Big Tech's bad week in Europe signals more problems in 2018

THE past 36 hours have reinforced Europe's role as the toughest cop of American tech giants.

With a flurry of announcements, regulators across the continent signalled continued scrutiny of Silicon Valley in the year ahead. The European Union's top court on Wednesday ruled Uber Technologies Inc must be regulated as a transportation service, a blow to the company's attempts to avoid taxi rules and licencing requirements.

The ruling followed hard-hitting statements on Tuesday by German and French regulators. Andreas Mundt, Germany's leading competition regulator who built a career on tackling beer and sausage cartels, attacked Facebook Inc over its alleged misuse of user data. Across the border, France's privacy watchdog gave Facebook another headache, giving its WhatsApp messaging app one month to stop sharing data with its parent.