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Activists have criticised proposed changes to Europe's landmark privacy law. EU antitrust chief Henna Virkkunen will present the Digital Omnibus, in effect a package of proposals to simplify overlapping legislation including the General Data Protection Regulation, the Artificial Intelligence Act, the e-Privacy Directive and the Data Act, on November 19. Austrian privacy group noyb commented: "The draft Digital Omnibus proposes countless changes to many different articles of the GDPR. In combination this amounts to a death by a thousand cuts." Max Schrems of noyb said: "This would be a massive downgrading of Europeans' privacy 10 years after the GDPR was adopted."

 

Reuters

EU Cyber Rules: NIS2 + CRA Explained

Two major EU regulations—the NIS2 Directive and the Cyber Resilience Act (CRA)—are poised to reshape how organizations approach cybersecurity, product resilience, and regulatory accountability. While both aim to reduce systemic cyber risk across Europe, they do so from different angles, creating confusion among security and engineering teams. Hyperproof’s new guide breaks down how these two frameworks relate, where they overlap, and what they mean for builders and defenders working in or selling to the EU market.

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Civil Aviation Authority chief executive Rob Bishton has said that "it's not a question of if, only of when" before “organised” drone attacks shut down British airports. 

 

Financial Times

Executives from two of the UK's leading banks have outlined concerns about the country's position as a competitive financial hub, warning the House of Lords Financial Services Regulation Committee about the potential impact of the government's efforts to overhaul regulation. Michael Roberts, CEO of HSBC, said that while the Treasury's deregulation efforts are "a step in the right direction," more action is needed to support banks' role in economic growth. He highlighted the UK's higher capital requirements compared to global peers, saying that this could hinder lending. Stephen Dainton, president of Barclays Bank and head of investment bank management, said the delayed Basel framework could hurt competitiveness, arguing that it is "extremely important" that regulators "watch the circumstances that evolve . . . and ensure that we as a banking system in the UK are not disadvantaged."

 

Financial Times

City AM

Four former Glencore employees have pleaded not guilty to bribery charges ahead of a landmark criminal trial that is scheduled to take place in London in 2027 and set to last six months. Paul Hopkirk, Ramon Labiaga, David Perez and Martin Wakefield pleaded not guilty to charges of conspiring to give corrupt payments relating to Glencore's operations in Nigeria, Cameroon or Ivory Coast. Perez and Wakefield denied a further charge of conspiracy to falsify documents between 2007 and 2011. The Serious Fraud Office's case is one of the highest-profile prosecutions of commodities trading executives ever undertaken in the UK.

 

Bloomberg

Financial Times

Reuters

Lloyds Banking Group accessed information from the personal bank accounts of more than 30,000 employees. The UK's biggest lender compared staff spending habits to those of the wider public to assess their financial resilience as part of pay negotiations. The Affinity union, which represents Lloyds' employees but is not recognised by the group, said it was concerned, although Lloyds stressed "aggregated, anonymised data" had been used "in order to ensure compliance with regulations and to reflect common practice of using data to underpin decision-making." Jon Baines, a senior data protection specialist at law firm Mishcon de Reya, has called for the information commissioner to look into the exercise.

 

BBC News

The Times

Denmark faces a £400m legal bill, one of the largest in English legal history, stemming from its failed “cum-ex” tax fraud lawsuit in the High Court, according to court documents.

 

Financial Times

Ineos is filing 10 anti-dumping cases against imports of cheap chemical products into the EU as it warns that “time is running out” to rescue the European chemicals industry. “Sites are closing, carbon-heavy imports are surging and politicians are still asleep at the wheel,” said Tom Crotty, Ineos group director. “Unless Europe wakes up fast, it won’t just lose its chemical industry – it will lose the foundation of its entire manufacturing sector.”

 

Financial Times

The Daily Telegraph

The Times

Retail sales growth in the UK slowed to 1.6% in October, down from 2.3% in September, according to the British Retail Consortium (BRC) and KPMG. Food sales growth decreased to 3.5%, while non-food sales remained nearly unchanged at 0.1%. Helen Dickinson, BRC chief executive, warned that "looming Budget decisions risk undermining fragile consumer confidence," adding that the Chancellor "should use the Budget to remove this threat and help curb inflation for businesses and families."

 

Bloomberg

The Guardian

The Times

Regulators and bankers are alarmed about an explosion in privately-rated securities. Blackstone and Apollo are now among the most frequent users of ratings from firms beyond the big three.

 

Financial Times

Switzerland is inching closer to a deal to cut US tariffs on its exports from 39% to about 15%, as companies from Rolex to Richemont take the lead in breaking months of deadlock between Bern and Washington, DC. President Donald Trump said on Monday that he had not yet settled on the tariff rate he would impose on Switzerland, but confirmed that the US is “working on a deal to get the tariffs a little lower”. The news sent Richemont and Swatch shares up 2% and 4.2% respectively yesterday morning. 

 

Bloomberg

Financial Times

Reuters

European businesses are preparing for a significantly greater impact from US tariffs in 2026, anticipating a reduction in GDP by 0.5 to 0.6 percentage points, compared to a minimal impact of 0.03 points in 2025 due to prior mitigation efforts. The survey by BusinessEurope indicates that uncertainty surrounding future trade policies continues to pose medium-term challenges for growth, despite a recent EU-US deal that has reduced some policy ambiguity.

 

Reuters

La Molisana and 12 other Italian pasta producers face combined US import and antidumping tariffs of 107%, prompting plans to withdraw from the American market as early as January. The US Commerce Department imposed a preliminary 92% antidumping duty following accusations from American competitors, citing non-cooperation from La Molisana and Garofalo, while Italy and the EU contest the decision amid allegations of political bias and protectionism.

 

Wall Street Journal