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What would Google have to do to ignore this fine? If they cut any physical presence in the EU, would the EC have any way to enforce this fine? Put another way,

by wyager 9y ago

What would Google have to do to ignore this fine? If they cut any physical presence in the EU, would the EC have any way to enforce this fine? Put another way, if the EU tried to take money from some random e.g. American or Japanese company without a physical presence in the EU, what channels could the EU use to twist their arm across national boundaries? Somewhat related, there could be good money in providing an explicitly non-hostile legal environment for companies, where they won't get in trouble for e.g. promoting their own services or offering services for free [1]. [1]: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2012/feb/03/google-fined-france-maps-free https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2012/feb/03/google-fi...

kuschku 9y ago
Google as assets in the EU, and Google has liabilities with EU banks. The EU could simply seize Google's servers and intellectual property, and sell it to fund this. Additionally, if you'd create a jurisdiction just to avoid the law, you can expect that no country will protect your copyright. You'd have the EU courts support every person stealing your IP. You really don't want to pick a fight with a legal system that your entire business depends on.
pjc50 9y ago
Google could remove any presence they had in the EU, at huge expense (closing Google Dublin, abandoning all EU revenue); but that would also remove their ability to use Ireland and the Netherlands as tax havens. They'd have to submit to the US tax system instead.
- wav-part 9y ago
  Being exposed to EC insanity makes Ireland, Netherland makes less appealing now. However there are many more to choose from eg Singapore. > abandoning all EU revenue How ? A corp does not have to exist in EU to recieve payments from EU. > They'd have to submit to the US tax system instead. For such tax structring to work, Google just need one non-US IP holding jurisdiction. So they can cut off physical/legal tie from EU, and they should.
tobylane 9y ago
The US is already much of the way towards that non-hostile legal environment, which as you can see in many comments here is making many people very sure the EU is doing the right thing.
matt4077 9y ago
Yawn... Google isn't going to give up a double-digit percentage of their market to indulge these sorts of nationalistic revenge fantasies. The EU has strong legal institutions, and is a democracy ruled by law, with standards at least as good as the US. They aren't any more hostile to businesses than the US, which has basically identical antitrust laws. Find the list of EU antitrust actions, and you'll see they take actions against EU companies far more often than companies from non-EU countries, almost perfectly aligned with representation in the EU market. You just don't hear about some Italian steel mill being fined in US media.
- wyager 9y ago
  Physically leaving the EU doesn't mean giving up all of their EU revenue. That's the magic of the internet. The hypothetical friendly nation wouldn't be the US, for the reasons you mention.

by wyager 9y ago

kuschku 9y ago

Google as assets in the EU, and Google has liabilities with EU banks. The EU could simply seize Google's servers and intellectual property, and sell it to fund this. Additionally, if you'd create a jurisdiction just to avoid the law, you can expect that no country will protect your copyright. You'd have the EU courts support every person stealing your IP. You really don't want to pick a fight with a legal system that your entire business depends on.

pjc50 9y ago

Google could remove any presence they had in the EU, at huge expense (closing Google Dublin, abandoning all EU revenue); but that would also remove their ability to use Ireland and the Netherlands as tax havens. They'd have to submit to the US tax system instead.

wav-part 9y ago
Being exposed to EC insanity makes Ireland, Netherland makes less appealing now. However there are many more to choose from eg Singapore. > abandoning all EU revenue How ? A corp does not have to exist in EU to recieve payments from EU. > They'd have to submit to the US tax system instead. For such tax structring to work, Google just need one non-US IP holding jurisdiction. So they can cut off physical/legal tie from EU, and they should.

tobylane 9y ago

The US is already much of the way towards that non-hostile legal environment, which as you can see in many comments here is making many people very sure the EU is doing the right thing.

matt4077 9y ago

Yawn... Google isn't going to give up a double-digit percentage of their market to indulge these sorts of nationalistic revenge fantasies. The EU has strong legal institutions, and is a democracy ruled by law, with standards at least as good as the US. They aren't any more hostile to businesses than the US, which has basically identical antitrust laws. Find the list of EU antitrust actions, and you'll see they take actions against EU companies far more often than companies from non-EU countries, almost perfectly aligned with representation in the EU market. You just don't hear about some Italian steel mill being fined in US media.

wyager 9y ago
Physically leaving the EU doesn't mean giving up all of their EU revenue. That's the magic of the internet. The hypothetical friendly nation wouldn't be the US, for the reasons you mention.