4 ms·

$5B in EU fines. Ouch.

by tozeur 8y ago

nugget 8y ago
I don't think they care as much about the fine as they do about potential changes to their business models being imposed on them going forward.
samfisher83 8y ago
It hurt, but they still made 3 bil. If they have to pay 5 billion once a year to ensure they have a monopoly I don't that that is a bad trade for them.
- adventured 8y ago
  Particularly with a 20%+ growth rate and their pile of cash. An annual $5 billion EU envy tax is already meaningless. The EU can't stop the US tech machine from continuing to expand, it's already too late. While they focus on fines and hold a defensive posture, the US companies are consuming the planet ex China.
  - pineaux 8y ago
    It's still very possible for nations to block out companies. China does it with great succes and as a result they have created their own safe hatchery for applications and hardware to grow strong before jumping into the global market, which is just 6x bigger anyway...
  - zaarn 8y ago
    The EU will def not sit idly by and hand out 4 billion € fines if it doesn't hurt, the current one was only about 40% of the legal maximum they could have handed out (ie, about 10 billion €), and if Google doesn't play ball they'll get out the big toys.
- Flammy 8y ago
  > If they have to pay 5 billion once a year to ensure they have a monopoly I don't that is a bad trade for them. That exact logic/approach is why we're seeing larger are larger fines, EU basically saying 'shape up, you can't ignore us.'
  - amelius 8y ago
    It may become worthwhile to spend on the order of $1B on lobbying though.
    - candiodari 8y ago
      And legal. Are either of those fines final yet ? But I find for both of those fines the stated reason from the EU very hard to believe. Does anyone miss "shopping comparison sites" ? I sure as hell don't ... And the android search choice ? Really ? None of the other search engines support google assistant, and that's the only searching I do on android. Presumably that would never work without close collaboration between all search engines, and ... that's just not going to happen. Nor does iPhone allow you to switch search providers (nor, for that matter, does the redmi or even the amazon phone), so ... hmmm ... both of these "anti competitive actions" are really the norm in the marketplace. If firefox starts coming with an actually good "mozilla assistant" (Mozique ? heh), then perhaps we can start talking about this.
- microdrum 8y ago
  You're right. Only one entity can take their monopoly away: the U.S. Department of Justice. The fine is just a fine.
  - megaremote 8y ago
    The fines are going to keep getting larger though.
- 394549 8y ago
  > It hurt, but they still made 3 bil. If they have to pay 5 billion once a year to ensure they have a monopoly I don't that that is a bad trade for them. Why would the fine be annual? Fines aren't a tax you pay so you can continuously break the law. I would imagine if Google doesn't remedy the specific behaviors the EU has issues with, the EU will move on to more severe sanctions.

$5B in EU fines. Ouch.

by tozeur 8y ago

$5B in EU fines. Ouch.

I don't think they care as much about the fine as they do about potential changes to their business models being imposed on them going forward.

samfisher83 8y ago

It hurt, but they still made 3 bil. If they have to pay 5 billion once a year to ensure they have a monopoly I don't that that is a bad trade for them.

adventured 8y ago
Particularly with a 20%+ growth rate and their pile of cash. An annual $5 billion EU envy tax is already meaningless. The EU can't stop the US tech machine from continuing to expand, it's already too late. While they focus on fines and hold a defensive posture, the US companies are consuming the planet ex China.
- pineaux 8y ago
  It's still very possible for nations to block out companies. China does it with great succes and as a result they have created their own safe hatchery for applications and hardware to grow strong before jumping into the global market, which is just 6x bigger anyway...
- zaarn 8y ago
  The EU will def not sit idly by and hand out 4 billion € fines if it doesn't hurt, the current one was only about 40% of the legal maximum they could have handed out (ie, about 10 billion €), and if Google doesn't play ball they'll get out the big toys.
Flammy 8y ago
> If they have to pay 5 billion once a year to ensure they have a monopoly I don't that is a bad trade for them. That exact logic/approach is why we're seeing larger are larger fines, EU basically saying 'shape up, you can't ignore us.'
- amelius 8y ago
  It may become worthwhile to spend on the order of $1B on lobbying though.
  - candiodari 8y ago
    And legal. Are either of those fines final yet ? But I find for both of those fines the stated reason from the EU very hard to believe. Does anyone miss "shopping comparison sites" ? I sure as hell don't ... And the android search choice ? Really ? None of the other search engines support google assistant, and that's the only searching I do on android. Presumably that would never work without close collaboration between all search engines, and ... that's just not going to happen. Nor does iPhone allow you to switch search providers (nor, for that matter, does the redmi or even the amazon phone), so ... hmmm ... both of these "anti competitive actions" are really the norm in the marketplace. If firefox starts coming with an actually good "mozilla assistant" (Mozique ? heh), then perhaps we can start talking about this.
microdrum 8y ago
You're right. Only one entity can take their monopoly away: the U.S. Department of Justice. The fine is just a fine.
- megaremote 8y ago
  The fines are going to keep getting larger though.
394549 8y ago
> It hurt, but they still made 3 bil. If they have to pay 5 billion once a year to ensure they have a monopoly I don't that that is a bad trade for them. Why would the fine be annual? Fines aren't a tax you pay so you can continuously break the law. I would imagine if Google doesn't remedy the specific behaviors the EU has issues with, the EU will move on to more severe sanctions.