Bizwatch

Delayed? Get Repaid
Heading off to the airport? Don’t forget to pack a copy of the E.U.’s latest rules on compensation for jilted passengers. A regulation introduced last week increases compensation for flyers involuntarily bumped from their journeys; on longer routes, they can now get as much as €600. In force on all flights taking off from E.U. airports, the law also grants passengers hit by late

INDICATORS
Call waiting?
Capping a flurry of merger activity in the U.S. telecom sector, MCI accepted a $6.75 billion takeover offer from Verizon Communications, after spurning an $8 billion bid from rival Qwest Communications International. By week’s end, Qwest had announced plans to counterbid.

Get The Bugs Out
The European Parliament sent an E.U. draft law regulating software patents back to the drawing board. Brussels must now decide whether to rewrite the bill or risk a fight over the text.

Extra Shot?
In a deal with Jim Beam Brands, Starbucks launched a branded coffee liqueur in U.S. restaurants, bars and retail stores.

Get The Bugs Out
The European Parliament sent an E.U. draft law regulating software patents back to the drawing board. Brussels must now decide whether to rewrite the bill or risk a fight over the text.

cancellations or long delays the right to food, accommodation and in certain cases a refund and a free flight home. Compensation can be denied only if the cancellations are caused by safety warnings, unforeseen walkouts, severe weather or other factors beyond the airlines’ control.

The carriers are livid. The Association of European Airlines insists the rules could add €400 million to the annual costs of its 30 members, denting margins. Damages for cancellation or denied boarding could be five times the average one-way fare offered by many low-cost flyers, insists Jan Skeels, secretary-general of the European Low Fares Airline Association. Trade groups have lodged complaints with the European Court of Justice, which is expected to rule before the year is out. Until then, airlines will have to, well, wait.

I Want My TV Auf Deutsch
Forget Sex and the City and Donald Trump — what American TV viewers really crave is German-language programming, right? ProSiebenSat.1 Media, the German TV network controlled by U.S. media mogul Haim Saban, launches its first channel in the U.S. this week. The Welt channel will show movies, news, comedy and live matches from Germany’s first division soccer league over the DISH Network satellite system. Its target audience: the estimated 800,000 German speakers in the U.S., German corporations, and hotel chains catering to Germans on the road. ProSieben is the first such private effort; German public networks ARD and ZDF, as well as state-run Deutsche Welle, are already there. “The market for ethnic TV in the U.S. is growing and we want to be part of it,” says Hans Fink, the channel’s manager. If it works, he says, Welt will expand into Canada, Latin America and anywhere else where German speakers are desperate for a dose of Deutsch. — By William Boston

End Of The Road
General Motors agreed to pay Fiat €1.55 billion to terminate a “put” option that could have forced GM to acquire the Italian firm’s debt-laden auto division. The companies also unwound some of the their joint-venture agreements. Four days later, Fiat ousted Herbert Demel, its car unit’s CEO.