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.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz needs to be prepared for an ambush of the kind endured by the leaders of Ukraine and South Africa when he meets U.S. President Donald Trump in the Oval Office on Thursday. Trump’s hostility to “bad, very bad” Germans is notorious, and Merz is bound to face sharp questions in the harsh glare of TV cameras about his election night remarks in February that Europe needs to “achieve independence from the USA” and that Trump’s administration is “largely indifferent to the fate of Europe.” Merz will equally need to elude tripwires on an array of topics: German car exports, support for NATO and Ukraine, and — perhaps most awkwardly — the Trump administration’s sympathy for the far-right, anti-immigration Alternative for Germany (AfD) opposition party, the country’s second-strongest political force. This doesn’t necessarily mean Merz should be losing sleep, as there are early signs the two wealthy businessmen (and golfers) could well hit it off. The new chancellor, an avowed transatlanticist, is pledging to push Germany in a radically new direction when it comes to matters dear to Trump’s heart, promising a massive increase in military spending and a crackdown on migration. The visit also coincides with the Europeans’ conjuring up a potential peace deal on cars to defuse the brewing EU-U.S. trade war. The president’s invitation for Merz to stay at Blair House, the official White House guest house across Pennsylvania Avenue from the north gate, has also offered German officials some further optimism that they aren’t wandering into a trap. One White House official, granted anonymity to speak candidly about something they’re not authorized to discuss publicly, played down the risk of fireworks, casting the meeting with Merz as “just another foreign leader visit.” The leaders have repeatedly spoken by phone and Merz has attempted to woo Trump with an invitation to the president’s ancestral German village, the birthplace of his grandfather, Friedrich Trump. The German chancellor seems to think the calls went well. “My first conversation with him was personally good, there are a few people we know in common … and I congratulated him on the American pope … and then we talked a bit about Chicago, and because the pope comes from there. I have often been there professionally,” Merz recently explained. Impersonating Trump, he added: “‘Oh, where do you know Chicago from? This is a great city! Chicago is a really great city.’ That was kind of the tone of the conversation.” That bonhomie encouraged German government spokesman Stefan Kornelius to hope the two men would continue their “very good relationship” into the Washington meeting. But even Kornelius betrayed a hint of worry that matters might spin out of control: “We all know that the dynamic in the White House is perhaps also somewhat fluid.” TOUGH START It’s not difficult for the German delegation to envisage how things could easily careen off the rails, like when Trump made unproven claims of a “genocide” against South Africa’s white population during a May visit by that country’s president, Cyril Ramaphosa, or when Trump and U.S. Vice President JD Vance attacked Ukraine’s embattled wartime leader, Volodymyr Zelenskyy earlier in the year. Vance’s speech at the Munich Security Conference in February, days before Merz’s conservatives won a snap election, provides a possible template for this scenario. In his speech, Vance attacked mainstream European leaders for “running in fear” of their own voters, singling out Germany’s “firewall” around the rising AfD to keep centrist politicians from forming coalitions with the ostracized party. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has also waded into the debate, accusing Germany’s domestic intelligence service of practicing “tyranny in disguise” by labelling the AfD as extremist. In his speech, JD Vance attacked mainstream European leaders for “running in fear” of their own voters, singling out Germany’s “firewall” around the rising AfD to keep centrist politicians from forming coalitions with the ostracized party. | Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images Vance’s comments clearly shocked Merz, who delivered outspoken remarks on election night doubting whether NATO could continue to exist in its current form given fears regarding the role of the U.S. That came only days after he stressed the need for talks to bring Germany under the British and French nuclear umbrella. Since that rocky diplomatic start, Berlin-Washington relations have warmed considerably. Merz’s government has made a concerted effort to win over Trump — who repeatedly attacked Germany as “delinquent” on defense spending during his first term, threatening to pull out the 12,000 U.S. troops stationed in the country — by vowing to build the “strongest conventional army” in Europe. Merz’s government has also opened possibilities that were previously unthinkable, expressing a willingness to gradually move toward spending 5 percent of economic output on defense, a huge leap from the current level of just over 2 percent. Merz has also ditched the talk of achieving “independence.” During a visit to NATO headquarters in Brussels in May, Merz declared the Trump administration’s stance toward Europe had “obviously changed” in light of the EU’s stepped-up efforts on defense, and that he had become “more optimistic about the future of the NATO alliance.” The U.S., he added, was “indispensable for Europe’s security today and for a long time to come.” There are signs the Americans might just be buying it. At a conference in Singapore last weekend, U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth singled out Germany as an example for other nations to follow, even joking as he spoke that “it’s hard to believe … I’m saying this.” And when it comes to the AfD, Merz can take heart from the fact that tech billionaire Elon Musk — the administration’s most openly fervid fan of the party — is out of the government. HIGH STAKES While there’s not a great deal on the line for Trump administration officials, the stakes of the Oval Office meeting could hardly be higher for Merz. Europe’s ability to defend itself, a joint strategy for stopping Russia’s war on Ukraine, and an end to the tariff war that is destabilizing the European Union’s economy could hinge in no small part on whether Merz and Trump click. Merz’s team will also be arriving just as the Europeans are starting to produce tangible trade gifts to make things go over well. Brussels is pushing a plan for the EU to water down its tough rules on autonomous cars and adopt looser vehicle regulations, part of a renewed attempt to get the Trump administration to retreat on the tariffs it slapped on imported cars and car parts, according to a person familiar with the discussion. But it’s unlikely such technical details will prove decisive during the meeting, people close to Merz believe. As Jürgen Hardt, a conservative lawmaker focusing on foreign policy, put it: “He’ll only have [a] few notes with him, if any, and otherwise he’ll rely on his intuitive ability to find the right tone.” Merz himself has conceded the dangers of conversations with Trump. “Anyone who sees and experiences Trump on TV knows how they might go.”

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.”

The suddenly MAGA tycoon is pushing the boundaries of what social platforms (and tycoons) have done in politics.

SAN FRANCISCO — Elon Musk’s electric car company is endorsing a California climate policy that his political ally Donald Trump has promised to dismantle if reelected. Tesla has joined other electric vehicle and charging station manufacturers in urging California lawmakers to support the state’s low-carbon fuel standard, which boosts electric vehicles by setting an emissions limit on all transportation fuels sold in the state. “This program has achieved significant economic and environmental benefits for Californians, and we strongly support its continued advancement to drive even greater progress,” Tesla, Hyundai, GM, Audi, Rivian and others wrote to California lawmakers on Oct. 24. The letter was obtained exclusively by POLITICO Wednesday. That Musk’s company would endorse a key plank in California’s fight against climate change underscores the tension between his political and business interests. Trump has moderated his attacks against electric vehicles since Musk became a campaign surrogate but is still pledging to overturn California’s suite of nation-leading rules to boost electric vehicles. “I would not allow California politicians to get away with their plan to impose a 100 percent ban on the sale of gas-powered cars and trucks,” he said at a rally in Southern California earlier this month, referencing rules that would phase out sales of combustion engine trucks by 2045 and and gas-powered cars by 2035. Congressional Republicans have attacked a planned update to the program that state regulators estimated last year could cost as much as 47 cents per gallon. Reps. Michelle Steel and David Valadao, both in tough reelection fights, joined a letter that same day asking California regulators to postpone their vote. Gov. Gavin Newsom has supported the program against attacks from the oil industry and in-state Republicans, even as he’s sought to dampen California’s high gas prices by increasing authority over oil refiners and seeking to add more ethanol to its gasoline. The California Air Resources Board is set to vote on amendments to the program Nov. 8. Christopher Cadelago and Wes Venteicher contributed to this report.

“Blade Runner 2049” producers filed a lawsuit against billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk for allegedly using images from the film without permission at the Tesla robotaxi launch event. Alcon Entertainment, one of the production companies behind “Blade Runner 2049,” is suing Musk — along with Tesla and Warner Bros. Discovery — for copyright infringement. The company claims it rejected Musk’s request to use material from “Blade Runner 2049” as part of the marketing event for the new Cybercab, but Tesla’s CEO didn’t take no for an answer. “Alcon refused all permissions and adamantly objected to defendants suggesting any affiliation between BR2049 and Tesla, Musk or any Musk-owned company. Defendants then used an apparently AI-generated faked image to do it all anyway,” the complaint said. According to the lawsuit, Musk’s unveiling of a robotaxi — a futuristic-looking vehicle with no pedals or a steering wheel that Tesla says drives itself — used AI-generated imagery mirroring scenes from the film, including one featuring a man resembling Hollywood star Ryan Gosling, who plays the main character K in the film. The complaint called Musk’s use of images “a bad faith and intentionally malicious gambit” to “make the otherwise stilted and stiff content of the … event more attractive to the global audience and to misappropriate BR2049’s brand to help sell Teslas.” Alcon denied Musk’s request due to “his highly politicized, capricious and arbitrary behavior, which sometimes veers into hate speech.” Musk has repeatedly expressed support for Donald Trump in the 2024 United States presidential race, campaigned for him and most recently announced $1 million cash incentives to swing state voters in a bid to galvanize Republicans. Musk has long referenced the “Blade Runner” sequel as an inspiration for his Tesla technology. In a separate claim earlier this month, the director of sci-fi movie “I, Robot” Alex Proyas accused Musk of copying his designs. “Hey Elon, can I have my designs back please?” he posted on X.