Europe is fragmented not only by multiple languages but also by the lack of a properly common market in services, including digital ones, so tech firms must still overcome assorted legal and bureaucratic barriers to trade across the EU. Digital firms should be able to benefit from the single market just as mobile-phone companies such as Nokia and Vodafone have.

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Mr Ginn is only too aware of the damage done to the American market by the failure to adopt a single digital standard, and is determined not to let the same thing happen again.

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Previous industry consolidation efforts have left customers at the mercy of a single, dominant vendor for each end market sphere, analog and digital.

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And more positive figures came from the compilations market, which was up 10%, and downloads, with digital single sales up 62%.

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That means reducing the burden of regulation and deepening the single market, extending it to areas such as energy, transport, services and the digital economy.

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