Disney, NBCUniversal, Sony and AT&T's Warner Bros. no longer can try to block EU consumers outside of Britain and Ireland from accessing films by satellite or online, under an antitrust agreement the European Commission announced Thursday with the studios and Sky TV. The EC said it told studios in 2015 that geo-blocking requirements in contracts with Sky TV seem to breach EU antitrust laws by eliminating cross-border competition between pay-TV providers.

Reports from U.S.-based foreign media outlets are due April 12, said an FCC Media Bureau public notice in Wednesday's Daily Digest. The reports are required to name the outlet, and describe its relationship to its foreign principal. The first report was due Oct. 12, and the reports are due every six months, the PN said.

ICANN's Generic Names Supporting Organization Council, OK'ing all policy recommendations in the Expedited Policy Development Process Team's report on temporary specifications for global top-level domain registration data, noted the final document has 29 such recommendations. Data that would be collected and made public such as through the Whois database of registered domain names would include some contact information to report problems, although some people's names would be redacted in other data fields. The council gave the nonprofit's board the report, with public comments due April 17 before directors would act, ICANN said Monday and emailed stakeholders the next day. In 2018, the board approved the temporary Whois gTLD registration data spec to comply with EU's general data protection regulation (see 1810310008).

Updating federal privacy laws needs to be a “top priority,” but the U.S. should avoid European-like regulation that could put small American companies at a competitive disadvantage, Rep. Suzan DelBene, D-Wash., said Monday at a Center for Strategic and International Studies event. The U.S. needs a “strong” consumer privacy bill, she said, but she raised concerns about the impact of the EU’s general data protection regulation on startups. She will reintroduce her privacy bill (see 1809200030), which grants the FTC additional rulemaking and enforcement authorities. Large companies can hire armies of attorneys and technocrats to ensure compliance, but small businesses don’t have the same resources, she said.

The rate of the third tranche of tariffs on Chinese goods “will remain at 10 percent" indefinitely, said a prepublication Federal Register “modification” notice released Thursday by the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative. That prevented a hike to 25 percent at 12:01 a.m. EST Saturday. At President Donald Trump's "discretion,” the USTR “determined that it no longer is appropriate” to hike the tariffs, “in light of progress in discussions with China” on a new trade accord. That levies aren't increasing is the “good news,” emailed trade expert David Cohen with Sandler Travis. Staying at 10 percent indefinitely is "not so good news, he added. Hundreds of tech companies testified last summer against the penalties.

FCC Chairman Ajit Pai said he signed an agreement to work with Jordan’s Telecommunications Regulatory Commission, inked at the Mobile World Congress. “The U.S. and Jordan are strong allies, including on communications,” Pai tweeted Friday. “A pleasure to ... sign a Letter of Intent formalizing the cooperative relationship between our agencies and our respective countries.”

The Senate Commerce Security Subcommittee set a Thursday hearing to probe “the security implications of China's harmful practices in the marketplace,” including “intellectual property challenges, data localization requirements, standards-setting, and cybersecurity threats.” Set to testify are: Information Technology Industry Council Executive Vice President-Policy Josh Kallmer, the Rhodium Group's Daniel Rosen, Harvard University Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs co-Director Eric Rosenbach and New America China Digital Economy Fellow Samm Sacks. The panel will begin at 10 a.m. in 562 Dirksen, the Senate Commerce Committee said. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, meanwhile, tweeted Wednesday that the U.S. “must ensure the security of 5G equipment by limiting authoritarian regimes' access to, and control over, our networks.” President Donald Trump's recent comments about 5G and two Chinese telecom equipment manufacturers -- Huawei and ZTE -- caused confusion about his future policy moves (see 1902210057 and 1902220066).

Liberty Global plans to sell its Swiss cable ISP operation, UPC Switzerland, for $6.3 billion to Sunrise Communications Group, it said Wednesday. It said UPC's network has 1.1 million customers and passes 2.3 million homes, and the deal is expected to close by year's end.

ICANN won't lobby, "influence or impact the development of any legislation" as it provides technical information on rules and bills that affect the group's mission and articles of incorporation, blogged CEO Goran Marby Monday. "Anytime we talk about government engagement, we get questions about lobbying, or if we are seeking to influence legislation, a politician or public official on a specific issue." The nonprofit sought comment on a draft charter about such activities.

GSMA launched "The Mobile Industry Manifesto for Europe” seeking progressive regulation there. The European Parliament holds elections this spring, GSMA said Tuesday: “Policymakers in Europe [should] modernise regulation and create the right conditions for a new era of Intelligent Connectivity.” GSMA predicted with the right policies, Europe has the potential for 5G to be 30 percent of connections by 2025.