Personal injury awards, DPC’s Big Tech decisions, and Facebook’s lobbying

Agreement by the Judicial Council to new guidelines for personal injury awards is a vital step to lowering insurance costs to businesses, according to a new report from the National Competitiveness and Productivity Council (NCPC). If this approach does not reduce costs and increase certainty for business, then the Government needs to legislate to cap personal injury awards, it says. Cliff Taylor has the details.

The State's data-privacy watchdog expects to share draft decisions on possible fines arising from up to seven investigations into big tech companies with other European regulators this year. Simon Carswell spoke to the Data Protection Commissioner, Helen Dixon.

Facebook pressed the Irish Ambassador to the United States to lobby members of Congress on the negative impact a ban on data transfers between the US and the EU would have on the Irish economy, correspondence reveals. Jack Power reports.

Lloyds Banking Group has failed to convince Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs (HMRC) that it is entitled to claim tax relief on massive losses racked up in the Republic during the financial crisis. Joe Brennan explains this long-running dispute.

EU should give gig workers same rights as permanent staff

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Want to de-Google your life? Here’s alternative browsers, email and search engines

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Re-framing problems can lead to better range of solutions for your company

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Lego Vidiyo: Children will love this app so be prepared to lose your phone to it

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SSE Airtricity plans to spend up to ¤6 billion building offshore wind farms around the Irish coast, according to its chief executive, Alistair Phillips-Davies. Barry O'Halloran reports.

Investec has cut its 2021 growth forecast for the underlying Irish economy in half to 2.5 per cent as a third national lockdown, which took effect over the Christmas holiday period, has been extended until least early April, writes Joe Brennan.

In her Net Results column, Karlin Lillington argues that the time has come for the EU to introduce comprehensive and fair gig worker legislative protections.

In our tech feature, Ciara O'Brien looks at how you can take Google out of your life with a list of alternative search engines, email providers, browsers and maps.

In Innovation, Danish expert and author Thomas Wedell-Wedellsborg says re-framing problems can lead to a better range of solutions for your company, writes Frank Dillon.

Our tech review this week sees Ciara O'Brien put the Lego Vidiyo Music Video Maker app to the test, with impressive results.

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