ongoing battle among the U.S., China and other regions over who controls key technologies like artificial intelligence, microchips and 5G; driving the rivalry are fears of espionage, sabotage, economic coercion tactics and supply chain disruptions. It also comes as Europe is already slapping trade tariffs on Beijing-subsidized electric vehicles, in an effort to stop Chinese cars from flooding the bloc’s market. The U.S. Commerce Department’s Monday announcement is the latest barrier Washington has wanted to impose on Chinese vehicles in recent years, but is the first to address cyber-hacking threats. Canada and the U.K. are also considering enacting bans or other legislation to address security concerns. In July U.S. officials met with selected European countries and others to discuss cybersecurity and data risks related to connected cars. European officials, meanwhile, have been quietly working on measures that seek to better understand and remedy the perceived risks of Chinese tech in cars. One possible route is a draft “ICT supply-chain toolbox” that cybersecurity officials are working to finalize in the coming weeks. The document will include proposed measures on electric-vehicle connectivity as well as on renewables, according to one person with knowledge of the drafting who was granted anonymity to disclose details. It would resemble Europe’s 5G Security Toolbox, which led a series of EU countries to ban, limit or phase-out Chinese telco vendor Huawei. These “toolboxes,” however, are non-binding documents and rely heavily on the willingness of national governments to turn them into tough restrictions. European officials have echoed Washington’s concerns about the spying, surveillance and sabotage risks posed by what EU digital czar Margrethe Vestager described as “computers on wheels.” | Nicolas Tucat/Getty Images On top of that, the EU in recent years has passed a patchwork of laws and legislation ranging from cybersecurity policies in critical sectors, such as transport, to rules on the management of data generated by connected devices. But those rules aren’t used to target specific countries or suppliers — yet. Dutch EU lawmaker Bart Groothuis, who worked on some of the mentioned rulebooks, says everything now “hinges on the political will” to start a probe. While the U.S. can act on national security grounds, Brussels has to leave such decisions to European capitals. “The U.S. is taking more of a national security approach to it, and the EU doesn’t necessarily have that tool to deploy,” said Greta Peisch, former general counsel with the Office of the United States Trade Representative, in response to questions about the U.S. using national security to put a 100-percent tariff on Chinese EVs. NEW CAR CYBER RULE DENTED AUGUST SALES Another tweak to Europe’s rules on cybersecurity in cars has already made an impact in Europe. The United Nations Economic Commission for Europe is tasked with setting certain regulations for autonomous vehicles and cybersecurity in cars. A regulation that took effect in July has already limited the models available in the EU. Under the rule, manufacturers must implement a cybersecurity management system that protects user data. The rule helped dent Chinese car sales figures in August, according to European car analyst Matthias Schmidt. MG — acquired by Chinese automaker SAIC in 2007 — registered zero vehicles in July, which a Norwegian automotive official confirmed to Schmidt was caused by the UN’s latest cyber regulation. The rule also hit European carmakers, with Volkswagen subsidiary Porsche pulling its Macan combustion-engine model from the bloc’s market for that very reason, Schmidt said. While the EU is considering its own moves on Chinese tech in cars, its industries warned that the U.S. measures could cause significant pain to Europe’s powerful car sector. Under the proposed U.S. ban, European manufacturers could be forced to find new suppliers if they use targeted parts in vehicles they export to the U.S. Several brands import cars from their Chinese production hubs, such as BMW’s Mini and iX3, meaning they could be hit by a European version of the regulation. Automakers are also loath to anger Beijing, particularly German brands that depend on the Chinese market for the bulk of their revenue. Car lobby ACEA didn’t provide a specific comment on the expected impact. European Commission spokesperson Thomas Regnier said the EU will “closely monitor” the U.S. proposal and any “direct or indirect impact” it has. He added that Brussels will “intensify its exchanges” with Washington — after an earlier meeting at the end of July. Sam Clark contributed reporting.