this is business live from bbc news, with sally bundock and rachel horne. taxing the tech titans — the european commission is set to make big changes to the loopholes open to the likes of amazon, google and apple. live from london, that's our top story on wednesday 21st march. the eu slaps down silicon valley — reports suggest that new measures will stop the practice of shifting profits to countries with the lowest rates of tax. also in the programme, more investor reaction to the facebook data row. the social media giant suffers another big drop in market value. does mum knows best? a mixed day emerging markets in

europe. we will talk you through the winners and losers. does mum knows best? we'll be looking at a new social network designed to help mums share their experiences. and #deletefacebook has been trending on twitter — we want to know have you checked your privacy settings? just use the #bbcbizlive. hello and welcome to business live. welcome to the programme. let's start with a focus on the tech world. the european commission plans to get the world's biggest tech companies — the likes of google, facebook and amazon — to pay their fair share of tax. these firms have been criticised for booking their profits in countries with the lowest corporation tax rate. brussels' plan is to tax a companies digital revenues based on where users are located, rather than where their headquarters are. for example, the french government collects just over 33% in corporate taxes. this compares to a tax rate of just 12.5% in ireland.

under the eu's plans, there will be a blanket 3% tax on sales, collected in the country where sales takes place. it could include products such as google‘s advertising services, or apple's streaming services, although the details are unclear. with me is oliver smith, senior reporter, forbes europe. oliver, let's start. —— let's start there, the details are not the clearest. how will they define these tech companies? countries like france have been calling in europe to act on this problem for years, now finally they are. they are defining these companies as those that make them money from streaming

services, subscription services and advertising. companies like google, apple, spotify are all potentially in the limelight. what is interesting is 3% may sound like quite a low tax bracket. but it is 396 quite a low tax bracket. but it is 3% on revenue, not profit? quite a low tax bracket. but it is 396 on revenue, not profit? that's quite unusual. it is quite a blonde force approach. —— blunt force approach. because of countries like france and britain, who were coming up france and britain, who were coming up with their own taxes because europe has not been active, so now the eu feels it has to do something and act quickly. this is the quickest way of putting down a blanket tax across europe. they are announcing today. it has to be ratified by eu members. when should we see it come into play? we really don't know. it could be months, it could be longer. the eu wants to

come up with a longer term plan to stop profit shifting around europe. these things will take a lot of time. not any time soon, u nfortu nately. time. not any time soon, unfortunately. say i run a company, and you are my retailer in germany, sally lives in italy. where does the tax get paid? sally is the subscriber to the digital service, the country she is in is the country where the tax will be collected. that is very different to how it works today, where the tax should be collected at source where the company is headquartered. that is the shift. it is where the consumer is based rather than the company. lot of people will look at this and think, these big companies, deep pockets of resources, they will get out of this one? yeah, and i'm sure we will hear about stories just like that. the good thing about taxing it where the customer is based, is it should give the eu more power to

actually see where the money is moving. when you are trying to figure out the profits, it becomes quite complicated, especially with the system is the companies have. we have to wait and see but hopefully it gives them a good tool to use. laura smith, thank you. —— oliver smith. let's take a look at some of the other stories making the news. german prosecutors have raided the headquarters of bmw as part of an investigation into the suspected use of emissions cheating software. about 100 police and law enforcement officials searched the luxury carmaker‘s munich headquarters and a site in austria. they opened an investigation last month over suspected fraud. toyota has suspended us tests of driverless cars on public roads, following a fatal accident in arizona involving one of uber technologies' self—driving vehicles. toyota said it was concerned about the "emotional effect" the incident might have on its test drivers. facebook is being investigated by the us federal trade commission over the alleged misuse of user data on the network. it comes after allegations that 50 million facebook users' private

information was misused by research firm cambridge analytica. the uk—based firm suspended its chief executive on tuesday. we'll get more on this story later in the programme. china's tencent, the owner of the popular we—chat messaging app, is now about $72 billion more valuable than facebook as the us social networking giant deals with a string of controversies. there is a lot going on in financial markets at the moment. tencent is due to reports its latest set of financial results later today. sarah toms is in our asia business hub in singapore. sarah, this is interesting, how things are changing. as facebook foals, tencent is seen as more valuable? that's right. tencent is often known as china's facebook. it seems very appropriate at the moment. the two social media giants

have been neck and neck in value for quite some time. but now the gap has widened after the crisis. billions, tens of billions of dollars in fact have been wiped off the value of facebook. and of course as facebook is dealing with this crisis, china's largest corporation is riding on a huge wave of success. it has got some new hip games, a growing ad business, and the momentum is still growing for a wee chat, the all in one messaging service that drives it. tencent is just about to release its earnings. this is a very important timing. investors expecting some strong results. tencent is projected to report a 56% growth for the last quarter of last year. this is bound to be a positive impact on the tencent stocks tomorrow. as a result, we could even

be seeing a bigger gap between tencent and facebook. yes, we will watch this space closely. let's look at marketing general. we had a day of no action at all injapan. that is actually tuesday's close. elsewhere in asia we saw a mixed day. monday and tuesday were days of is quite significant declines for asian share markets. today wasn't too bad. emma gees shares were in favour. —— energy shares. opec is accelerating plans for curbing a worldwide supplied last. the oil price has been going up, energy stocks in favour. lots of corporate news out today. take a look at the business live page, which keeps you up—to—date. b&q shares down 7% in london. disappointing results. moss brass —— moss brass shares down as

well. a disappointing trading statement. i street retailers really struggling. news of —— news of an emergency loan from carpetright. it has got emergency funding. that gives you a sense of what is going on. very busy. add to that the federal reserve. it will wrap up it's two—day meeting. and with more details on the federal reserve meeting later today, kim gittleson has this report from washington. he has the wisdom and leadership to lead our economy through any challenges are great economy may face. on tuesday, jerome powell got to live the dream. he began his first meeting of the head of america's central bank. the federal reserve is one of the most important institutions in our government. most people expected —— expect the federal reserve to impress interest

rates. —— increase. but the problem is who will be impacted by an increase. there are three main groups. savers have not been able to learn anything on their savings for nearly a decade now. but slowly, very slowly, savings are starting to increase in the united states. the second group are american workers, who may have to pay a little bit more for a mortgage or a car loan. american workers are taking on bigger paycheques. they should be able to weather a rate increase. the group that should be worried is us corporations. today one in ten of them are zombies. instead of gorging on brains, they have been gorging on cheap debt. now they are not making enoughin cheap debt. now they are not making enough in profits to cover the interest on that borrowed money. so when the fed starts raising interest rates, well, the walking dead could be headed for the unemployment line.

it is not often you see zombies on business live! we are open to everything. joining us is ben kumar, investment manager at seven investment management. let's talk about the federal reserve decision. everybody is expecting a rate rise, aren't they? they are. everybody has talked a lot about the new governor coming in. he is part of the establishment. he has been on the fed for years, he has been on the fed for years, he has been on the treasury. he is not some random quy- the treasury. he is not some random guy. he is embedded in the policy in the us. people are not expecting any different process than we have seen already. a rate rise today and a couple more in the next six to nine months. rates could go up four times. what you just said about jerome powell, business as usual, thatis jerome powell, business as usual, that is a help right now, isn't it? absolutely. the fed has done a fantastic job of absolutely. the fed has done a fantasticjob of getting interest

rates up. that has kept markets calm. it is important the continuation of that is his policy. you will see him struggle a little bit with the first communication he has to make. but that is ok. let's talk about a story sally has been excited about. amazon and alphabet have overtaken amazon in terms of market share. other way round, sorry! it's just kind of showing us about sentiment and perception at the moment about facebook shares, google shares. your thoughts? alphabet makes most of its revenue from advertising. it is google ads. they are targeted, they do involve data. amazon is a bit different. it makes money from lots of different places and not so much the advertising. it does get a sentiment kick when we see companies like facebook and google being pressured by people asking, are they doing nasty things

with my data? the concern is more tighter regulations, and companies like facebook having less scope to make money out of our information? absolutely. the digital world has undergone some scrutiny. the eu tax we talked about. the idea of data and privacy, regulators are starting to get up to speed. nobody knows how far this could go. you will be back to talk about the papers at the end of the programme. it is not often he has more to do. still to come — mum's the word! later in the programme we'll take a look at the new smartphone app which is helping mums meet up. you're with business live from bbc news. insurer lloyd's of london has reported a £2 billion loss for last year, describing it as "one of the costliest years for natural catastrophe in the past decade". it was the insurer's first loss in six years.

that compares with a £2.i billion profit in 2016. earlier we spoke to inga beale, the chief executive of lloyd's of london. this really shows lloyds, i would have said, to its full strength. we have been around for 330 years now supporting businesses and people get their lives back together when disaster strikes. we saw some very tragic scenes last year. we had hurricanes sweeping through the us — hurricanes harvey, irma and maria. there was also an earthquake in mexico, there was flooding in south asia, wildfires in california, i mean there were so many tragic events happening. but then lloyds stepped in and we paid out last year about £18.3 billion in claims, basically putting people back on their feet. and despite that, lloyds is in a really strong position. at the end of the year no syndicate failed, every syndicate is still in business and was recapitalised, meaning that lloyds is in a really,

really strong position. when it comes to something that we can model, we do a lot of statistical modelling around the risks that we take on, all of those exposures, and in fact the whole insurance sector has spent billions trying to understand this. when something like climate change is impacting these events, we have to build that into our modelling and our forecasting of how much these events can cost. but while we can quantify what they cost, we don't know when they will happen and that is one of the difficult things nobody can assess. but we make sure, therefore, that we have enough capital in the market to support those potential disasters and that is how we run our business model. and of course we have to make sure that we collect premiums in, that we look after those premiums and invest those premiums because on the other side we pay out claims but we also make some investment income. that was the chief executive of

lloyd's of london. there was a story we mentioned, copyright clinching an emergency loan from looking at a voluntary agreement to help it reduce the property issue joining the likes of biron and jamie's italian, all struggling on the high street. you're watching business live. our top story — the european commission is set to announce new measures to prevent tax avoidance by the world's biggest tech companies. the new rules are expected to force the likes of apple, amazon and google to pay taxes in the country where sales are made, as opposed to the current system where companies pay taxes where they book their profits. more detail on that on our website. let's get the inside track on a new social network which is hoping to provide parents with friendship and support. mush was born when katie met co—founder, sarah hesz,

in a playground on a rainy day. the pair struck up a chance friendship, but realised that technology could provide a far easier way for like—minded mums to meet one another. with us is katie massie—taylor, co—founder of mum's networking app, mush. thank you for coming in. this was an invention born of necessity, you we re invention born of necessity, you were feeling a bit lonely and overwhelmed and you met up with sarah and it went from there? she came and chatted me up in the playground! that was three and a half years ago and three months after we had spent every day together doing average stuff, we realised the lifeline the friendship had been and there was not technology there to make it easy for local mums to meet other mums in the area. we have heard from other social media website, even peanut which is a similar app, but what is

unique about your app? we were the first ones to come out with an app, websites had existed and done a wonderfuljob of giving online support but what we wanted to do was facilitate off—line meet ups. mums can find other mums nearby and message and meet up together and meet ina message and meet up together and meet in a group as well. that is what we stick by now. we have group meet ups through the app which sets it apart from anything else which maybe looks at 12! friendship. it apart from anything else which maybe looks at 121 friendship. how are you making money? we have been fortu nate to are you making money? we have been fortunate to get vc funding, people who spot the opportunity for social network to come from this. by happy consequence it has been something that mums really love and are asking us that mums really love and are asking us for features and functionality that we can add as a premium feature. so basically it is free but

if you want more you have to pay for that? and a monthly fee? that is the idea, it is a year away but that is where we will ultimately end up. you area where we will ultimately end up. you are a social network, at a time when social networks are in the headlines overprotection of user data so what are you doing to your users safe and have you been approached by companies looking to buy the information? safety is key for the users, it is something mums feel passionately about, the data about themselves and their children remaining safe and that has always been at the forefront of our minds. we don't sell any third party data, we proudly keep it to ourselves and partly the reason we are looking to monetised over premium substituent is so we're not playing to the browns. this is an attractive audience to them —— iturbe brands. we wa nt audience to them —— iturbe brands. we want to make the product brilliant for the mums rather than to sell their data. this is the whole issue of what apps

you are using and the information you are using and the information you are using and the information you are giving out, you don't know where it might end up or how it is being used but i guess you are saying with your app that you pay for a service and that it intends up out we are monetising it, when not being paid to push clothing wear on you or health products or whatever. there is no hidden agenda. last week i looked at our privacy policy and made it clear, there is nothing to hide, we are here to help and support mums, there is no other agenda. thank you very much for your time. the other co—founder is watching, server. she hasjust had a baby! congratulations -- sarah. here is how tuesday in touch. stay up—to—date with all of the business news as it happens on the bbc business live page weather is

analysis from our team of editors around the globe. and we want to hear from you as well also get involved on our web page. and on twitter and you can find us on facebook. business live come on tv and online, what you need to know when you need to know it. ben is back. we have the issue of facebook which is very much in the press. let's talk about some of the coverage. we were talking about the share price. one thing i was put into a low—cost bond and in san francisco, in the long—term, how damaging is this for facebook? it is ha rd to damaging is this for facebook? it is hard to measure at this point? we have seen a few privity scared in the last decade and has managed to come back and improve privity

settings but this seems to go wider, this is selling data with it seems like melissa ‘s outcome and that is troubling. let's look at what people have been saying —— malicious outcome. luke says he did check his settings and yet deleted his account, he will not be using it again. andrei said he always update his proceeds settings but shies away from some of the more confidential questions. another says yes, i have disabled apps. a lot of people are looking at everything. and also on twitter there was one from nordea who have said they have put facebook investment on quarantine in their sustainable funds. when you get big corporations like that voicing concerns about what can it mean for something like facebook? concerns about what can it mean for something like facebook7m concerns about what can it mean for something like facebook? it is a real problem, sustainable funds are getting larger and larger. when they avoid an industry or a sector it damages it. think of the oil

industry and people moving away from it. facebook and companies that cannot prove they protect their data could be in trouble. let's talk plastic which is in the news. a new scientific report is warning us that in the next decade the amount of plastic in the sea will treble. despite the fact there has been so much publicity about this problem it is going to get worse and commercial organisations are making the most of the oceans which is interesting. organisations are making the most of the oceans which is interestingm is the ocean is 70% of the world and it is not really regulated. other than close to shore, corporations can get away with it, and there is a lot of press but mainly in the developed world. in emerging market company is basically able to dump stuff in the ocean without consequence. we talked about harvesting the sea bed for seaweed or putting up wind farms and some of this is being done without regulation and companies are taking advantage of a free resource is how many people see it. so much is

readily do on land, companies are looking that there is masses of space and rhys oates and nobody is controlling what they do. another interesting story in the new york times, the saudi arabian crown prince is in the us, he met with donald trump yesterday. it is all over the media. they are talking about how they get on extremely well, the white house reinforcing trump's commitment to air apparent. it seems they are on the same page on many issues. they seem to have some sort of camaraderie, there is a lot of support between them. the interesting thing when you look at saudi arabia and aramco, are they pulling back because the oil price has gone higher? that is the market listing of the state owned aramco which is worth a heck of a lot and the stock markets around the world wa nt the stock markets around the world want a bit of the action. it has

been a couple of years there has been talk of this listing in london and new york both trying for it to be listed. the size of this company, it will be the first trillion dollar company, maybe even $2 trillion also at flotation. it is why people want to get involved. saudi arabia are saying, maybe we like it being a state run and not having to tell the market exactly what we do behind closed doors. interesting. thank you for your time. that's it from business live today. we will keep you up—to—date throughout the day on our website and also here on the bbc. thank you for joining and also here on the bbc. thank you forjoining us, we will see you tomorrow. goodbye. good morning, it may have been a

cold and frosty start of the day for many of us had waited up to some sunshine and for many that will stay into the afternoon but the further north and west you go you have more cloud and with that some outbreaks of rain. this is the pressure chart, there is this high—pressure keeping things settled and sunny for many but the weather front to the north and west is bringing the cloud and rain into scotland and northern ireland this morning. some moving further eastward but in aberdeenshire later there will be brighter skies and it will be quite pleasant. elsewhere through the day, you will lose the sunshine gradually in northern england, wales and the south—west, the sunset —— sunshine turning hazy but south and eastern parts at the temperatures for longest. up to 12 selfies in aberdeen with the sunshine —— up to

12 celsius. this evening and tonight the cloud will move southwards, still some rain in the rest of scotland, some in the east of england. but with all the cloud and milder air, nowhere near as cold as last night, temperatures around 5-7dc. a last night, temperatures around 5—7dc. a frost free start to thursday morning and it will turn even milder because milder air is coming in from the south—west, those orange colours coming from the tropics. the uk is under the influence of that and temperatures reaching double figures for many. on thursday there will be some sunshine and you will hold onto that in eastern areas, but the west the cloud increases, strengthening wind and some of rain. some of that could be on the heavy side but maximum temperatures up to about 13 degrees. on friday the rain moves to the east, it might take some time to clear away from eastern areas and

then we have some sunny spells behind it. later on some heavier rain moving in to south—west england and the west of wales. temperatures down a little bit, 9—11d, and they will continue to drop slightly into the weekend. a bit cooler, mostly dry with a few showers, increasingly sunny and by sunday there should be plenty of fine and dry weather around. goodbye. hello. welcome to the programme. after yea rs of after years of a 1% pay cap, the government is expected to announce a significant pay increase for nhs staff in england, apart from doctors. staff have got to be addressed, vacancies have to be addressed. the issue of using agency staff has to be addressed. in that context it is significant that that

pay award has been made. we get reaction from nhs workers. plus, there has been a huge rise in the number of women using donated eggs to get pregnant. you get married and then your friends have kids and it's just not happening to you. it