I love that the EU is cracking down on tech, but I also wish the US government could get in on that awesome rake.
Google: $2.7 billion
Apple: $14.34 billion
Google 2024 Revenue: $328.28B
Apple 2024 Revenue: $385.60B
I’m sure they’ll behave in the future thanks to these Big fines…
I’m sure fines are under “other expenses” in their financials…
The sad part of this is it is just a fine, a cost of doing the business. I’m sure they have already collected more money by their monopoly than these fines.
What we need to give them is punishment. Not financial ones.
For everything else, there’s Mastercard
I’m glad that corporations are actually receiving fines that are commensurate with their earnings and scale. Hopefully it’s enough to get them to not do this shit.
This is still a footnote on their quarterly reports. These are multi trillion companies.
You say that like I’m unaware - maybe I should needlessly remind you that most of these fines are generally in the millions of dollars. A step in the right direction is not a bad thing.
Regardless, I’m not sure shareholders will think of it that way if the anti-trust practices continue and the fines accrue. The EU likes to be punitive when their orders are ignored.
I’ve said it before, I’ll say it every time it’s proven again: US consumers get more protection from tech company overreach from EU courts than our own. Our agencies need to have big gnarly angelfish teeth, not this wrist slapping “as long as you share the profits it’s basically legal” nonsense.
That would require political system changes like making party anonymous donations illegal, putting them all on registers and setting max legal amount to $1000 per entity or something realistic. Then change preference system. The list goes on. It’s a system setup to bias corporate and “special” (rich) interest.
google is fighting the eu and the ftc at the same time lol
So. Niece and nephew are going for the ol’ aunt. She can take them easily… For now
Ok…but now what forces these companies to actually pay? What happens if they just DON’T pay?
Additional fines and, if necessary, sanctions. If you refuse to pay a fine imposed by the EU then guess what? You can’t do business in the EU any more.
BAN HAMMER
Ban from what exactly?
Operating in the EU?
But what if they keep doing it anyways?
They have offices and datacenters in the EU. So forced physical entry and interruption to their operations would be the next escalation step.
But what if they hire mercenaries to force access to their physical locations?
At that point it’s an act of rebellion against that nations authority over its territory, and the police/armed forces may step in.
I see what you’re doing but that chain of thought doesn’t lead anywhere.
They could force ISPs to block, not allow physical hardware sales in stores, take over any assets (offices), confiscate their server farms. There’s lots that can be done.
They lose their business license. Shut down the retail locations. Customs will seize all imports of their goods into the country. They can do a lot to make it so trying to circumvent the system just isn’t worth the hassle. Their income from that country will plummet regardless.
Police?
Those who continue to do business with them will be punished
Almost 500 million users market.
The removal of all of their products in the EU, and the blockage of their services, including all those datacenters being closed down and sold.
