Hopefully it isn't yet another case of smug Europeans preening and going "Oh, you stupid Americans, our regulators are different and would never levy gigantic fines. Instead, they come give you a hug and have a cup of tea and politely ask you to please stop, and they would never ever in a billion years abuse this extremely wide-ranging law for political ends!"
Every time a US company is fined there are people that claim it is all protectionism and punishment with nothing to back it up (ironic, considering the degree of protectionism the US engages in).
They are just sour that their precious tech companies are being brought to task for behaving like shitty house guests by not following the rules.
These companies might be able to get away with whatever the hell they please back home but get this; the American Way isn't the only way.
It's just a very shitty dismissal of the very real concerns of US tech companies and their disregard for the laws and regulations in the countries in which they operate. Laws and regulations that EU companies have to follow too.
The only real upset here comes from companies like Google, and their rabid supporters at the prospect of them not being able to implement their shitty consumer-hostile, ring-fencing business model in other countries.
Google were given two year's notice before this fine. TWO YEARS.
It's their own damn fault and the fine is punitive, as it should be.
I have no problem with the result, or the punitive nature of it. I do think that basing fine calculations for violations of EU law on global revenue is a problematic precedent (though if it was based on EU revenue it would absolutely have to have a fair amount of latitude in calculation to avoid all the same tax dodges already in use).
Yeah, I have no problem with the specific number. I just think if it should be that high, it should be a higher percentage and based on EU revenue. That would seem much less legally dubious in a world where I would like global trade to continue to function.
Its largest shareholders are all American, they were founded in America, by Americans, headquartered in America, and almost all it's employees live in America and are American.
My guess is that Google considers itself American.
though I'm an American who lives in California, i feel zero loyalty to Google.
and that absence of loyalty is reciprocated. Google isn't doing me any favors.
if Google disappeared tomorrow someone else would step into replace them. and i wouldn't care if they headquartered in Buffalo or Barcelona or Beijing.
I agree. I am sick of the self-righteousness of some Americans. I remember them howling when Valve was fined by the Australian Government for anti-competitive things. They kept stating about how pro-consumer Valve was. But as an Australian valve is not pro-consumer. Valve has an Australian store, with higher prices than the US store and charges us in USD.
