Other laws you had to comply with where the ones the GDPR is replacing. Several EU country had very similar law. Idon't know about the fines about such laws tho

Other laws you had to comply with where the ones the GDPR is replacing. Several EU country had very similar law. Idon't know about the fines about such laws though, since they were not enforced. Enforcement is what's going to matter, I'm pretty sure you could dig up other laws that are vague and have high fines, that are just not enforced and thus don't seem as threatening as the widely publicized GDPR. Of course, I'm not a lawyer, and I may very well be wrong on my assumptions. On the other hand, patent trolls are not part of the risk profile for our industry in the EU, since software is not patentable there. But anyway, it makes perfect business sense for a US startup to just block the EU (or at least state somewhere that they are not complying and thus EU users shouldn't sign up) and focus on their home market until they are big enough to comply with the terms (or are willing to take the risk).