"We must ensure that dual-role platforms with market power, such as Amazon, do not distort competition."

That was the European Commission's Margrethe Vestager, who announced that tomorrow the EU will push forward antitrust charges against the U.S. tech giant over use of merchants' data.

According to the Commission, Amazon is abusing its position as both store and seller to spot popular products from other merchants and then copy them and sell them at a lower price.

"Data on the activity of third-party sellers should not be used to the benefit of Amazon when it acts as a competitor to these sellers. The conditions of competition on the Amazon platform must also be fair," Vestager said.

The action comes as the EU moves to regulate the likes of Amazon, Apple, Google and Facebook to break their monopoly on the global digital market. Our video today explains why the bloc is even considering breaking up the tech giants.

Leaving the EU (quite literally), the UK today is facing the sobering news that the unemployment rate in the country has risen to 4.8 percent in the three months to September 2020, from 4.5 percent. Redundancies also reached an all-time high of 314,000.

Also bracing itself against surging unemployment is Spain. According to the European Central Bank, 25 percent of the corporate population in the country works in a company at risk of collapse.

Riding high on yesterday's positive news on the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, we bring you an interview with Sian Griffiths, professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, on the promising drug.

Finally, our graph today compares visits to the UK by non-residents over the past five years, finding that in the second quarter of 2020 these have dropped by an astonishing 96 percent.

Enjoy reading,

Giulia Carbonaro

Digital correspondent

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The European Commission is expected to announce antitrust charges on Amazon tomorrow over the way the U.S. tech giant uses data about merchants on its platform. According to the EU, Amazon violated competition laws by using data on competitors to harm smaller sellers.

The unemployment rate in the UK has risen to 4.8 percent between July and September, from 4.5 percent, due to a record-high number of COVID-19-driven job cuts in the country. Companies were preparing for the initial phasing out of the government’s furlough scheme in October, which has now been extended until the end of March. 

New research by the European Central Bank warns that one in seven Spanish workers is employed by non-financial businesses at risk of collapse. Spain is the worst-affected country in the eurozone, with 25 percent of people working for such companies at risk of losing their job.

German economic experts are expecting the country's economy to shrink by 5.1 percent this year, but thanks to the swift response of the government to the coronavirus crisis, the same experts predict German GDP will grow by 3.7 percent next year.

McDonald's has posted strong figures as it recovers amid the pandemic. It beat third-quarter revenue estimates thanks to the growth of its comparable sales worldwide, driven by U.S. customers ordering on delivery apps or via "drive-thru" services. The fast-food giant has also announced it will introduce a line of plant-based meat alternatives called "McPlant" in 2021, after it tested a plant-based pattie created by Beyond Meat in its Canadian stores earlier this year.

Meanwhile, Beyond Meat reported a surprising quarterly loss and lower-than-expected sales on Monday. Shares of the company, one of the most famous brands for plant-based products, dropped by 29 percent.

Shell has announced it will halve its operation capacity at its biggest refinery, Singapore's Pulau Bukom, also cutting 500 jobs at the site by the end of 2023.

After being denied further state aid, Norwegian Air has warned it could halt operations by early 2021 if it doesn't find more cash soon. The company is heavily indebted and significantly struggling with the pandemic travel slump. At the moment, the Norwegian airline is flying only six of its 140 aircraft.

Microsoft has launched the next generation of XBox gaming consoles as the pandemic keeps driving up demand in the sector. The two new models come seven years after the previous one and will sell for $499.99 and $299.99.

Storytel, the Swedish audiobook streaming service, has reported a cut in its forecasted revenues despite demand for its products remaining high. The company blames the Swedish crown, which has gained 4 percent against the euro, for upsetting streaming growth.

CLICK: SCIENTISTS REVEAL PLANS TO BUILD A CITY ON MARS BY 2100

WATCH: Pressure is building on U.S. "Big Tech" companies to curb the monopoly they hold on the global digital market. The EU says breaking up the tech giants is an option, but can it be done?

After Pfizer announced yesterday the vaccine it is producing together with its German partner BioNTech is 90 percent effective in preventing COVID-19 infection, CGTN Europe spoke to Sian Griffiths, professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, about what could come next.

When will the vaccine be available and who will receive it?

I think there's been a big pressure from the world's scientific community involved in vaccine production that we don't only just give vaccines to those who can afford them because it's obviously really important that you can have a global outreach. The disease needs to be contained and immunized against, across the world, just as we have done for polio. And so it is important that doses of the vaccine are made available. And there are various global initiatives working with the WHO, which will make sure that the vaccine is available to low-income countries, to middle-income countries that don't have the capacity to produce the vaccine themselves.

How would a Joe Biden presidency affect the global response to the virus?

Already, Joe Biden has announced his COVID-19 taskforce and he has nominated a group of very well-known and respected scientists onto that taskforce and politicians and all the representatives. And so that in itself is very encouraging, because the U.S. had played out of the COVAX agreement and obviously played out of the World Health Organization in the last year. I don't think anyone would say that the WHO might not need some reform and some better ways of working. But it is so important that America, being the powerful country it is, is part of the discussion about how does the WHO go forward. And all the signs are that Joe Biden will want to participate, obviously through his envoys, in that discussion.