The European Commission has set out a Digital Agenda for Europe that explains how it believes Information and Communication Technologies should be used to deliver sustainable economic and social benefits within Europe.

Launching the Digital Agenda earlier this week, Neelie Kroes - European Commission Vice-President for the Digital Agenda – said "We must put the interests of Europe's citizens and businesses at the forefront of the digital revolution and so maximise the potential of Information and Communications Technologies to advance job creation, sustainability and social inclusion."

The European Commission has announced a settlement decision in a cartel case that involved ten producers of DRAM memory chips. The fine, which totals €331,273,800 (around £286 million) includes a reduction of 10% for the companies' acknowledgement of the facts. The companies involved were Micron, Samsung, Hynix, Infineon, NEC, Hitachi, Mitsubishi, Toshiba, Elpida and Nanya. Micron was not fined because it revealed the existence of the cartel to the Commission in 2002. Only one of the companies – Infineon – was based in Europe but all sell their products in the European Economic Area (EEA) and must abide by EU law.

Digital marketing intelligence agency comScore has released data that shows almost a quarter of mobile phone users in Europe listen to music on their handsets; a total of 54 million people in the UK, France, Germany, Italy and Spain. Of those 54 million music consumers in the EU5 countries, 42% have a smartphone (compared to a 25% average amongst all mobile users).

Spain has the most mobile music lovers; 30% of mobile users. Germany follows and the UK is in third place with 22.6% penetration. As a contrast, usage in the USA is just 13.2% of the mobile population.

It's relatively unusual for companies to campaign for more regulation… but that's what Sony Ericsson is doing. The mobile manufacturer has formed an alliance with Acer, Dell and Hewlett-Packard – along with ChemSec, Clean Production Action and the European Environmental Bureau – calling on EU legislators to ban the use of all brominated flame retardants (BFR) and polyvinyl chloride (PVC) in electronics put on the market from end of 2015 onwards.

The European Commission has implemented new rules for high-speed mobile internet services. EU members that release 800MHz frequencies as part of the 'digital dividend' resulting from the switchover from analogue to digital television broadcasting are now required to make the frequencies available for wireless broadband applications such as LTE or WiMAX.