These were the 10 biggest European tech stories last week

Happy Monday!

Last week, our research team tracked over 50 tech funding deals worth more than €280 million, as well as several M&A transactions across Europe, including Russia, Israel, and Turkey.

We listed every single deal in our weekly newsletter. Here’s an extra overview of the 10 biggest European tech news items for last week:

1) Uber was fined a combined $1.17 million by British and Dutch authorities Tuesday for a 2016 data breach that exposed the personal details of millions of customers.

2) Russia has launched a civil case against Google, accusing it of failing to comply with a legal requirement to remove certain entries from its search results, the country’s communications watchdog said on Monday.

3) UK-founded challenger bank Monzo has announced an equity crowdfunding campaign to start on December 5th, in which the company plans to raise up to £20 million from its customers. The news comes less than a month after Monzo raised £85 million at a £1 billion valuation in a funding round led by Accel and General Catalyst.

4) Germany’s antitrust authority has launched an investigation into whether US e-commerce giant Amazon is exploiting its market position in its relations with other retailers who use its website at a marketplace.

5) Logitech, a Swiss manufacturer of keyboards and webcams, has ended discussions to acquire Plantronics, a US-based maker of Bluetooth earpieces and gaming headsets, for over $3 billion, the companies said on Sunday.

6) Amazon is to close its London-based takeaway delivery service next month in a rare reverse for the US tech giant. The failure comes just over two years after Amazon launched the servic in the UK's capital.

7) German-founded language learning app Babbel has announced its expansion into the language travel market with the acquisition of a Berlin-based startup LingoVentura. The latter already operates a language travel platform that handles bookings for 200 language schools in over 100 cities and countries.

8) Cambridge-founded startup Fluidic Analytics that develops lab tools for protein analysis has raised $31 million in a funding round led by Draper Esprit, with participation from Delin Ventures, BGF, IQ Capital, and Amadeus Capital Partners.

9) Berlin-based ELEMENT Insurance, a white-label product factory for insurance, has successfully completed its Series A financing round, raising €23 million in new capital. Among the investors are SBI Investment, SBI Insurance Group, Engel & Völkers Capital, and the Spanish insurtech investor Alma Mundi Ventures.

10) Lime launched in the United Kingdom, starting with a group of dockless electric-assist bikes in a Milton Keynes shopping center. The San Francisco-based startup says it plans to expand into more UK cities over the next few weeks.

Podcast: tech.eu Podcast #97: More money for e-scooters; university spin-outs taking off; Europe as America’s tech police; interview with EIF’s Oscar Farres; and more

Bonus link: The bosses of 30 European start-ups have called on politicians to reform rules around employee stock ownership to help them attract more talent and compete with their Silicon Valley counterparts. Chief executives from firms including TransferWise, Stripe, PayPal-owned iZettle and recently listed Farfetch co-signed an open letter urging lawmakers in the continent make changes to existing regulations on employee stock options.