The U.K. informed the European Council of its intention to exit the EU, after British Prime Minister Theresa May signed Article 50 triggering the two-year legal process for Brexit negotiations. In a statement to British Parliament Wednesday, May pledged to pursue a "bold and ambitious" free trade agreement with the EU and outside countries, including the "fastest-growing export markets in the world." "Europe has a responsibility to stand up for free trade in the interests of all our citizens," she said. Brexit hasn't affected the U.S.-EU Privacy Shield deal (see 1606280024) but may affect telecom and tech otherwise (see 1606240021 and 1606220001).

Commerce Department's Bureau of Industry and Security removed ZTE from a trade blacklist after the company pleaded guilty earlier this month to export-related violations (see 1703230038). BIS added one Chinese individual to the entity list, Shi Lirong, who was ZTE CEO when company documents that had detailed the firm's illicit export plan were signed. Those documents indicated ZTE organized a scheme to establish shell companies to Iran in violation of U.S. export control laws, BIS said in Wednesday's Federal Register.

British regulator Ofcom will fine BT 42 million pounds (about $52.3 million) for a "serious breach" of rules in not properly paying other telecom providers for its "delays in connecting high-speed business lines." An investigation into BT's network arm, Openreach, found that in 2013-2014, "BT misused the terms of its contracts to reduce compensation payments owed to other telecoms providers for failing to deliver ‘Ethernet’ services on time," said an Ofcom Sunday release, saying the company agreed to compensate the affected companies. The regulator said BT violated rules addressing its "significant market power," in which other companies rely on its network to provide services. Ofcom opened the investigation in November 2015, shortly after Vodafone made allegations against BT, which will also be fined 300,000 pounds (about $374,000) for falling to provide information to Ofcom. BT acknowledged the Ofcom findings into the "use of 'Deemed Consent' by" Openreach. "Deemed Consent is an agreed process between Openreach and its Communications Provider customers. It allows Openreach to halt the installation and reschedule the delivery date for providing dedicated business services (known as Ethernet) in a number of specific circumstances beyond its control," said a BT release Monday that estimated the compensation to other providers at about 300 million pounds (about $374 million). "We apologise wholeheartedly for the mistakes Openreach made in the past when processing orders for a number of high-speed business connections. “This shouldn’t have happened and we fully accept Ofcom’s findings," said Openreach CEO Clive Selley.

World Trade Organization members should consider a digital trade facilitation agenda during the 11th WTO Ministerial Conference in December and make permanent the current prohibition on customs duties on e-commerce transactions, said the International Chamber of Commerce in a Wednesday report. A digital trade facilitation agenda could help developing and least-developed countries lacking resources and technical constraints compete, ICC said in a news release: Global initiatives can help reduce “the temptation of introducing new protectionism.”

ZTE formally pleaded guilty to one count each of conspiring to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act through illegally shipping U.S.-origin items to Iran, obstruction of justice and making a material false statement, DOJ announced. The Chinese multinational company agreed to plead guilty to the alleged violations, pay $430.5 million in fines and criminal forfeitures, and to serve three years of corporate probation, during which an independent compliance monitor will review and report on ZTE’s export compliance program, the department had announced earlier this month (see 1703070042). Justice cited plea documents that showed ZTE either directly or indirectly through a third party shipped about $32 million worth of dual-use U.S.-origin wireless and wireline infrastructure hardware to customers in Iran between January 2010 and January 2016.

The European Commission said it's requiring Google parent Alphabet, Facebook and Twitter to change terms of service and improve responsiveness to removing content aimed at committing consumer fraud within one month or face “enforcement action.” The EU has been scrutinizing the three firms’ practices, including their ability to detect and remove scam content like fake promotions and ads for counterfeit products. Friday’s announcement followed a Thursday meeting between EC officials and representatives from three companies. Social media companies generally “need to take more responsibility in addressing scams and frauds,” said Justice, Consumers and Gender Equality Commissioner Věra Jourová in a news release. “It is not acceptable that EU consumers can only call on a court in California to resolve a dispute.” Social media companies’ terms of service must comply with European consumer law, which requires a balance between parties’ rights and obligations, and those terms be drafted in plain language, the EC said. The decision came soon after Germany said it was proposing a law that would allow fines of up to $53 million against social media firms if they fail to remove libelous or threatening posts. Google, Facebook and Twitter didn’t comment.

ICANN's Governmental Advisory Committee urged the organization's board Wednesday to “take into account the serious concerns expressed by some GAC members” about ICANN's policy to allow domain registries to sell two-letter domain names that match county code top-level domains (ccTLDs). The board in November agreed to release all two-letter names while requiring registrants not to claim they are affiliated with the country whose ccTLD corresponds with a registered domain name. The board also required registries to investigate governments' complaints about registered two-letter names. The ICANN board should “engage with concerned governments” before the organization's planned June 26-29 meeting in Johannesburg “to resolve these concerns” and “immediately explore measures to find a satisfactory solution of the matter to meet the concerns of these countries before being further aggravated,” GAC said in its communique. The board also should “provide clarification of the decision-making process and of the rationale” for its November release of the two-letter domain names, GAC said. Brazil, China, the EU and Iran are among countries that raised concerns about ICANN's decision. Governments don't have a legal right to second-level domains that correspond to their ccTLD strings, said ICANN board member Chris Disspain during a Wednesday meeting with GAC during the organization's conference in Copenhagen. Some GAC members disagreed. Iranian GAC member Kavouss Arasteh said that “the multistakeholder process was not easily accepted by many countries. Still, people have difficulty with that.” Arasteh threatened to seek ITU involvement in the issue at its 2018 Plenipotentiary Conference “if the matter is not resolved.” It's “not always commercial; government also has some powers, and we exercise our powers,” Arasteh said.

Intel’s proposed $15.3 billion buy of Israeli-based Mobileye (see 1703130015) “kills the myth that Israelis can’t build big companies” and that Jerusalem “is not a hotbed of innovation,” said Lou Kerner, who manages Flight VC's Israeli Founders Syndicate, in a Medium.com blog post Tuesday. The Mobileye deal also “turns the world’s focus to Israel, in a highly positive way, for at least a period of time,” Kerner said. “But most importantly for the Israel tech sector, tech ecosystems, when they are humming, are virtuous circles,” he said. Israel’s tech sector “was already booming,” but the Mobileye deal “just adds more fuel to Start Up Nation’s roaring bonfire,” he said. Mobileye's deal with Intel “is unique" because instead of Mobileye being integrated into Intel, Intel's Automated Driving Group “will be integrated into Mobileye,” and will be “headquartered in Israel,” senior Mobileye management told employees Monday in announcing the deal.

ICANN released a publicly available “testing platform” Sunday of its rollover of the root zone key signing key (KSK), which acts as the “master” key for the Domain Name System Security Extensions. ICANN Chief Technology Officer David Conrad urged DNS operators Monday to use the test bed, saying during the organization’s Copenhagen conference (see 1703100062 and 1703130010) “we have to make sure that everyone is aware that the KSK rollover will happen.” ICANN will also do a briefing on the test bed during a Tuesday session in Copenhagen. The KSK switchover is set for Oct. 11.

BT agreed to Ofcom requirements to spin off its Openreach network division, the British regulator said in a release Friday. "Openreach will become a distinct company with its own staff and management, together with its own strategy and a legal purpose to serve all of its customers equally," Ofcom said. "BT has agreed to all of the changes needed to address Ofcom’s competition concerns. As a result, Ofcom will no longer need to impose these changes through regulation. The reforms have been designed to begin this year."