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> What I am curious about is how do we define "doing business in the EU"? If I am american, create a blog stored in the US, and allow users to register an accou

by nolok 11y ago

> What I am curious about is how do we define "doing business in the EU"? If I am american, create a blog stored in the US, and allow users to register an account to comment on the blog, am I doing business in the EU if a EU person creates an account or are my visitors more akin to foreign tourists visiting a US shop in the US and therefore outside the reach of EU regulation? De facto, it's when you take money from EU customers and/or have an official office in some EU country.

cm2187 11y ago
so a non profit wouldn't require to follow EU regulations on personal data?
- nolok 11y ago
  Note that I said "de facto", not "de jure". Nobody would bother suing a non profit that doesn't have EU offices unless you were very large and/or very prominent and/or doing something really nefarious about the data you have. And even then, suing an US company with no EU standing in front of an EU court from an EU citizen complaint is far from easy. The same reason that if, say, Texas introduce a law that says everyone commenting on a texan website needs to be polite and I post a comment with some name calling, suing me as someone not from Texas nor the US would not be very doable, even though I technically infringe on that law.
  - pjc50 11y ago
    suing me as someone not from Texas nor the US would not be very doable It's been done: https://blogs.ch.cam.ac.uk/pmr/2010/11/21/english-libels-laws-are-used-to-suppress-scientific-debate-please-get-them-changed/ https://blogs.ch.cam.ac.uk/pmr/2010/11/21/english-libels-law... The libel situation has slightly improved since then.
- mattlutze 11y ago
  To wit, non-profit doesn't mean "doesn't take in money." IIRC, it means that the organization doesn't distribute surplus income (profit) to shareholders. So, a non-profit that took monies from EU citizens I think would still possibly be affected, unless there's EU laws that make non-profits a different class of business subject do different laws.
  - LordKano 11y ago
    That's a fairly succinct definition. There are non-profits that make millions of dollars in positive cash flow. All that term means (At least in the US) is that it doesn't ever pay dividends to shareholders. I'll be intentionally vague because I don't want to stray too far afield but there are some large organization that make a lot of money but are classified as non-profit. They can pay excess revenue as bonuses to directors and executives.

by nolok 11y ago

cm2187 11y ago

so a non profit wouldn't require to follow EU regulations on personal data?

nolok 11y ago
Note that I said "de facto", not "de jure". Nobody would bother suing a non profit that doesn't have EU offices unless you were very large and/or very prominent and/or doing something really nefarious about the data you have. And even then, suing an US company with no EU standing in front of an EU court from an EU citizen complaint is far from easy. The same reason that if, say, Texas introduce a law that says everyone commenting on a texan website needs to be polite and I post a comment with some name calling, suing me as someone not from Texas nor the US would not be very doable, even though I technically infringe on that law.
- pjc50 11y ago
  suing me as someone not from Texas nor the US would not be very doable It's been done: https://blogs.ch.cam.ac.uk/pmr/2010/11/21/english-libels-laws-are-used-to-suppress-scientific-debate-please-get-them-changed/ https://blogs.ch.cam.ac.uk/pmr/2010/11/21/english-libels-law... The libel situation has slightly improved since then.
mattlutze 11y ago
To wit, non-profit doesn't mean "doesn't take in money." IIRC, it means that the organization doesn't distribute surplus income (profit) to shareholders. So, a non-profit that took monies from EU citizens I think would still possibly be affected, unless there's EU laws that make non-profits a different class of business subject do different laws.
- LordKano 11y ago
  That's a fairly succinct definition. There are non-profits that make millions of dollars in positive cash flow. All that term means (At least in the US) is that it doesn't ever pay dividends to shareholders. I'll be intentionally vague because I don't want to stray too far afield but there are some large organization that make a lot of money but are classified as non-profit. They can pay excess revenue as bonuses to directors and executives.