Good morning! The EU member states and the European Parliament reached a provisional agreement on Thursday morning on changes to regulations for artificial intelligence (AI). They agree on a ban on AI applications that create sexually explicit images without consent, or that create child pornography.
The AI law actually came into effect in August 2024 and will be introduced gradually. The European Commission is working to simplify legislation, and these negotiations were part of that. It has also been decided to postpone the introduction of some elements of the legislation on artificial intelligence. An extensive analysis of the new agreement will appear on our website during the morning.
We also noticed this in the economic news this morning:
A bailiff has this week seized at Booking.com on part of the administration, reports Het Financieele Dagblad. This follows an escalating conflict with hotels, which claim that Booking is blocking access to their invoices. They need that in their case against the company. More than 15,000 hotels have joined the lawsuit to claim compensation for what they see as overpaid commissions.
High energy and fuel prices are fueled by the war in the Middle East causes Dutch consumers to spend less. ING concluded this based on a survey among tens of thousands of customers. Six in ten respondents indicated that they wanted to moderate expenditure. More than 8 in 10 customers expect to see high energy prices in their wallets for three months or longer.
At the same time, optimism about a possible Iran deal is causing prices at the pump to fall slightly. The national recommended prices of the major oil companies for gasoline and diesel fell slightly on Thursday. For example, the recommended retail price for a liter Euro95 is now 2,630, compared to 2,646 the day before.
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Consumer spending up, and is the business community already noticing the effect of the Iran war on the results?