4 ms·

Uh-oh. Google don't understand the EU if they believe that the way to fight the EU is to use a press release.

by buro9 11y ago

ocdtrekkie 11y ago
So far, Google's way of fighting antitrust suits has been to pretty much claim that the government is wrong and then not change anything. Some countries where Google doesn't like the results of a government ruling, they've just left or closed the relevant service. Google seems to have a questionable understanding that they're supposed to comply with the law. But I'm not sure they can afford to lose the whole EU market.
- Oletros 11y ago
  > Some countries where Google doesn't like the results of a government ruling, they've just left or closed the relevant service. Apart of Spain with Google News, and it was a law that was criticized by everyone but the big newspapers can you give us examples of Google closing services when they "don't like the result"?
  - NetStrikeForce 11y ago
    In Germany they were going down the same route as in Spain, but finally reached an agreement.
    - Oletros 11y ago
      No, in Germany they complied with the law, they didn't pull off the service
      - NetStrikeForce 11y ago
        I don't know why would you say that, but that was pretty much a win for Google and not a defeat: http://www.theverge.com/2014/11/5/7160587/german-publisher-axel-springer-google-news http://www.theverge.com/2014/11/5/7160587/german-publisher-a... http://www.reuters.com/article/us-google-axel-sprngr-idUSKBN0IP1YT20141105 http://www.reuters.com/article/us-google-axel-sprngr-idUSKBN... If you have any evidence that Google is paying that "tax", please show it.
        Oletros 11y ago
        I didn't said that Google paid the tax or that Google lost. IO said that Google didn't pulled off the service from Germany. They complied with the law and didn't put snippets
  - chatmasta 11y ago
    They closed search in China.
- cowl 11y ago
  Well, they are a FOR-PROFIT Company and as any such entity when the cost of doing business is greater than the Profit (direct or indirect), they need to just close that branch. You are surely referring to the tentative of several EU countries to get Google to pay newspapers while providing them with free referral links from a product that has no profit for them. The problem with EU lately is that it's trying to protect businesses instead of consumers. This antitrust review is just another case influenced by Microsoft and Russian Search engines because no user is impacted negatively by Google policies in this case.
sesutton 11y ago
Has anyone ever successfully fought an EU anti-trust action?
- buro9 11y ago
  Yes, many times. You can search these things: http://ec.europa.eu/competition/elojade/isef/index.cfm http://ec.europa.eu/competition/elojade/isef/index.cfm If you haven't got it dismissed then the best outcome is a set of commitments whereby you promise not to do the worst of the things you were allegedly doing (without admitting that they were bad things, accepting liability, etc). Most of the successful parties, if you go through the list quickly by filtering on antitrust and cartel, appear to be EU companies. An interesting question would be to analyse the full list (I only looked at the first page of results) and ask: Is the EU is anti-US, or whether US companies fail to understand the EU and it's concerns? The first page of data appears to suggest that US companies perform worse than EU companies at challenging the commission. My personal opinion is that it is the latter. The (mostly North American) Googlers I spoke to all didn't seem to understand the case the EU made about the right to privacy, nor this one either... yet European engineers seemed to qualify their statements with more understanding of the bizarre balancing acts the EU puts itself into.

Uh-oh. Google don't understand the EU if they believe that the way to fight the EU is to use a press release.

by buro9 11y ago

Uh-oh. Google don't understand the EU if they believe that the way to fight the EU is to use a press release.

So far, Google's way of fighting antitrust suits has been to pretty much claim that the government is wrong and then not change anything. Some countries where Google doesn't like the results of a government ruling, they've just left or closed the relevant service. Google seems to have a questionable understanding that they're supposed to comply with the law. But I'm not sure they can afford to lose the whole EU market.

Oletros 11y ago
> Some countries where Google doesn't like the results of a government ruling, they've just left or closed the relevant service. Apart of Spain with Google News, and it was a law that was criticized by everyone but the big newspapers can you give us examples of Google closing services when they "don't like the result"?
- NetStrikeForce 11y ago
  In Germany they were going down the same route as in Spain, but finally reached an agreement.
  - Oletros 11y ago
    No, in Germany they complied with the law, they didn't pull off the service
    - NetStrikeForce 11y ago
      I don't know why would you say that, but that was pretty much a win for Google and not a defeat: http://www.theverge.com/2014/11/5/7160587/german-publisher-axel-springer-google-news http://www.theverge.com/2014/11/5/7160587/german-publisher-a... http://www.reuters.com/article/us-google-axel-sprngr-idUSKBN0IP1YT20141105 http://www.reuters.com/article/us-google-axel-sprngr-idUSKBN... If you have any evidence that Google is paying that "tax", please show it.
      - Oletros 11y ago
        I didn't said that Google paid the tax or that Google lost. IO said that Google didn't pulled off the service from Germany. They complied with the law and didn't put snippets
- chatmasta 11y ago
  They closed search in China.
cowl 11y ago
Well, they are a FOR-PROFIT Company and as any such entity when the cost of doing business is greater than the Profit (direct or indirect), they need to just close that branch. You are surely referring to the tentative of several EU countries to get Google to pay newspapers while providing them with free referral links from a product that has no profit for them. The problem with EU lately is that it's trying to protect businesses instead of consumers. This antitrust review is just another case influenced by Microsoft and Russian Search engines because no user is impacted negatively by Google policies in this case.

sesutton 11y ago

Has anyone ever successfully fought an EU anti-trust action?

buro9 11y ago
Yes, many times. You can search these things: http://ec.europa.eu/competition/elojade/isef/index.cfm http://ec.europa.eu/competition/elojade/isef/index.cfm If you haven't got it dismissed then the best outcome is a set of commitments whereby you promise not to do the worst of the things you were allegedly doing (without admitting that they were bad things, accepting liability, etc). Most of the successful parties, if you go through the list quickly by filtering on antitrust and cartel, appear to be EU companies. An interesting question would be to analyse the full list (I only looked at the first page of results) and ask: Is the EU is anti-US, or whether US companies fail to understand the EU and it's concerns? The first page of data appears to suggest that US companies perform worse than EU companies at challenging the commission. My personal opinion is that it is the latter. The (mostly North American) Googlers I spoke to all didn't seem to understand the case the EU made about the right to privacy, nor this one either... yet European engineers seemed to qualify their statements with more understanding of the bizarre balancing acts the EU puts itself into.